Franco German skipper Isabelle Joschke was rewarded with beautiful spring sunshine and a big, warm and affectionate welcome back to the Les Sables d’Olonne channel today after completing her solo circumnavigation outwith the final Vendée Globe rankings. Joshcke was forced out of the race on 9th January due to a keel ram failure on her MACSF.
She fought for 16 days to bring her boat to safety into Salvador de Bahia where she met with her technical team to make repairs which allowed her to put to sea again for the 43 year old to complete her first round the world passage.
Reaching the pontoon in the Port Olona marina she said:
“For me it was very important to finish this round the world passage. In fact I did not make the decision to start again right away. I had a lot of emotions throughout this round the world trip and especially during my damage. But when I decided to come to the finish, it became so obvious it was the only thing to do. It was so important to complete this story, to give it all its meaning and also to get me back on my feet.”
Her Story:
The French skipper of MACSF Isabelle Joschke who was forced out of the Vendée Globe on January 9th due to a keel ram failure on her IMOCA 60 has completed her round the world passage today out of the race when she sailed back into Les Sables d’Olonne today 107 days 21 hours after the race start on November 8th. She made a 10 day technical stop in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil to consolidate the keel problem with her technical team. The 43 year old Franco-German skipper has shown great determination to ‘close the loop’ and finish her first ever circumnavigation. She passed the Nouche Sud buoy at 10:34hrs UTC this morning
Until she was forced to abandon her Vendée Globe Joschke was sailing a great race, comfortably inside the top ten and seemingly with the potential to climb higher and higher up the rankings.
To finish in the top 10 was the original sporting goal for Isabelle Joschke who joined the IMOCA class in 2017 and she was well within that goal when she was forced to retire.
Answering the question ‘what might prevent you from reaching your goal?’ in a pre-start interview she responded: "not sailing at my own pace, chasing the pace of others and so making mistakes".
And it was with that belief at the front of her mind that Joschke started her first Vendée Globe and so she starts very prudently and trying to avoid the worst of the first front she makes multiple tacks and loses places, coming down the Atlantic in the last third of the fleet.
"My prudence cost me dearly" she admitted on November 17th. " But now I'm giving it my everything and I'm on the lookout for any opportunity to get back into the game.”
After that period when she was clearly torn between performance and safety, accepting this difficult compromise as best she can, she soon starts to press harder and harder, releasing the hard-bitten racer in herself. And in the South Atlantic high pressure she sails smartly and gets herself back in touch with the leading pack to be 12th at the Cape of Good Hope.
Her first time in the Southern Ocean is a real voyage of self-discovery. Toughest of all moments mentally was experiencing the rescue of Kevin Escoffier from his liferaft after his PRB – a boat very similar to her MACSF – broke in two. Project manager Alain Gautier revealed that they came close to calling Joschke to stop into Cape Town because of their concerns.
But Joschke gradually increased her attack and became more comfortable to push herself and her boat hard. Despite her suffering with the cold in the south she impressed race watchers with her smooth trajectories and high average speeds. But on 3rd January just 48 hours before rounding Cape Horn for her first time, she suffers a failure of her keel ram. Employing an emergency ram to centre the keel she races on with her keel fixed in the middle. But five days later in the middle of a big depression east of Argentina the system fails and she is left with her keel swinging in its axis. She abandons immediately to be helped with the safest routing out of the system. It takes her 16 days of careful sailing at reduced speeds to reach Salvador de Bahia, Brasil. After her technical stopover of about ten days she set sail again on February 5th agreeing to sail in company with her friend and rival Sam Davies to return to Les Sables d’Olonne.
Joschke, who came to sailing quite later, won the first leg of the MiniTransat in 2007, is blessed with an extraordinary strength of character and human intelligence. "I would like to be proud of the way I endure everything I encounter. I know it won't be easy," she said before the start.
Finishing with her head held high and deeply proud of her achievement today, ranked on the final classifications or not she has lived up to that personal and today completes a remarkable adventure which will serve her well for the future.
