Sailing on “The Monster”
In May of 2024 I had a bucket-list sailing opportunity — a trip from Antigua to Bermuda on Il Mostro (The Monster), a 70-foot around-the-world racing boat originally built for the Volvo Ocean Race in 2008/09, where it took second place after sailing 37,000 nautical miles against seven other boats.
Il Mostro no longer competes in around-the-world events but she continues to travel the oceans (as I write this she is leading in the Quebec-St. Malo transatlantic race). The boat set the Chicago-Mackinac Island speed record in 2017 and was later purchased by Atlas Ocean Racing, based in Toronto, Canada. The Atlas team “turbo’d” the boat, modifying the original design to make her even faster.
I never thought I’d have the opportunity to sail on a Volvo 70 — they are mostly crewed by professional sailors, younger and much more agile than me — but when I learned about the Atlas program, I jumped at the chance.
I arrived in Antigua only having met the other 13 crew on a couple of preparation Zoom calls over the previous months. And I was the only American on board, everyone else being Canadian. It was great getting to know the team as we spent a couple of days preparing the boat, taking on water and provisions, making minor repairs, and getting everything in order for the open ocean.
The day we left Antigua the weather was superb and pretty much stayed that way for the entire trip — no storms, no savage squalls in the middle of the night. We departed late in the afternoon with a perfect reaching breeze on the starboard tack, which only got better through the night and all the next day. I believe we sailed about 340 miles in the first 24 hours, and having the opportunity the take the helm and drive a boat like Il Mostro was truly a highlight of my life. She consistently sailed faster than the wind speed, hitting 18-20 knots which is a sensation most sailors rarely, if ever, experience. The only hiccup occurred in the early morning of our last day at sea, during my watch, when the wind completely shut off and we had to turn on the engine for a few hours. But then the wind came right back, carrying us into Bermuda where we arrived after dark.
First day at sea - about 16 knots boat speed
Rooster tail
One thing I really enjoy about longer sailing trips is being on the ocean at night, without the light pollution we experience in our daily lives. When the weather is clear and you emerge on deck for your appointed watch, you’re literally greeted by a galaxy of stars, with the Milky Way itself a river of light across the sky. It’s pretty spectacular and impossible to capture with the camera on your phone. You typically steer the boat by fixing a star on the horizon and following it for the entire time you’re at the helm.
Racing boats are the antithesis of luxury yachting, with nothing in the way of comfort. No showers, a head (bathroom) shared with over a dozen other people, and weight-saving ”pipe berths’ for sleeping — carbon fiber tubes strung with nylon netting on which you attempt to snatch a couple of hours of rest before your next watch (thank you sadistic race boat designers).
Our crew was split into three watches of four or five people each — 2 1/2 hours on deck followed by 5 hours off. As you can imagine this takes some getting used to when you’re accustomed to being up all day and sleeping soundly through the night on a comfortable mattress.
For additional weight saving, the galley (kitchen) is minimal in the extreme. A small propane stove on which you boiled water to be added to packets of freeze dried meals — I was a big fan of the Dal, made with lentils, chick peas and curry. There were also pasta and rice options, and I can’t remember what else, along with plenty of fresh fruit, snacks, power bars and the like. All pretty healthy and good.
Alcohol is prohibited at sea, which only makes sense since you never know when you might be needed on deck to help with an emergency, a sudden change of weather, or unexpected maneuver. We made up for the dearth of booze the night we arrived in Bermuda when the crew took over the bar at Wahoo’s in St. George’s, indulging in several rounds of Dark & Stormy’s — a signature Bermuda cocktail made with dark rum (preferably Gosling’s) and ginger beer.
We were attempting to break the record from Antigua to Bermuda, which is approximately three days and 20 hours. But the light air on our last day dashed our hopes and we arrived in something like four days and three hours. Not sure but I also think the skipper and owners wisely played it conservative with our sail selection since much of the crew, like me, were new to the boat . I’m sure we could have sailed even faster if it was a legit race and we were using bigger, more powerful racing sails.
Still pretty fun and an unbelievable experience I hope to repeat someday.
