Transat Café L'or: Ireland's Pam Lee has Class40 #EmpowHer baptism

Baptism of Class 40 # Empowher, skippers Pamela Lee and Jay Thompson, is photographed with Edouard Philippe, Mayor of Le Havre, skippers Brian Thompson and Karine Fauconnier, boss and deanery of sponsor DFDS, and other officials at the Transat Café L'or © Jean-Marie Liot / Alea

Ireland's Pam Lee has already made her own little bit of history as she lines up to start the Transat Café L'Or, the doublehanded race from Le Havre to Martinique.

She is the first skipper to move on from the Transatlantic race's Cap Pour Elles initiative to now have her own boat and her own project on the startline ready to race.

The initiative was first run in 2021 but only the Irish sailor has managed to return to the race with own campaign.

The Transat Café L'Or race's program is designed to help two deserving talented female skipper gain experience of every aspect of a Class 40 project, in the biennial race across the Atlantic. While it provides a boat and some funding, some expert advice and help, the duo still need to find funding and to learn a certain level of self reliance and drive. Along with her French co-skipper Tiphaine Rageuneau, Lee achieved all her goals two years ago, getting to Martinique in good shape.

But most importantly it introduced her to the ferry and shipping giant DFDS who she pursued with an inspiring proposition. That idea is now a competitive Class40 project #EmpowHer, collaborating with DFDS to encourage more women to pursue careers in the marine sector, notably looking to see 20% of all roles at all levels being fulfilled by women by 2030. It has already been very successful, Pam becoming the godmother to their cadet programme, but the Irish skipper insists this is just the start.

Speaking at the dock in the Le Havre race village for the official baptism of #EmpowHer by French ocean racer Karine Fauconnier and British counterpart Brian Thompson, Lee enthused, "I think sport is such a great communicator, we have seen it with so many sports, with women's rugby for example, sport gets people's emotions, it gets people going, we can use it for great comms, great stories, we can create energy and inspiration. We are here doing it. And DFDS are so cool with it, they are totally on board with this."

"And it's not just about racing. It's also about showing what's possible and encouraging everyone to forge their own path - whether that's in sailing or something else entirely."

Lee has chosen to sail with French based American Jay Thompson who has been working in technical support - as a 'preparateur' - for more than a dozen years, most recently for Sam Davies' Initiatives Coeur IMOCA campaign. He has been with Lee's project since the start and not only brings practical, tech skills - being able to fix most things and keep the boat at as close to 100% as possible - but is Californian cool but highly motivated as a skilled racer looking to enhance his reputation as a sailor, aiming to launch his own project. Their boat is a Verdier designed Pogo S4, formerly Groupe SNEF.

VIP line up, breaking with traditions

Today's launch was attended by Etienne Meliani, DFDS France's Managing Director, Therese Boullot decorated navigator and DFDS Marraine d'Honneur, Karine Fauconier, ocean racer Transat Jacques Vabre winning co-skipper 2007, godmother, Brian Thompson Ocean Race winner, godfather, His Excellence Niall Burgess, Ireland's Ambassador in France, and Édouard Philippe Mayor of Le Havre. Signalling their desire to keep challenging established norms and traditions, the boat was christened with salt not champagne.

It was the perfect opportunity for Lee to pause and reflect on her journey over the last two years and mark where she is now, "It is very cool to be here with my own project. If I can consider where we are compared with this time two years ago it is not even comparable. The boat, the concept, the team is in a good place. We'd like to be a bit further on but we are good. Having Jay is really nice as he has been in the project since the very start. That was a really cool decision."She summed up.

"We have done a fair amount to try and improve the performance. The Pogo S4 is known for being very good VMG trade winds so if we get a southern route we are laughing, but upwind is not good and so we have added some rake. It is cool to have Jay with me learning the boat together."

Progress not perfection

She contends, "Here this time it is about progress not perfection at this stage. It is quite a sensitive boat. It is harder work than some boats, physically the cockpit is quite low and it does nosedive a bit, so it is quite wet. But it is good to be challenged, to be thinking outside the box to try and improve things. It is not good upwind and that affects our routings a little too as we want to try and find the VMG route. And we need to keep realistic about our race as we know that if we are losing upwind we need to not beat ourselves up, but hang on and wait for our time to shine and get the maximum when we are in that position."

She is enjoying the collaboration with the projects founding sponsors whose first move into sailing sponsorship it is.

"DFDS are really good, we have had some interesting activations and the story telling is great which is what we sold them on the basis of. So for example they have the new route from Saint Malo into Jersey and so we raced the ferry into Jersey. We are trying to do fun cool stuff that engages. And I did a keynote speech for their management conference in Amsterdam which really went down well. In Jersey and Saint Malo we had so many crew from the ships just come to see us and the boat. And on the business side we have entertained various key guests. I am the marrain (godmother) of their cadet programme. It is a big company and things take time and work to get it all rolling so I hope we keep growing together."

For Thomson, who has been in Le Havre for four editions of this race as 'preparateur' this is his first 'major' race. "It is cool to see all this from the other side. I know the area, the village and the docks and the set up as I have done four coffee route races as technical support but as a skipper now it is different. Working on the technical side you feel the pressure that you have to make 100% sure nothing goes wrong but here you have that same feeling now but at least I will still be on board. We have a very good opportunity, we have a good boat and so I do feel the pressure to do as well as we can, so I can progress my own career."

They have developed a simple empirical grid to benchmark themselves against where they feel they should be in the fleet, a valuable tool when they are directly up against boats on the same stretch of ocean. But it also defines their target....."If we are tenth or better I will be delighted and if we are 15th or worse it will be disappointing." Concludes Lee.