Making ready to start her first Imoca race, the Course des Caps, with Boris Herrmann’s Team Malizia, 31-year-old Cole Brauer became the first American woman to race solo non-stop around the world in May last year when she finished second in the Global Solo Challenge on her Class 40 First Light in 130 days. Building a following of nearly 500,000 Instagram fans over the course of her race, the effervescent, driven sailor captivated a huge audience, inspiring a whole new world of followers outside of sailing. Tip & Shaft caught up with Cole in Boulogne-sur-Mer.
Cole how was life after finishing the Global Solo Challenge, it all seemed a bit mad and intense at the time?
It was interesting, an absolute whirlwind with speaking engagements and travelling all over the country in and out of the USA. It was a bit crazy and I was not doing as much sailing as I would like. It was hard to deal with. I am not media trained and sometimes I revert to my normal life as a sailor which does not act out well in reality. It was quite overwhelming. There were a lot of people who wanted things from me and I was not used to that. And as a sailor I worked with a team around me and all that was suddenly gone. Your protection was gone. And I had to get lawyers to learn how to deal with contracts, things like that, I had not dealt with all that kind of stuff before.
Was the popularity oppressive, hard to deal with?
I did a lot of hiding in the end, running away, living in my van. I don’t think I ever understood how big it was going to get and so I just assumed I could go back to my normal life. I moved back home and just hung out with my friends, lived in my van in Newport, RI and tried to live my life. That was interesting. It was nice to just hide out in my van. But people found my parents address and started sending things, amazing, super nice things. But there was so much I finally had to stop accepting things. So I had to stop everything. I did not answer text messages, emails, DMs, or answer comments. They were all kind, everyone was positive, there was nothing negative but it was so overwhelming I could not reciprocate. Because I could not reciprocate that hurt me as I could not meet expectations.
What was your initial contact with Boris and the Malizia team?
When I was in my race I did an interview and was asked ‘who is your favourite Vendée Globe skipper?’ and I said ‘Boris’. And then about two weeks after I finished the race I got a message from Holly (Cova) the team director and she said ‘ we would like to have a meeting with you…’ and so we met on zoom with Boris and Holly, they said ‘we don’t really know how you will fit in the team but we would love to see how we can make this work’ And I was ready for a new sailing job as I had nothing, my sponsorships were all ended. When it stops you lose everything and it is all gone, all the people you work with. I had all this experience and nowhere to go. I had other teams scouting me but Malizia was the only team which waited. A lot of teams wanted a decision straight away. At that time I was not ready to move to France. So I told them to wait.
“Watching Boris sail is fabulous”
Why Boris and Malizia?
I just always got a good vibe off him. I felt like he and I are very similar. We enjoy the racing not just for the competition but because it gives us an opportunity to explore the planet and see it for what it is. And that is a different mindset from a lot of pro sailors who are into battling the elements and taking care of tiny little things. Now it is even more true. Watching Boris sail is fabulous. He has this special type of feel for the boat. Only someone who has sailed his boat round the planet a few times would have. It is very similar to the feeling I had with my Class40 First Light. I did a lot of it by feel and a lot less by nit picky numbers. Will (Harris, the co-skipper) is amazing with a real mix of the feel for the boat, a feel for the numbers from the engineering mindset and Boris and I have the holistic feel. Boris and I get on really well on and off the water. He is very creative and when he comes up with an idea he does it. If I come up with a crazy idea I do it. Nothing on the planet will stop me. I will lose friends over it, that all or nothing mindset. I know Boris is the exact same. He will run through walls to make things happen.
How have your first steps on the Imoca Malizia Seaexplorer been?
They have been stumbling, it is such a hard boat to sail. It is a bit like patting your head and rubbing your belly at the same time. It is by far the hardest boat I have ever sailed. It is amazing when everything is working. Right now I am doing my own playbook to learn all my steps for myself. I ask tons and tons of questions. When we are racing we are in the performance mindset. I have a couple of days before we start to really get my steps. It has felt like ‘boom! I moved to France, I am racing and I am doing 35kts on a boat which feels like it is trying to kill you!’ I am honest about my downfalls, but I am learning as quickly as possible.
Is there a structure, a plan to your learning and training, or is it organic, on-the-job?
I have been just trying to learn all I can as I go, in the way that I can. I learn slower as I am more on the artistic side, telling me the numbers do not work so well, I need to connect the numbers to the feel of the boat. And so the time on the boat is most valuable. I can spend all day at the computer typing out my playbook but until I act on it, I am not learning. I have all the notes I made over the last two months and am inputting into a form I can use, but it is all very fluid. We are definitely getting into the right phase. I am also not used to being in a team on the water. Normally I have so much more time to be focussing on my steps, and now in real time I am being watched and sometimes it is not all that wonderful to be being watched! Anyone in my position, coming from solo where you can truly like to do things at your pace, now it is new, stepping on people’s toes, especially as a new team together. And so there will be stumbles. But what makes us stronger is we do these stumbles together, now. We are looking further ahead. The Ocean Race Europe is really the first step towards what we are really going for, The Ocean Race in 2027.
“I have run out of time for
2028 Vendée Globe but not for 2032”
You will race the Admiral’s Cup too with Boris and Pierre Casiraghi (under Monaco flagship)?
Yes, that has added another level of complexity! It is another complete change of mindset, now sailing with ten other guys. I am on the Jolt 40 footer with Pierre. I was asked by Boris to do it but I love the inshore sailing on 40 footers. I come from the world of inshore racing and so it does come a little bit more naturally. And so I love learning from all these guys, they are incredibly competitive and quite brutal which is kind of how I was brought up in sailing.
And what is your main goal, is the Vendée Globe on your horizon?
The main goal is The Ocean Race in 2027. I looked at the Vendée Globe for a while and it just does not seem feasible. I would need to start campaigning immediately after the end of the round the world race and I was not in the mental state to be able to take that on. I found out really quickly that there was no way. I have run out of time for 2028 but not for 2032. That is kind of the goal but I want to really make that decision really hard, concrete before I really go looking for money. It is such an expensive undertaking. And I am getting older. And I would like a family some time. I am a woman, the clock is ticking and these are the things you have to consider.
Photo : Antoine Auriol
