Magnum joins the Fast 40+ fleet - Interview with Andrew Pearce
by Mark Jardine 29 Aug 2016 14:54 BST
29 August 2016
Andrew Pearce’s Ker 40, Magnum III © Paul Wyeth /
www.pwpictures.com
We talked to Andrew Pearce, the renowned Parkstone sailor and owner of the Magnum raceboats, culminating most recent with his brand-new Fast40+ Magnum 4.
Mark Jardine: Andrew, first of all, how did you get into sailing and then into racing initially?
Andrew Pearce: I was actually taught to sail when I was probably three or four years old, very, very young, by my father in Poole Harbour. Just summer family holidays down here in Poole I'd get out on the water, and it remained like that right through my teens and twenties, until I was probably about 35 and decided I really needed to get back into sailing so I bought an Enterprise, had a little sail around in that, decided that I really needed something bigger, and bought a 30 footer, my first big boat. Still not racing because I had never raced, and this was purely for cruising. This was the alternative to buying a house in Salcombe - to buy a boat, that we could then cruise up and down the coast, go to France, do everything that sounded good at the time.
Between ordering the boat and it arriving, my wife fell pregnant with our first, so that was my crew gone and I thought, 'let's try a bit of racing', and being a competitive person, I started to make a few enquiries, became a member at the Royal Motor Yacht Club, began to put the word around to find out who was doing what, and through those inquires I met Roger Mowll, who owned Petal, the MG335, and Jim McGregor, another MG335 owner at the time - both of them were incredibly supportive. I was racing a boat that was never going to do any good but they must have seen I was keen. They passed off the odd crew member to me, and you start to get a feel of what it's all about, learning what racing is and the basics to it.
Not being one that likes to be beaten, inevitably I would get a better boat. There were seven MG335's racing in Poole at the time, and with Jim's help I acquired an MG335. I started to do the odd weekend regatta, and again you're at the back of the fleet, you have to start somewhere.
Mark: Was the MG335 the first Magnum?
Andrew: Yes, it was.
Mark: What was behind the Magnum name?
Andrew: The boat was second-hand and it was called Magnum, and so it wasn't a name of choice, it came with that name, and we rather liked the name.
Mark: Since then you've gone through a number of different Magnum yachts. Can you describe a little bit about the evolution to Magnum 4?
Andrew: Yes, the MG335 was just the perfect starting point, 34' 6" and a boat that could be really optimized. So gradually each year I'd get as much information and input from other people about how to get the boat sailing better, how to sail better myself, and to get a crew together, and gradually over two or three years things really started happening. Probably the key moment was making a commitment to racing on a Thursday evening, and so we did the Spring Series, I'd come down and do every Thursday evening during the summer, and the Winter Series, and we'd always go off and do the Round the Island and things like that.
Once you start doing 50 to 60 races a year you will improve as a crew, and it was a consistent crew, the same people week in, week out. So by the time we got to 2000, when we basically won everything in Poole that we could win, it was then thinking about 'so where do we go from here?'. Giving myself and the team new challenges each year I was always looking for a new challenge and decided that 2001 was going to be the year we'd do the Fastnet Race, and it caused a great deal of excitement amongst the crew, so we did all the RORC qualifying.
The biggest surprise was on our first RORC race, which was to Ouistreham. It was May, it was cold, it was quite rough, we had only done three offshore races prior to that, so it was a hugely steep learning curve, and the boat got incredibly wet down below, but the result was we came second overall, just the most unbelievable result, you couldn't wish for anything better. So you then realize we're not so bad! So we did our qualifying, we did our Fastnet Race, and we came third in class, and then we went on and did the rest of the RORC season that year and we came fifth overall in our first RORC season. Suddenly it opens your eyes and makes you realize just how good we are as a team. And at that sort of size in RORC you're one of the small boats, so you look at everybody and everybody is moving up in size, so the next move was a forty footer.
So I was looking around for the right one, the IMX40 was the boat that very much seemed to be in the frame at the time, so I sold the MG335 and in 2003 I bought the IMX40, which we campaigned very hard. The big challenge for that year was to try and win a place in England team for the Commodore's Cup. I got to know Jim Saltonstall, he was very good, and came on as our mentor and trainer. We were looking for more crew, trying to bring in people who had more knowledge than us that we could all learn from them. So 2004 was a great year - it was a full inshore and offshore season. We won our place on the England team for the Commodore's Cup - a fabulous experience, and that was very good.
Mark: Through the years, have you kept the core of the Magnum team together?
Andrew: Yes and no actually. Yes, from the MG335, they all migrated up to the IMX40. You're going to lose one or two, but you're bringing in new people and more experience all the time. I kept that same team together really until the Ker 40 came along in 2012. In the first season of the Ker 40 I still had four of the Poole team with me but by the end of that season, they'd migrated back to Poole.
