No Matter What, I Had a Good Time!

No Matter What, I Had a Good Time during training part A and B of CLIPPER VENTURES for the round of the World 09/10.

The reason that I am writing this letter is because there was a Feedback Form that i signed at the end of the first and the second week with the question "Do you feel the course could be improved upon and if so, how?".
I saw many things being in my opinion wrong, and I have to explain them, otherwise I wouldn't feel alright about it.
We got in the ARIER CLIPPER yacht on the Sunday 2nd November 2008. The course would commence at 6 o clock in the afternoon, and finish the next Sunday, 9th of November at 10 am.
Our skipper was Pete Robinson and the first mate was Gordon Reid.

We got settled in the yacht and familiarized ourselves with the equipment.
I was looking for the fridge for some time, without realizing that, instead of a fridge there was an icebox with no ice in it.
As I am an owner of yachts for 20 years now, when they started the engine I knew that the starter was not working correctly and was doing an unnatural sound. I commented on it. But on the second try it worked so I thought that that noise was alright for the particular engine.
The engine area smelt distinctively of oil and there was a leak on the engine fuel filter. The image that was presented showed a lack of maintenance but... On this yacht there were other people to worry about that, it wasn't my business.

So, as we got settled in the yacht, what annoyed me a lot was the intense humidity, the whole yacht was cold and wet. I would have to get used to that, as obviously on the South Ocean race that I want to take a part of, I will be in conditions like this. I did manage it alright and I was happy about that.

On Monday morning, we were taught how to prepare the yacht, how to put on the sheets, the sails, we climbed up the mast etc. and at 12 o clock in the noon we would sail out for the first lesson on the yacht. But the starter was never to work again. After a lot of failed attempts we eventually stayed in the port, and the crew was looking for a replacement, which was installed on Tuesday morning. So, we lost a whole day!
The engine area still smelled of petrol.
On the other hand, another training yacht (Black Ader, with someone Robin as a skipper), was on schedule and sailing on Monday.

On Tuesday noon, the two yachts left together and we did a very nice training, many tacks, jybes, sail ups and downs, steering etc. We returned to Gosport in the evening, still the engine area smelling and leaking petrol.

On Wednesday morning, the two yachts started to go to Plymouth in a mini-race. The wind though dropped in the afternoon and we spent the whole night not moving on a spot. Oh Thursday morning, our skipper had the right idea that we would go to Plymouth using the engine and make our way back in the afternoon, because it was estimated that there would be wind then.

So we did, and got to Plymouth before lunch and rested so we would begin our return in the afternoon and get some training on the way.
During our stay in Plymouth, with no wind to make a sound and in silence, we heard the distinct noise of propane leak, from the place where it opens and stops the gas.
The skipper tried to find the cause of it, but he couldn't do anything about it, and as a result we were not able to even warm up food, water for tea or coffee etc.
We aired the yacht and the smell went, which showed that what we thought was a petrol leak, was not petrol, but propane.

The other yacht, Black Ader, arrived in Plymouth at 5 in the afternoon, because the skipper thought we should not have abandoned the race using an engine. So the crew was very tired and they didn't want to leave at 6 pm to return as they needed to rest. So we remained to Plymouth the whole of Thursday, sightseeing.

On Thursday night there were very nice winds, and we were in the port, so we missed the chance of a night sail with wind- whereas the previous night we were standing outside with no wind. Maybe for educational-training reasons, since we were preparing ourselves for the Ocean, no wind is more important than strong winds. Who knows!

On Friday morning, both the ships started our return, but we couldn't warm up water (because of the propane leak), so we did not follow the other yacht's schedule who stayed anchored in the sea during the night. We returned to the port of Cowes early, so we could order take away delivery.

On Saturday morning, we used the engine to go to the spot where the other yacht spent the night and we made a race between us, about who would do the faster reefing, up-down, the sails etc. This lasted only for an hour and we used the engine to return to Gosport and we arrived there at 12pm on Saturday. We cleaned the yacht and waited for the time to pass, rested and in the evening we went to a restaurant for a good-bye party.

