Diane Reid: Sinking her teeth into a new project

Diane Reid, 42, is the first Canadian woman to be appointed as skipper in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race. Reid is one of two female skippers, also a first for this 10th edition of the race.

The 2015-16 edition gets underway August 30 in London, when twelve Tony Castro designed Clipper 70s led by professional skippers and amateur crew set out on their 40,000 mile competition.

Here Scuttlebutt editor Craig Leweck checks in with Reid …

What motivated you to apply to be a skipper for this race?
I love to teach sailing and I absolutely love to see when “the penny drops” for people. I also love sharing my passion for sailing. I’m also an obsessive racer. After my recent campaign in the 2013 Mini Transat race, I was keen to sink my teeth into a new project. That for me equates to being a Clipper Skipper!

What has prepared you for this responsibility?
I have a lifetime of experiences, but more importantly Clipper has prepared me for this responsibility. They hold very strong values in education and team work and that has shone through with our training. We have had some very engaging sessions where we have focused on how to motivate our teams. We have also spent valuable time training on the boats with past race skippers as well as training our teams. For the skippers, the training started in March and has been non-stop ever since (details here).

What has been some of the advice you’ve received from previous skippers?
Ah, well, we have had tons of advice on how to run watch systems, how to manage conflict, how to keep the crew motivated…and on and on. We’ve actually had several training sessions with previous skippers and it’s been really helpful.

How do you anticipate balancing the desire to win with the desire for the crew to have an enjoyable voyage?
That’s an interesting question. It all comes down to how each crew member defines “win” and “enjoyable voyage”. Fact is it’s a very very tough job to be crew. The work is long and hard, but it’s the triumphs in the end that make it all worthwhile.

For some the “win” is mastering a particular aspect of the sailing. For others the “win” is crossing the finish line first and again for others “win” is doing better than the last finish position.

Bottom line is we have a team ethos built around education and winning and a pile of things onboard to try to make the ride more enjoyable for everyone along the way, so that when things are tough….there’s a little bit of something nice to put a smile on their face.

Has the fleet had any significant upgrades from the last edition?
Yes. I think the biggest upgrade is the fact that we have had the boats for two years now and are really knowledgeable on how to run them. For the last race some of the boats were only fitted up a month before the race start. The production of the boats ran slower than they anticipated and they had very little time to get to know the boats before race start. Additionally to that the sail shapes have been redesigned a little to improve performance. Many of the electronics systems have continued to improve also….it’s an ongoing story of improvements and steps forward.

Race website – Route map

Background: The 40,000 mile Clipper 2015-16 Round the World Yacht Race will begin in London, UK on August 30 for the fleet of twelve identical Tony Castro designed Clipper 70s. The series is divided into 16 individual races, with the team with the best cumulative score winning the Clipper Race Trophy.

The ports along the race route are Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Cape Town, South Africa; Albany, Sydney, Hobart and Airlie Beach, Australia; Da Nang, Vietnam; Qingdao, China; Seattle, USA; Panama; New York, USA; Derry-Londonderry, Ireland; and Den Helder, Netherlands before returning to London by late July.