In 2020, Poole-based sailor Pip Hare became the eighth woman in history to finish the Vendée Globe solo, non-stop, round the world yacht race. Last year, she set out to do it all over again, but in a newer and faster boat. It spoils nothing to know that things didn’t turn out the way anyone had planned.
In An Evening With Pip Hare, on Thursday 3 April, Lighthouse patron Pip will share the story of what happened, why it went wrong, and how she rescued herself 800 miles from land. The story is inspirational, a testament to the power of Pip’s practical and mental acuity, and the sheer bloody-minded resilience that got her to safety.
Round the world solo yacht racing is a necessarily solitary affair, and Pip is fiercely independent in thought and word and deed, but that hard won self-containment at sea is fuelled by a great deal of teamwork on land. It’s something that Pip has been considering lately in a blog about how how she has tackled the challenge of bringing her stricken boat back to Poole from Melbourne, Australia, the nearest land to where her race ended ten days before Christmas.
In essence, having spent a month raising the funds to return the boat, Pip and her two-man team with a hastily assembled crew of volunteers and the goodwill of the Melbourne maritime community managed to crane the boat out of the water in order to remove its foils and keel. It was an epic 12-hour job with no time to rest – or spare – before the dock they used was needed by the shipping company that had loaned it.
“It is incredible to think of what we achieved with such a short run-up and so far from home,” she said. “It would not have been possible at all without the effort, energy, and passion of so many people.
“It continues to humble and amaze me that complete strangers are willing to put themselves out, work all night, and pull in favours on my behalf. I couldn’t get the keel out with my own hard work, but I didn’t need to because so many other people had my back.
“I started out as a lone sailor. I like action, I work hard, I am fiercely independent and hate to rely on others or ask for help. Over the last six years of building our IMOCA team, I have learned the power of working with others and how performance and results are exponentially increased when a well-functioning team all lean their shoulders to the wheel.
“Our team has become huge, it stretches around the world, and together we are moving forwards.”
What happens next is for Pip to share with her audience at Lighthouse, but whatever it is she can be sure that Poole will be at her back all the way.
:: Tickets for An Evening with Pip Hare are available now at https://www.lighthousepoole.co.uk/event/an-evening-with-pip-hare/ or on 01202 280000.