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Episode 04 - August 2025
Ahoy,
There are many round-the-world sailing races, but the Clipper Race is unique.
There's the Vendée Globe, a legendary non-stop, solo, round-the-world sailing race featuring the planet's elite sailors. They face the journey's immense challenges completely alone, with no outside help.
Then there's the Volvo Ocean Race, a fully-crewed, multiple-leg race where veteran teams compete on some of the fastest, most advanced boats, with budgets of millions of dollars. It's like the Formula 1 of sailing.
The Clipper Race is like none of these. Its boats are not F1 cars; they're more the Land Rovers of sailing—strong, resilient, and safe. They are identical, designed and produced together using the exact same sails and equipment. Because of this, it's the people—the crew—on each boat who truly make the difference in performance.
The crew of the Clipper Race is also unlike the crews of most sailing races. It's made up of amateurs, with only one professional skipper and one "second in command." Everyone else comes from diverse levels of experience—sometimes no experience at all—and are trained to become ocean racers.
Because of that, as former Clipper Race skipper Brendan Hall says in his book Team Spirit, this race is broadly 80% people skills and 20% sailing skills.
Diversity balanced across the teams
The Clipper Race is designed for individuals from all walks of life and nations around the world. It’s not just about getting a mix of people, though. Clipper makes sure each crew is intentionally diverse, carefully spreading out ages, experiences, vocations, and nationalities across the fleet. This is to make sure every team is even and competitive.
On board, the team is multi-functional, everyone gets trained to jump into all roles on deck. However, once we know each other’s strengths, specific roles are allocated in order to achieve optimal performance.
Radical Collaboration in Action
Bringing diverse people and leveraging their strengths is not enough. To achieve top performance, the Clipper Race demands radical collaboration, especially under pressure.
Take a maneuver like a gybe – that's when you turn the boat through the wind. It needs synchronized timing, excellent communication, and perfectly coordinated teamwork. Every single move, from letting go of lines to adjusting the backstays, has to be spot-on and perfectly timed. If just one person misses their cue, the whole thing can go wrong.
On a sailing race, there's constant communication and feedback. The trimmers (who adjust the sails) and the helm (who steers) keep up a steady dialogue to get the most speed. The trimmer is always giving feedback on how the sail feels. This constant back-and-forth makes sure the boat is performing at its absolute best.
From Deck to Desk: Winning in the Office
While the mighty Ocean environment is very different to office meeting rooms and video calls, the secrets to a high performance team are incredibly similar. Collaboration and trust are critical for corporations as much as for sailing race teams.
As a leader, how do you create an environment of collaboration and trust? In my experience, there are a few basic ingredients: clarity, communication, empowerment, listening, and one that I see becoming increasingly important, psychological safety.
People should feel comfortable being themselves. Teams shine when everyone feels safe to share ideas, admit when they mess up, and challenge things without fear. As a leader, you have a key role to foster psychological safety: leading by example, being vulnerable, taking mistakes as learning opportunities and setting clear boundaries and expectations.
Key Actionable Insight
Whether you’re racing at sea or navigating a competitive business environment, radical collaboration makes a massive difference to your team performance.
Share the Journey
Thanks for taking the time to read. If this helped you find your bearings, consider sharing it with a friend who might also benefit. And if you're able, your support on my UNICEF fundraising page can help us set a course for a brighter future for children around the world.
May the fair winds be with you.
Breno
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