Like many A Level students, Sophie Hetherton, 18, is leaving The Mount School, York this summer and taking a year out. However, this is no ordinary gap year: Sophie will spend the next eleven months racing round the world as the youngest female crew member in The Clipper Round The World Yacht Race. Sophie’s father, James Hetherton, partially credits his daughter’s success to “the unique way The Mount gets students to challenge themselves.”
The Clipper Race is an opportunity for amateur sailors from all walks of life, led by professional skippers, to compete to sail over 40,000 miles around the world in the fastest possible time. The vast and unpredictable oceans take no notice of whether those who sail on them are professional or amateur, so the twelve crews will face foul weather, isolation and danger on their voyages. However, they will also experience some incredible sailing, see the world and arrive home in glory in July 2014.
Sophie's website is:http://www.seapupsophie.co.uk/
Whilst at sea, Sophie will also be recording the experience on her blog: www.seapupsophie.blogspot.com
She will raise money for the Contented Dementia Trust.
We interviewed Sophie on the challenges of life at sea, intense competition and chocolate!
How long have you been sailing for?
My first experience of sailing was in 2009, when my dad sent me down to Salcombe and I did a week long course in RYA levels one and two dinghy sailing. The following year I did a competent crew course down in Falmouth; but apart from that I haven’t had a lot of experience, so this Clipper adventure is all quite new to me.
What first inspired you to apply for the Clipper Race?
I went with my uncle in 2009 to see the start of the Clipper race – the 2009-10 race – and that first inspired me to learn about the race; I followed the crew members and read their blogs and that got me really interested in the race as a whole.
How difficult was the selection process?
You had to send off an application form and be selected for a challenging interview to see if you seem a suitable character to have on the boat. After that, you have to undertake difficult training for the race.
For the Clipper Race, you have had to undergo three stages of intensive sailing training, could you describe them for us?
Well, I’ve done two weeks of that- there’s three levels and I’ve done two of those so far. It is very tough. Clipper do a really, really good program that tries to prepare you as much as possible for the race. In the Level One training, you realise: I’ve really got to get fit for this! The tasks are very physical and you’re told you’re burning something like 5-6000 calories a day on the actual race, so that has given me an idea of what to expect. Over the three levels, you start learning the basics of the boats, how to sail them, then when you do your Level Three, you have the competitive mind set, you’re practising your racing, your tactics – you want to win.
How has Mount School, York helped you to prepare?
I’ve been at the Mount for the seven years, so it has had a huge influence on who I am today. Also, part of their ethos is to discover potential you never knew existed and I think that’s something I’m going to keep in my head for the next few years.
Did your school encourage you to apply?
Yes because I’ll have a lot of support from the school through sponsorship, and also I’ve got all my friends and my teachers fully behind me.
Your other crew members are amateur sailors of different nationalities, ages and professions. Could you describe your impressions of some of them?
I’ve met most of them; we had a crew allocation day about two months ago and it’s difficult at the moment to understand who they are, because we only met briefly one evening. We’re got a crew bonding weekend at the beginning of August, so I’ll definitely get to know a lot about them. There is a lot of variety in sailing experience. They are all amateurs; but some have only started to learn to sail through the Clipper training program, and some have been sailing for twenty years. There’ll be a lot of strong characters on the boat and it’s about learning to get along with everyone.
You will be at sea for eleven months, which aspects of the Clipper Race and living on board the yacht do you think will be most difficult?
You’re living on a yacht with twenty other people, and I think that will be the hardest part, trying to get along with everyone. I really want to make a good impression; I want everyone to like me! So I think the most difficult thing will be trying to be someone everyone can get along with and not to cause too many arguments. There will hard sailing, hard legs and hard oceans and I think that’s when you really need to depend on your crew mates.
Are you allowed to take any ‘luxury’ items to make your trip more comfortable? Ie. A stash of chocolate!
You have a 20kg bag allowance, so I haven’t exactly worked out what that is at the moment, but it’s not a lot, and weight is really important on the boat. You’ve got twelve yachts racing against each other and that small weight difference can make a difference. I would like some chocolate, but I’ve heard from past experience that if you have your own secret stash then other crew members can be a bit like “how come she’s got this secret stash of food and she’s not sharing it?” But I would share if I brought something.
Which aspects of the Clipper Race are you most looking forward to?
I think the most exciting thing is getting some good sailing in there. I think that at the end when you finish the different legs of the race and you can say “I’ve sailed the Pacific” when you’re in San Francisco, that’s going to be really exciting. I’m going to be stopping in these ports and I’m just incredibly lucky to be able to do this and see our world in such an amazing way.
What do you think you will miss most about your life in the UK whilst you are away?
I think I’ll probably miss having a shower! On the boat they’re very basic. I think just everyday comforts. We won’t have a TV or anything like that. I’ll definitely miss my family, I have a three year old sister and a ten year old brother, and a year is quite a long time. I’ll come back, and my sister will have really changed, and my brother’s starting secondary school in September, so I’m definitely going to miss all that side of things.
Could you describe what your daily routine will be like when you are on board?
When you’re sailing, the twenty people are split into two watch systems. So you spend three hours on deck sailing the boat, doing all the tasks on deck, like helming, trimming the sails, on the front of the boat, pulling in the sails. The other watch are below deck, probably sleeping, and then there’s a mother watch, who do the cooking and the cleaning of the boat for the day. But generally the three hour watches are during the night and they tend to have longer watches during the day; it hasn’t been fully established yet, what we’re doing on our boat.
The Clipper Race is split into eight stages, which part of the world are you most looking forward to sailing through and why?
They always say the Southern Ocean, from Cape Town to West Australia, is a very hard leg to do. I think that to say you’ve done that will be a massive achievement. Also the Pacific leg from Qingdao to San Francisco will be another one that it’s brilliant to say you’ve done. I’m looking forward to seeing some of these different ports across the world. I’ve done quite a lot of travelling around Europe, but apart from that, I haven’t been much round the world, so this is going to be very exciting.
Is there a competitive atmosphere amongst the teams?
I think there are quite a few teams who are very competitive. I know that on some boats, with their 20kg bag allowance, some skippers are saying that that includes your boots and all your foul weather gear, which take up a lot of the weight; whereas my skipper seems to be excluding those from the 20kg, so I feel slightly happier about that. For the last three years, it’s been Australian Skippers who have won the race. There are two Australian Skippers this year and I’ve heard from some of the other crew member that they’re taking it very seriously.
The race begins on the 1st September 2013 at St Katherine’s Docks, London.
Interview by Helen Burch.