Pip Hare, the solo round-the-world sailor has conceded that she is a moral dilemma with respect to her attempts to raise important sponsorship for keeping up with her Vendee Globe campaign. In fact, she is now asking herself if it is morally right to pursue the dream of her life while the pandemic is taking a toll on the country.
Hare is 46 years old and she is one of the 30 plus skippers who has managed to secure a place in Vendee Globe which is the non-stop solo tour of the world that is called the ‘Sailing’s Everest.’ This is the perfect description. Sir Robin Knox-Johnston had been the first sailor to complete the voyage in 1969. Following that less than 100 sailors have sailed this non-stop solo without being assisted across the world. Of these less than 10 have been women, sailors.
Pip Hares expects to be one of the 6 women who compete in the 2020-21 challenge that is all set to take place in November. Nevertheless, with the economic contraction because of the global pandemic and the possible investments having disappeared, she appears to be in a fix. She has an IMOCA yacht Super Bigou that is 60ft long and it had been put for a refit before the country went into lockdown. Now, she needs more funds to finish the work and set sail the yacht.
She has stated that it is difficult to know what the right to do at this moment is. She sees everybody donating to Captain Tom or NHS and knows that it is a good thing to do and says that she doesn’t want to be the person who puts up her hand asking for money. She doesn’t want to go advertise her campaign. However, this is her business, her dream, and her whole life. She says that she has invested all that she has into this and she is not going to ditch it.
For Hare, reaching this point in her life has been a 10-year journey and she has the smallest budget in the present year’s fleet. Her dream had taken shape when she was able to charter an old IMOCA 60ft yacht from an Estonian whom she came across while she was participating in Mini Transat. He had bought Superbigou for racing himself. Hare accepts that this has been quite a cheap deal.
Thereafter, hare started with her campaign with help from crowdfunding, support from a syndicate business, and also deals with the suppliers who are local in Poole. As she got the campaign off the ground, she has been able to complete Bermudes 1000 of last year, Transat Jacques Vabres, and RolestFastnet. With this, she banked the required qualification in the process. Everything had been progressing smoothly until the coronavirus hit.
Albeit, a majority of her existing supporters support their commitment to the campaign, she requires more sponsorship if she has to go back on water when the lockdown has been eased.