Finishing lines: "It feels like a victory" - Pip Hare (Britain)

Pip Hare: Just amazing. I’m so happy to be here. It’s just been an awesome race, we couldn’t have asked for better and the last five days have been so full on and who would  have thought that? 

Ysbrand Endt: We met with the ladies, the other ladies…

Hare: Ysbrand has been hanging out with all the ladies…

Endt: Yes, I’ve been hanging out for five days with three ladies, starting at the equator. Until five miles from here (the Bay of All Saints, Salvador), we were one mile ahead or one mile behind. Fighting in the night. Fighting mode: 45 minutes on the helm, switch, sleep, switch, continuously. Looking at any information we could find to see where we were. 

Hare: All day today, we’ve been within sight of each other. There’s been timing where we’ve been within 100m of each other. Today, the most we got out was about two miles from each other. We went for about a day and a half where we couldn’t see them. But yes, we’ve been in constant sight all the time.

It does (feel like a victory to arrive). This whole year feels like a victory, everything about this is amazing and I can’t believe I’m here. And everything has come together and we had a great race. And we learnt so much about the boat. I would have just settled for getting here in one piece, but actually to have such an amazing race, and have a finish like this is even better. 

Endt: We learnt with each other how to push the boat within limits. We set benchmarks to start with, and we started to raise the benchmarks every day. Sometimes with a little of cooperation, talking about it together, sometimes just changing things. And each time we went faster. Every time we found another gear and each time we found another sweetspot of the sails, of the angle of the boat and the wind. 

Hare: We’re quite similar in our outlook and the way we want to sail the boat, and so it’s been a really collaborative effort to make it go faster and faster. And you can push this old girl quite hard - both this one (pointing at herself) and that old girl (laughs).

Endt: She loves being on a 30 degree heel and fully-armed.

Hare: I wasn’t pushing over our limit though because for me this is a long game, the boat needs a re-fit, I picked it up at the beginning of this year, I’ve done what I needed to do to keep it going for the year. And I’ve still got to sail it back. There is really fine line between completion and competition and I’ve been treading that all the time. 

We’ve definitely been competing, but I would never have pushed to the point where I would have thought I was not going to be able to get back (for the reverse delivery back to England) because I’ve got a date with a crane in December, that I have to meet. So, here, quick look over the boat, sort everything out, turn around and back to the UK. 

And Alexia and Joan, they are awesome, I can’t wait to give them a hug, they’ve made our race for us. It’s been amazing. It’s so nice for me in an older boat to have Alexia there and for us to have a competition, that is fantastic because that is what all of this racing should be about, competition at every level.