So, my impressions of the first week of training part A of CLIPPER VENTURES for the round of the World 09/10, was that we lost a whole day because of the starter (Monday noon –Tuesday noon), and we lost all Thursday afternoon because of Robin's egoism that did not return to Plymouth earlier, and we lost our Friday night training because of the propane leak, as well as the almost the whole Saturday because our skipper returned to Gosport very early so we could have something warm to eat and drink.

Not only did we get much less education that what we should have, the truth is I was really badly impressed by the bad maintenance of the yacht. We're lucky that the started broke down in port and not in the ocean, and the propane leak was spotted before the whole yacht became a bomb. Thankfully that was all.
What I thought was the worst of all, was that we were travelling with fresh food like chicken, cheese, ham, without a fridge!! How can we have vulnerable items like that for our food when we don’t have any health measures?
Judging from that I am really doubtful if the water tanks were properly maintained, so the water we drunk were healthy. I did not see any chlorination being done when they were filling the tanks.

So, during the first week, we did 2-3 Man over Board, we did not do any spinnaker, but generally, even though I am experienced in sailing, I learned a lot of useful things. Just adjusting to cold and rain (because in Greece I am not used to travelling like that), and having all these people-strangers- to sail in such a big yacht with strong winds...I had a good time the first week of training part A with CLIPPER VENTURES for the round of the World 09/10!


On the last evening, we had a test and it was explained to use that the test was on behalf of the Falmouth marine school. We were reading the questions and most of the people did not know the answers...but the trainers would tell us the answers, we would note them down. So if someone was to look at the answers they would think everyone had the perfect training, which would be completely false. I don't know the reason why they do that, but it's a mockery.

On Sunday morning, 9/11/2008, we said goodbye, and whoever would go on for the second week for part B (me, JC from Ariel, and Steve the Australian from Black Ader), we put our luggage in the Hull & Humber, the 68ft yacht. This yacht is one of the 10 that participate in going around the world, so I was expecting-in vain- to see a better maintained yacht.
The yacht was dirty; the bunks were dirty, with puke dried on the wall. The mattresses were wet. I was cleaning for an hour to clean up the place that would be my home for the next week. Afterwards, with JC we cleaned up the kitchen and the two toilets (heads). Everything was dirty, cutlery, plates, glasses- in the toilets there was even dried urine on the walls.

At some point a hippy-looking person arrived, he did not look anything like the skipper and the mate of the first week, and he said he would be our skipper for the week. When we complained about the dirty yacht he said that before us the yacht was used by some associates of the company and we should clean it as they did not. We were already doing it, anyhow!
We put everything in place and the food and of course there was not a fridge on yacht. But once again an icebox with no ice!!
I really do not understand how in 2008, food like chicken and cheese are just laying there to be consumed by people...but I will come back to that later.

In any case, more people were starting to arrive, and our skipper changed to be better presentable, and he explained the functions of the yacht, but he never said anything about fire safety or the fire extinguishers, which made a really bad impression to me. I know about them because of my experience, but other people might not. Juan said that he was the one that was maintaining the yacht for one year and a half, which made me feel safe, thinking he would know how to deal with any issues.

On Monday morning, with 35-40 mile winds, we got the yacht ready and it was obvious that Juan had difficulty to get it out of the port. At 12pm we started untying the spring and the bow and stern lines, when the yacht because loose in the port and ended up on the opposite side, following the wind and the currents. The gear box was broken!!!

After the events of the previous week, my trust in the maintenance of the yachts was really crumbled, because we were at the same spot that we had been a week ago with the other yacht. Nevertheless, Juan managed to make the gear box to work, and at the end we went out with very strong wind, and did a nice sail, with storm jib and mail sail on the 3rd reef. The wind dropped some time later and we put on Yankee 3.
On our return to the port, we were again having problems with the gear box. Juan managed to put the boat in the port and the wind pushed us back opposite because the gear box was going on and off.

So, they called a technician and on Tuesday morning, we stayed in port, waiting for the repair. At the same time, because the winches were not working correctly either, we did some maintenance on them as they were completely dry.
To spend the time, we were going up and down the mast and took photos.
Tuesday noon, after the technician finished, we had a short sail, since the morning was just gone.

On Wednesday morning, with no problems, we sailed and did many things on the yacht which were very nice. The problem was that the yacht had 3 spinnakers but 2 of them were ripped and we couldn't use them so we could only use the spinnaker for strong wind.