I think one of the big differences is, when we started doing RORC races, it was such a close-knit team, we were all from Poole, it was the delivery up to Cowes, which we did on a Thursday or a Friday after oiur normal Thursday evening race in Poole, then the RORC race, and we'd stop over at wherever we were racing to; Le Havre, Dieppe; Cherbourg; Channel Islands etc, we'd then stay over and then we'd cruise back on the Sunday. An incredibly close-knit team, and of course over the years it has changed, certainly with the Ker 40 it changed because suddenly you need a couple of professionals on the boat, you've got to have that sort of level of expertise, so it's stepping things up. So the family-like relationships started to ease back and it became very professional. We'd all turn up, step on the boat, go off and do our race, it's very clinical, it's normally very good, but then at the end of the day, we step off the boat, we all go our separate ways, whereas in the old days we'd stay together. So there is a difference, that I notice a lot, but I think when you're at this level or racing, then it's no longer the family team type core around you, we move on and mature just as the team does.
Mark: You've just made the step from the Ker 40 to the Ker 40+ for the Fast40+ series. What do you think it is about the Fast40+ that has made it take off as a rule?
Andrew: When I got the Ker 40 at the end of 2011, Keronimo was already out there, she was the first one, we were number two in the UK with Apollo. We expected, because the boats were going out instantly doing so well, that the Ker 40 class would grow.
The first offshore we did in 2011, a 36 hour race, Keronimo and ourselves came in 26 seconds apart, and it just felt, with the racing being so close, that it was going to bring other people in, but it didn't bring the numbers of Ker 40s in during that 2012-2013 period - maybe recession driven. We'd done so much with the boat, and had two phenomenal seasons, so I was happy to let it go. It was then a case of what do I buy to replace it? It took maybe a year, 18 months before it was quite clear that this Fast40+ circuit that we all hoped would happen in 2013 was beginning to establish itself.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, it all happened last year. The nucleus came together and created what will be the best racing in the Northern hemisphere. It's something so exciting, and then you've got to have the right boat to do it, and it could've been a reworked GP40, but really, my experience of Jason Ker's designs, and what I'd seen of the new design, the second generation Ker 40, it just had to be - it really wasn't going to be any other boat. They've shaved nearly a ton of weight off it, more sail area - it's just a recipe for sheer excitement and exhilaration.
Mark: Magnum 4 is a McConaghy-built boat, and of course Jason Ker designed. What do you think of that combination and the quality of yacht you're getting?
Andrew: I think very good, clearly with the first Ker that I had, you could see the potential for the boat, so the design was clearly spot on. The boat was very good, McConachy built it very well, and inevitably we were pushing to the limits, and you do get the odd issue and McConaghy were brilliant, and as a boat builder the backup was I thought extraordinary.
So I was very happy to work with Jason again knowing that the design was going to be even better than last time round, and of course McConaghy so it was a very comfortable relationship where I could just talk about what was required and I knew I was going to get the right product.
Mark: What are your aims for the 2016 season?
Andrew: Well the Fast40+ circuit is the main event. It's a shame we couldn't make the Vice Admiral's Cup but we've done the IRC Nationals, Cowes Week and then the two regattas in September and October. We'll also be doing offshore, I particularly like my offshore - the boat is going to be wetter than the last Ker, it's got a lower freeboard. I was talking to Jason the other day about offshore and he was quite happy that we were going to take the boat offshore. So it's not just an inshore wonder, it's going to be a very good all-rounder.
Mark: With the exceptional quality in the Fast40+ fleet, where do you hope to come in the fleet itself?
Andrew: That's a difficult one isn't it? The Fast40+ fleet has attracted some of the best sailors so the competition is going to be intense. I've had the approach that we really want to be top three, if we're going out there we really want to be top three, and we have to be good enough for that, so there'll be a lot of training to do. I see this year really as getting to know the boat. I'm working essentially with mostly the same crew from the last campaign, so that's very good. We all know each other, we know how to sail together, so that gives us a head start. But it's not going to be a walkover by any means.
Mark: So 2016 is a work-up season ready for fully campaigning in 2017?
Andrew: Absolutely. 2017 will be a very full year, so we'll be out there early with some more training before the RORC Easter Regatta, and then we'll go through and we'll be doing all the events. I'd like to do a full offshore season as well, so I've already got the Fastnet 2017 in the schedule.
Mark: Would you say you prefer doing inshore racing or offshore racing?
Andrew: That's a difficult one. I love the intensity of offshore, it suits me and my makeup. I can focus for 24, 36, 48 hours - I can focus on that one thing and I have no trouble with that at all. Some people get bored after 12 hours or 18 hours, and they don't like offshore, but I can get into the zone and stay there for as long as it takes. So offshore is something that particularly suits me, but inshore, the intensity of inshore, and the adrenaline rush from inshore racing is hard to beat.
Mark: Best of luck for all the build-up work in 2016 and your first events in the boat, and for the full campaign in 2017 and beyond. Andrew, many thanks for your time.
Andrew: Thanks very much.