I had the fortune to meet and interview 'Sanna at a 49er Worlds I was commentating. She is athletic and a phenomenal sailor, she has a real champion-level intensity and work ethic that is rare and noteworthy in any sport. She's also got a great sense of humor, a compelling personality, and not a lot of patience for bullshit. If she wants to do well offshore, she will. Full package IMO.
Again, she’s the wrong messenger for that argument. Also, putting Olympic dinghy sailors on offshore boats as a means to increase the overall performance is nothing new. While I take your point, dismissing someone who has achieved far more in the sport on her own merits than MT has and chalking it up to instagram clicks and good looks is poor form.
Do we really sure that it was about Beukle ?
According to Wikipedia she also won gold medal at the 49er FX European championships held at Geelong!
Based on that logic, Grant Dalton would never have put Peter Burling at the helm of an AC boat.
I think we all agree on this. The original point of MT which I kinda agree with, even if I'm not sure I would've publicly commented on it as such, is that for TOR, which is extremely performance-oriented and pushing the boat at all moments, there were women objectively more qualified for that role, which is true.
You’re making the assumption that Isabelle Joske and others in the French IMOCA scene had any interest in taking part. The fact remains that most of the IMOCA fleet sat this one out because it’s foreign to them. I think that will change after this race, but that’s the current state of affairs.
I'm with you on this. Remember, Abby Ehler was on leg 1, not Susann. Abby has much TOR experience (but not IMOCA),, She did not want to do all the legs- I think she's coming back on the later legs. Listen to her interview on the Bar Karate podcast. Reading between the lines, I'm guessing its not been easy to find experienced female ocean sailors who wanted to be away for this whole time. I'm sure Kevin would have liked Abby to do more legs, but good on him for giving Susann this experience.
www.buzzsprout.com
Kevin has emphatically and clearly stated that he is very happy with the performance and the personalities of the crew on this leg of TOR. Buekle has been shown working all over the boat, inside and out. She may not have Abby's offshore experience, but she has shown she is a hard worker and a companionable one as well. Not a lot of people of either sex would be willing to shit and piss publicly in a bucket, and not bathe, for 2 plus weeks.
Oh I fully agree... it looks like she's doing a great job. My comment was not disparaging Susann, but rather agreeing with the earlier poster about finding women who wanted to do it. I think Kevin has a great team, and he seems a great leader & team builder. If Clarisse's comment was about Susann then I think it was misplaced.
I think it was Marie Tabarly who made the comment.
This was a very entertaining, informative podcast. Probably more insightful and revealing about what it is like sailing on a crewed IMOCA, than anything TOR, or even the boats, have produced. Abby is intelligent, articulate, and has a great sense of humor. I laughed out loud, and will now have in my head, "Kevin's On Board Girlfriend." And of course, just listening to Nick Bice's voice is enough to brighten up my day.Bar Karate - the Sailing Podcast Ep196, Abby Ehler, straight from winning Leg 1 of the Ocean Race - Bar Karate - The Sailing Podcast
Published 29 January 2023We chat to Abby Ehler straight after winning Leg 1 of the Ocean Race. Its an episode where we just geek out on all aspects of sailing the IMOCA's and the first leg of the race. Abby is a long time friend to us all and a lo...
OMG, "Between the legs" with Abby, and she said it was pretty brutal.
Not sure that fits the sentiments of this thread, but I don't think they really care, they are tough cookies.
exactly or who put Pete and Blair on a VOR team? Chris Nicholson tells a funny story about how he got onto VOR/elite offshore racing too with basically zero offshore experience. (that turned out ok).
Agreed. I think her role as skipper began and ended in bad faith. In an incredibly bumbling move they thought firing her on reproductive adjacent grounds would go over smoothly. They need to fire whoever that PR strategy came from.
I don't necessarily think that was possible. Sure, some designers would've been okay working on the project, but that boat needs to get built sometime before the VG. Currently, all the French yards are full, which is why so many IMOCAs are going to Persico and Black Pepper which are kind of working like overflow release valves for the whole system. You can only really build at Black Pepper if you get a Sam Manuard design though, leaving us with Persico. They just finished Eric Bellion's boat, have to do Jean le Cam's from the same moulds, and I'm pretty sure there's another boat lined up right after that also needs to be built. This last one is already tight for the VG so I'm not sure BP would've had the physical time needed to build a new boat unless they went for some unconventional yard.