Isabelle Joschke MACSF....STATS
The great passages
Equator 15th on 20/11/2020 at 08h00 UTC after 11d 18h 40min of racing,1d 18h 41min behind leader HUGO BOSS
Cape of Good Hope 12th on 02/12/2020 15h44 UTC after 24d 02h 24min of racing, 1d 16h 33min behind leader Apivia
Cape Leeuwin 9th on 14/12/2020 11h09 UTC after 35d 21h 49min of racing, 23h 43min behind leader Apivia
Cape Horn 11th on 05/01/2021 04h01 UTC after 57d 14h 41min, 2d 14h 18min after the leader Maître CoQ IV
Briton Sam Davies should complete her own solo round the world passage on Friday around midday on her Initiatives Coeur. Davies was forced to abandon her Vendée Globe on December 3rd after sustaining damage to the structure supporting her keel in a brutal collision with a floating object south of Cape Town.
Almost immediately she pledged to complete the course, partly to achieve a degree of mental satisfaction on a four year Vendée Globe project but more especially to continue with the Initiatives Coeur project which raises funds for surgery for youngsters from African countries who have life threatening heart conditions. In total Davies’ project has raised enough to fund operations for over 80 youngsters since the start of the race.
Meantime the next race finishers should be Alexia Barrier whose ETA on TSE 4 My Planet is Sunday 28th February while Aria Huusela is predicted to arrive on 5th or 6th March as the 25th and final skipper to complete the ninth edition of the 24,365 miles solo non stop race around the world.
Briton Sam Davies should complete her own solo round the world passage on Friday around midday on her Initiatives Coeur. Davies was forced to abandon her Vendée Globe on December 3rd after sustaining damage to the structure supporting her keel in a brutal collision with a floating object south of Cape Town.
Almost immediately she pledged to complete the course, partly to achieve a degree of mental satisfaction on a four year Vendée Globe project but more especially to continue with the Initiatives Coeur project which raises funds for surgery for youngsters from African countries who have life threatening heart conditions. In total Davies’ project has raised enough to fund operations for over 80 youngsters since the start of the race.
Meantime the next race finishers should be Alexia Barrier whose ETA on TSE 4 My Planet is Sunday 28th February while Aria Huusela is predicted to arrive on 5th or 6th March as the 25th and final skipper to complete the ninth edition of the 24,365 miles solo non stop race around the world.
Ari Huusela FIN (Stark):
"My last 24 hours has been horrible and then it eased off during the night a bit and I started to get some rest because I could not sleep for about 30 hours. The waves were so nasty and the wind was quite bad, 30-35kts, and then it dropped to 28 but the waves were terrible, the seas horrible, the wind had turned 180 degrees and so the sea state was horrible. The boat was slamming so hard I thought it would break down. The boat is still in one piece and I am in one piece. There is still some sticky weather patterns to come and so I need to concentrate on the them. I have not updated myself yet because I am so tired I am just trying to sleep a bit and then concentrate. There will be some heavy downwind and then passing the Azores is tricky, where to go through the islands. I was looking at my numbers again yesterday and got quite depressed because I was not getting anywhere really. I was fighting hard and was not even getting any miles towards the finish line. I will be in eight or nine days. But even yesterday I still managed to make my special morning coffee and afternoon coffee. This is the time to recover."
In the Mini you had the same boat as Sam had first and then you sold it on to Isabelle Joschke?
'"Yes I bought it from Sam for my 2003 Mini Transat campaign and afterwards I sold it on late in 2003 to Isa. Sam brought the boat to Locmiquélic and she prepared the boat with me for the first race and then later on I sold the boat to Isa and she had come straight from the Caribbean where she had been sailing. I went to France and helped he start her Mini campaign which was nice. And what is also interesting is that in 1999 (actually 2001) when I did my first Mini Yannick Bestaven and Arnaud Boissieres and Romain were all there and now I end up in the Vendée Globe at the same times as them all.”