Conrad Colman on his race strategy: "Go hard and never let up. Go hard!"

It is written on the T Shirt. I must be still crazy! 

I am tired. It feels worryingly similar. Last time it was a bit of a struggle to get to the start line, this time it has been also. It has been no easier but I am in a lot better position than the last time. I have sailed with this boat for three years it is hugely reliable and I have a lot of confidence in the boat. This time I have some great partners and I really have a good project. I still have not been able to complete the budget I have been looking for this year. I have been doing too many jobs for myself and I finally managed to secure money for the sails I wanted, but got them late and ended up going into debt in the process of doing so.  
It has not been easy and I think that I can convincingly say that amongst everyone here I am one of the biggest fans of the Vendée Globe because I put myself through this time and time again with smallest budget but all the time believing in the ‘power of the Vendée’.  

Yes, for me there have been too many hours working on the boat, too much stress, too much uncertainty. I work three full time jobs in one day. Working technically on the boat does not scare me. I came through as the positions of preparateur (he first worked with Steve White in 2008). I know how to do everything on the boat. But in the last couple of years I and the team sanded the boat back to ‘black carbon’, laid down new layers of carbon fibre myself, worked as the technical director managing the supply of the all the components, re-cabled the boat as well as chasing sponsors all the time whilst trying to be a respectable dad and husband as well. And so a typical day I wake up and focus on the kids, take them to school, do a couple of hours admin work and or sponsor work, head to the boat and work technically on the boat until the end of the day. I come back and turn off my phone for a couple of hours to be present with my kids and my wife and then when they are in bed work until one or two in the morning, admin and more work with sponsors, calls to NZ and the States. 

It was very difficult, close even this year. The key moment was thanks to MS AMLIN. They adjusted the contract so that what had been anticipated for two years was combined into one and they went from a relatively minor stakeholder to title sponsor and that was done because they believed in me. And we had already done the project together last year with the Jacques Vabre and so we had been back and forth across the Atlantic together. I had already gone to see their employees and partners in several European cities. Potential sponsors fell through and they stepped up and so it is thanks to them that I am here at all.  

I have one of the older boats but we have a bunch of boats among that same age range which are very similar. We have moved them all along and upgraded them. There are boats from 2007-2008 here which don’t resemble their younger selves, they have been fettled and optimised to the nth degree. I have sanded my boat back to carbon to lay down new layers of carbon on the deck, new unidirectionals on the deck an envelope of carbon on the outside to make the boat more rigid structurally with structural beams to complement the extra layers of carbon on the outside so this is a boat which in 2008 dismasted, which in 2012 smashed into a fishing boat, 2016 broke more or less in half and 2021 finished the race for the first time ever, but did so with a big crack through the deck…….so my ambition is to finish the race for myself but to have the boat as close to 100% for the sake of the boat.  

Not at all. Not at all! You could paint a big green rabbit on my boat and I would not care in the damndest 

On the day that Team New Zealand have won the America’s Cup the eyes of the nation are there and rightly so what I would like to be the follow up act. We are doing interviews with yacht clubs in New Zealand and with Yachting New Zealand and now I finally have time and the mental headspace to reach out to the rest of the New Zealand media. There is interest there and the event does chime a lot with the New Zealand psyche.  But there are some who have fallen out of love with Team New Zealand as well and I would like to be in a position to carry the flag for the country offshore and not only in the Vendée Globe but I am working with a bunch of Kiwis in New Zealand to try and get back into The Ocean Race and have a New Zealand entry in The Ocean Race which is really important. It is early days.  

Absolutely. I love to fly the flag for New Zealand and it is very much thanks to Sir Peter Blake and the New Zealand heritage on the Whitbread and so on that really lit the fire back when I was a nipper in New Zealand.

I don’t have a number. That is a recipe for being disappointed. The race will be tight between the daggerboard boats, for sure. On the recent Defi Azimut I had Tanguy le Turquais 33 seconds behind be after over 500 miles of racing. That is testament to the fact the daggerboard boats are not there to make up the numbers. It will be a super close fight all the way around. And also I have finished every race with some foilers behind me and it is hard to know. What I will say is that my boat finished tenth last time and I have no pretensions to being anywhere close to that this time around. The foilers have got even faster, even more reliable and are able to exploit their potential even more than ever in a much, much better way. So I think we will find ourselves at the back of the fleet but if I can put in a good showing there and be on the ‘podium’ of the daggerboard boats then I will be happy. 

Go hard and never let up. Go hard! With the exception of Jean Le Cam and Eric Bellion I am the only one in the daggerboard division who has done this race before. I have been in the south three times before and as a skipper have raced round the world four times before. I am here to race and here to go hard.  

The Pacific. The finish. I admit there are some times I want it all to be over and check the box and move on. These last three years have been so hard. It is hard to explain how difficult it is as an entrepreneur, as a technician, as an athlete, as a dad, as a husband. There are really not many of us in the fleet doing all this. What I find amazing about the Pacific is to be racing and pushing so hard in the furthest corner of the world away from everything and it feels like you are trespassing. People are not meant to be out there. That makes it s special, such a privilege. I live for these two weeks.  

The technology is different even if my objectives are the same. On my previous entry I was able to take out my diesel engine and replace it with an electric motor which I maintain is the best solution. I was able to use the primary propellor of the boat as a hydrogenator, a massive bronze propellor and for the same boat speed I was able to generate ten times what I generate with my Watt & Sea units. It is the ideal solution. This time by the rules of IMOCA we are not allowed to do that. They have a rule which says we should have X much autonomy and it should be that simple. And the measurers won’t entertain anything other than a diesel engine. I find that disappointing and railing against the machine, I find it totally incoherent that we have the fastest, most technical, most highly developed ocean racing fleet in the world here and they all have grunty diesel engines which came out of tractors from 100 years ago. We have an opportunity to carry this development into the area of renewable energy, the world is moving forwards and we have to go that way. I think we can be the flag bearer for that technology, we are pushed by the wind we should be charged by the sun. And also the parallel I like to draw is when we leave the dock we have 10 litres of drinking water and we make drinking water as we go, for me we should have the same approach to energy. I have charged myself with proving it can be done. Clearly respecting the regulations as they are written today I am not going to use my diesel engine. I will use two sources of power, I have covered the boat with solar panels and have the Watt & Sea generators and I am showing it can be done. I will leave with 20 litres of diesel and will return with 20 litres of diesel.