On Wednesday afternoon I had a serious body collapse. The previous 10 days I was sweating a lot, became very tired so my body crumbled. I slept a lot and I was dehydrated, had cramps, and on the skipper's advice I ate salt and drank a lot so I got better slowly.

On Thursday, whereas we were told we'd stay anchored outside in the sea the whole night, the plans changed and we went to Dover. The skipper looked troubled. When I asked him what's wrong he said he couldn't train us in a yacht that is "failing in parts"!!!
He said at the end that the gps of the yacht was broken, that there were not enough maps, and he used the radar to find the port in the mist and raid. So, another night lesson was lost, and as I finished part A and part B, I never had any training in anchoring and watches.

On Friday morning, an associate came over and brought a handheld gps, and we were told we would return to Gosport, but because we did a lot of jybes, we were out of course and time so we spent the night in Poole. There, at 8pm, in a half lit pub with loud music, having beer, we had another test that we were told the answers so it looks like we had theoretical training that we were taught and understood. I do not understand why they just didn't fill the tests in themselves.

On Saturday, we started our way back, but the skipper was not able to calculate the tides, so we ended up in standstill in the afternoon, with no wind and an opposite current of 4 miles. So, quite far away from the port, we started going back with the engine. We arrived there at 7pm and quickly showered because we had dinner reservations for 8.

During the second week, I was taught a lot, I learned how to trim the spinnaker, how to be better at man over board, I had more opportunities to sail, to trim the main sail, and the spinnaker pole became clear in my mind. I also had a chance to test my physical stamina on cold and the situations I will face during the leg of the south ocean that I will participate in.
I really hope the yachts will be better maintained during the race.

I thought that what would bother me the most would be the cold. But what really troubles me now is the food. With no fridge there's no chance we can have fresh food, and the idea of eating out of tins for 4-5 weeks is not great. Bad food will weaken both my mind and my psychology. I plan to take with me vitamin and amino acids in pills to help my body. But, in a yacht that we were told that we can use the power generator 3-4 hours a day I do not see the problem to install a mechanical frigo that will maintain food for a long time, thus making sure that a good diet and good health is preserved. When I asked someone about the fridge, they said they don't have one because it might break!!!! Well, if it breaks we will have to feed on things that do not need refrigerating, but why should we start from that point???

In any way, I will survive along with the others, but I do not feel that our diet and the fresh food handling has been appropriate, at least on the first two stages of the training.
Another thing I have realised is that it is very important to have the right clothing so we can be warm and dry, and physical capabilities will be very important so I will start now a program of exercise and diet.

I also intend to read as much as possible, and become better with the sailing terms in English, and attend races here in Greece and become more experienced in trimming the spinnaker.
The truth is that I have many complains about the diet and the maintenance of the yachts but.. I learned a lot I was tested in living with 2 different groups of strangers, and I loved the experience, I made friends, I laughed with many things like cutting woollies for the spinnaker, making 8s with ropes, because of Conrad I learned the thief knot that I should know years ago according his opinion about me.... I met very nice people like Antoine from France, Darios from Lithuania, John from England, Nick from Serbia, Steve from Australia. I knew JC and Mike already, but I was happy for the time with them. I will always remember Conrad from the U.S. and Karen and Freya and Jo, who are very nice girls, along with the skippers and the mates of those two weeks. I hope I have not forgotten someone.


I have knowledge and experience in sailing but I still have a lot to learn. In these two weeks I learned a lot and I will keep on learning in the future. I also thing it is very important that the Clipper Ventures organization is giving the opportunity to people like me (and people with less knowledge) to travel around the world with her yachts, or do some legs of it, like I have chosen. The yachts were not properly maintained and we lost days in training but nevertheless, we sailed across all weather conditions, and I will always remember a lot of things I saw these two weeks. I hope that when the race starts, the boats and the equipment will be in better shape.
So, in the question about what I would propose to make training better for training part A and B of CLIPPER VENTURES for the round of the World 09/10, I would say:

• Better maintenance on yachts, so we do not lose time
• Better diet for the participants so you can perform
• Not to have fake tests, so the true knowledge of the participants can be tested.


Antonis Mangos
Athens-Greece