At over two-metres Mike Slade is a big man, and he loves laughing. He is the managing director of a property company listed on the London Stock Exchange. ICAP Leopard is the fourth Leopard he has owned, and he describes it as "a Volvo Ocean 70 stretched out to 100-feet. It was designed by Farr Yacht Design, one of the world's top marine architects.
LB: You have broken records with ICAP Leopard before, so winning isn't a new experience for you, but how do you feel about winning this race?
MS: It's great, it is the longest single-ocean race in the world, it is a very challenging race in terms of wind conditions, and we had a great crew aboard, including several top South African sailors, so it is great.
LB: Did the race go according to plan for you?
MS: Absolutely, absolutely. We got the jump on Rambler in the first and second day, we had really strong powerful breeze, we were doing 30 knots boat speed, perfec.it was just a question of hanging on and extending it.
LB: Did you tear any sails of have any problems on the boat?
MS: Not an item of damage. Amazing! Very happy with that.
LB: There were 20 of you on board, what were you you living arrangements like?
MS: Um, I don't think my wife would have approved of them.
LB: How many of you were on duty at a time?
MS: Two watches, four hours on, four hours off, so ten. But whenever there was a major move, a gybe or big sail change, you bring everybody up.
LB:How tense does it become on board during a race such as this?
MS: Ya, the start is very tense, the first two or three days were very tense, it was it less tense in some times because happily we were well in front.
LB: What was your average speed during the race?
MS: We haven't worked it out fully, I think it was about 13.5 knots.
LB: Your slowest speed?
MS: Down to nine knots. I never saw less than nine.
LB: Were you becalmed at all.
MS: No, not once. Perhaps a bit lucky, but also we have a very good weather guy.
LB: What creature comfort do you miss most when you are at sea?
MS: Apart from my dear wife, who has to put up with all this, um, oh certainly food and drink, I mean that is the decisive part of all this.
LB: Who did the cooking, and what was your staple food?
MS: Well we had discovered somone back in England who produced freeze dried gourmet meals, so we had things like Kung Po chicken with noodles, skipper's favourite, we had spaghetti bolognaise, we had green Thai chicken curry which looked as though it had been swallowed already. And after about four or five days, you are desperate for a decent meal. Having said which, they were jolly good. I lived on porridge in the morning, a soup at lunch time, and in the evenings the odd bit of cheese and the odd bit of ham which I had smuggled aboard.
LB: Did you have any daily rituals?
MS: No, but we did do a service called Matins at 12 o'clock on Sunday.
LB: How much of a factor was wanting to set a new record for you?
MS: It was 100 per cent the point of doing the race.
LB: What were your biggest frustrations during the race?
MS. Um, um, um, frustrations during the race! Remarkably absolutely very very few.
LB: Apart from perhaps wanting to know your rival's positions more than once every 24 hours?
MS: Yes, good point. It would have been nice to have trackers like those we use on the Fastnet, and that we now use on the Sydney/Hobart, but I do appreciate that this isn't a race of four or five hundred boats, and therefor the cost is too much. So no harm with the 24-hour position update, and frankly no frustrations whatsoever.
LB: How do you deal with the constant feeling of being chased?
MS: As it turned out we pulled out futher on every single sched, so we never had that feeling.
LB:When di yo last see another yacht.
MS: At the start.
LB: How long did yo prepare for the race?
MS: Well prep is everything. The boat went to Durban first. We had two weeks there fitting twin rudders. We had a sea trial from there to the Cape, and we had about a week and a half in Cape Town to prepare for the race. Preparation for a race like this everything. That is why it all went so smoothly.
LB: What was the highlight for you?
MS:The highlights for me were the sunrises and the sunsets.
LB:Hairiest moments?
MS: There wasn't a single one.
