British ocean sailor, Pip Hare, will compete in this year’s Rolex Fastnet Race and Transat Jacques Vabre with fellow East Coast Sailor and Mini Transat veteran, Nick Bubb.

This will be the first race for the newly refitted Medallia as Pip begins her preparation for the 2024 Vendee Globe race – a non-stop, solo circumnavigation.

Nick Bubb brings competitive and technical experience across a range of boats and classes both on and off the water. Like Pip, Nick grew up sailing on the River Deben in Suffolk and cut his teeth in the Mini-Transat class, achieving multiple podiums in the class. 

Nick is a multiple round the world sailor, having raced around non-stop in the 2005 HSBC Oryx Quest and as a watch leader in the 2008 Volvo Ocean Race. Like so many other British offshore sailors, Nick developed his IMOCA experience with Mike Golding and this will be his second Transat Jacques Vabre, having finished 7th with French Vendee Globe Skipper, Tanguy de Lamotte in 2007. 

Away from the racing scene, he skippered a 23-foot rowing boat across the Southern Ocean from Antarctica to South Georgia as part of the Shackleton Epic Expedition in 2013. More recently, Nick spent two years cruising with his family from the UK to New Zealand.

No stranger to Medallia, Nick was part of the crew that took line honours with Pip in the RORC Round Britain and Ireland in 2022.

Pip said: “I’m excited that Nick will be joining me for the Rolex Fastnet Race this year. It’s an epic, fast paced, double-handed race and we will hit the start line just three weeks after relaunching Medallia with new big foils, so I’m looking forward to having someone to bounce ideas off and test things in race conditions. Getting others’ perspectives is always valuable and I know Nick’s experience and knowledge will help me as I prepare for next year’s Vendee Globe race. He’s very calm, positive, makes a mean cup of tea and has the same work ethic I do, combining respect for the boat with a drive to be better. I think we’ll make a great team and the Fastnet will be good preparation for the TJV later in the year.”

Nick said: “Racing the 50th anniversary of the Rolex Fastnet Race with Pip in such an incredible boat is undoubtedly going to be a lot of fun but also a huge challenge. The boat will still be pretty fresh out of the shed after the big refit, so we’ll still have masses to learn but I know after all the hours Pip and her team have put in over the winter, everyone just wants to see the boat sailing again.

“It’s going to be pretty wild trying to tame the beast in big conditions if we get them but I’m fully aware how lucky I am to have this opportunity and obviously humbled that Pip asked me to join her. We’ve enjoyed a long friendship, racing together and against each other for probably close to 25 years so it’s great to be racing together again. 

“She’s vastly experienced and I know earnt a huge amount of admiration from the whole sailing community during the last Vendee Globe on her old boat.  I see my role as very much the ‘domestique’, trying to take the load off Pip’s shoulders whenever I can, and generally grunting up to get the boat around the track in one piece as quickly as we can.”

This year is the 50th edition of the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s (RORC) iconic Rolex Fastnet Race and will see hundreds of boats compete across 690 nautical miles from Cowes, around the Fastnet Rock and back to Cherbourg-en-Cotentin.

Source : Pip Hare Ocean Racing