Hare in moral quandary over pursuing round-the-world dream
Solo sailor unsure whether to chase funds in pandemic Promised investment falls victim to economic slump
Pip Hare, the solo round-the-world sailor, has admitted she is in a moral quandary over trying to raise crucial sponsorship to continue her Vendee Globe campaign, even questioning whether it is right to continue to pursue her life’s dream while coronavirus exacts such a devastating toll on the country.
Hare, 46, is one of 30-plus skippers entered into this year’s Vendee Globe, the non-stop, solo circumnavigation of the world commonly referred to as “sailing’s Everest”. It is an apt description. Since Sir Robin Knox-Johnston first completed the voyage in 1969, fewer than 100 sailors have successfully sailed non-stop, solo and unassisted around the world. Of those, fewer than 10 have been women.
Hare is hoping to be one of a record six women competing in the 2020-21 edition, which begins in November.
However, with the economy having contracted due to the global pandemic, and with promised investment having disappeared, she finds herself in a difficult position. Superbigou, her 60ft IMOCA yacht, was put in for a refit just before lockdown, but she now needs further funds to complete the work and get it back on the water.
“It’s so hard to know what the right thing to do is,” Hare said. “Everyone is donating to the NHS and to Captain Tom, which is absolutely right. I don’t want to be that person who sticks their hand up and says, ‘What about me?’ I don’t want to be shouting about my campaign. On the other hand, this is my dream, my business, my entire life. I’ve invested everything into this. There’s no way on Earth I’m just walking away from it.”
It has been a 10-year journey even to reach this point for Hare, who almost certainly has the smallest budget in the fleet. Her dream only started to become a reality last year when she chartered an old IMOCA 60ft yacht off an Estonian whom she had met doing the Mini Transat and who had bought
Superbigou with the intention of racing it himself. It was, by Hare’s own admission, a “really, really cheap deal”.
Hare then managed to build her campaign thanks to crowdfunding, backing from a business syndicate and deals with suppliers local to her base in Poole.
Having got her campaign off the ground, Hare completed last year’s Bermudes 1000, Rolex Fastnet and Transat Jacques Vabre, banking the necessary qualification miles in the process. Everything was going swimmingly. Then coronavirus hit.
While most of her existing backers have reconfirmed their commitment to her campaign, Hare needs more sponsorship if she is going to be back on the water once lockdown is eased.
“It’s really hard,” she said. “I’d like to upgrade my autopilot and some of the electronics on board. That would give me increased reliability as well as effective performance while I’m sleeping.
“The real big-budget stuff is the sails. Then on top of that there is a working budget which allows me to tell my story as I go around. The sat comms bill is not insignificant and the more I have to spend on that, the more I’ll be able to deliver in terms of race coverage and sharing my story. I feel it’s a great investment for the right sponsor.”
Hare believes her campaign offers sponsors great value for money, but admits she finds it frustrating sailing attracts such little coverage. Solo ocean sailing, she points out, is perfectly suited to social distancing, with the skippers at times nearer to the international space station than any land mass.
“The Vendee is one of very few major sports events this year which can say with some certainty that it is going ahead,” she said. “Yet every morning when I listen to the sports news, all I hear about are things that aren’t happening and footballers’ salaries. I just think surely, right now, however small they are, we should be including in the sports news things that are happening.
“Conventional sport will start up again, that is for sure, but in the meantime we have a window to showcase other athletes and other sports and diversify our consumption of sport.”
Despite the uncertainty, Hare says she is trying to remain positive. She remains “100 per cent convinced” she will make it to the start in Les Sables d’Olonne, France, in November. If needs be, she says she will complete the refit herself over the summer with friends and volunteers, many of whom were already donating their time and effort before lockdown.
“People I’d never even met before would come down and sand the boat,” she said. “Somebody brought their 80-year-old mother down and she just pottered around and cleaned the shed up. I don’t want to let them down.
“Everything has slowed down a bit because of coronavirus, but I know I’m going to make it.”