{"id":157603,"date":"2025-04-28T06:41:36","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T05:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/?p=157603"},"modified":"2025-04-28T09:05:32","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T08:05:32","slug":"meet-sam-goodchild-britains-best-ocean-racing-prospect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/vendee-globe\/meet-sam-goodchild-britains-best-ocean-racing-prospect-157603","title":{"rendered":"Sam Goodchild: from liveaboard to Britain\u2019s best ocean racing prospect"},"content":"\u201cWhen you think about the Vend\u00e9e Globe<\/a>, you always remember the good stuff. I\u2019ve done three now, and you remember the good bits of all the races. So it seems like the race is condensed into a really short length of time. But once you get out there, that\u2019s when it hits\u2026\u201d says Initiatives-Coeur<\/em> skipper Sam Davies<\/a>.\r\n\r\n\u201cThe hard thing is when you realise just how long it is and how you\u2019ve got to survive in those conditions.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe Vend\u00e9e Globe can be a powerful drug. For some skippers it\u2019s an experience so transformative it draws them back again and again. For first-timers it\u2019s a daunting prospect: can they endure three brutal months? Will they even be the same person afterwards?\r\n\r\nMore sailors than ever will pit themselves against the physical, mental, elemental and technical challenges of sailing alone around the world when a record fleet of 40 IMOCAs<\/a> starts the Vend\u00e9e Globe\u2019s 10th running on 10 November. It is the longest race course in sport: from Les Sables d\u2019Olonne in France, and back, around the world non-stop without assistance. Technically they are racing for \u20ac200,000 \u2013 the 1st place prize money. But in reality they are racing for a place in history.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_155055\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Hublot, the former Hugo Boss now skippered by Alan Roura, hits warp speed. Photo: Vincent Curutchet\/Hublot Sailing team[\/caption]\r\n

Highs and lows<\/h2>\r\nCharlie Dalin<\/a> nearly took his place in the history books, having been first to finish<\/a> in 2021 on Apivia<\/em> in his debut Vend\u00e9e Globe, before Yannick Bestaven was crowned winner<\/a> after redress was calculated for the skippers who assisted in rescuing Kevin Escoffier<\/a>. For Dalin, the Vend\u00e9e is truly unfinished business.\r\n\r\n\u201cI guess I was like a temporary winner. Only for eight hours. It\u2019s a mixed feeling. When I arrived 80 days after leaving Les Sables, I was really happy \u2013 to see my son again, my wife, my team. Sailing around the world on my own \u2013 it was amazing. And I always thought the finish line was going to be a relief. But the race was not over, I still had to look at the time. That felt a bit weird \u2013 when you do a race like the La Solitaire, the clock is part of the game. But normally in the Vend\u00e9e, it is not,\u201d recalls Dalin.\r\n\r\n\u201cI didn\u2019t think about it for long. I just enjoyed the [welcome]. But I had a moment during the press conference \u2013 I was on stage and on the right wall they had big photos of all the past winners. And then I realised that I was not going to be on that wall.\u201d\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_155049\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Charlie Dalin\u2019s new Verdier designed Macif has wave-deflecting forward sections to avoid sudden decelerations. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot\/Alea[\/caption]\r\n\r\nIn the end, the deciding margin was tortuously small. \u201cWhen I really started thinking about it was a few weeks after the finish, when everything settles back down. The objective you had for so many years, and then for the 80 days of the race \u2013 everything is over. We call it the Vend\u00e9e blues. And that\u2019s where I had a bit of, \u2018I could have won the Vend\u00e9e\u2019. A win was only two and a half hours away, so I started redoing the race in my head every night. Where did I lose this 150 minutes? Where did they go? I did that for quite a while,\u201d admits Dalin.\r\n\r\n\u201cI\u2019m not thinking about this anymore,\u201d he adds, \u201cI\u2019m just thinking about the upcoming race,\u201d but to return to the Vend\u00e9e Globe is to put yourself back through an emotional wringer for even battle-hardened competitors.\r\n\r\nJ\u00e9r\u00e9mie Beyou<\/a> will be starting his fifth Vend\u00e9e. In 2020 he was one of the hot favourites, only to be forced back to port<\/a> with damage.\r\n\r\nBeyou eventually restarted nine days after the fleet, truly alone. \u201cWe talked a lot about what happened. From a technical point of view, I think we reviewed everything. But in a mental, psychological way, I have to admit that it was difficult to start again. After the race \u2013 like after every Vend\u00e9e \u2013 it was difficult to be okay.\u201d\r\n\r\nArticle continues below...\r\n\r\n[collection]\r\n

Ever present danger<\/h2>\r\nMore difficult still is dealing with the cold creep of fear. Fear isn\u2019t a word Vend\u00e9e skippers use very often, they tend to speak instead of managing physical symptoms like racing heart rates in stressful situations, though many will admit to a fierce dislike of climbing the mast. But danger is ever present, and at the speeds IMOCAs travel at things can go wrong very quickly.\r\n\r\nSam Davies\u2019 last Vend\u00e9e ended when Initiatives-Coeur<\/em> crashed<\/a>, hard, at 20 knots into an unknown object, causing structural damage and throwing Davies across the boat, injuring her ribs. She was, she says, \u201creally freaked out by the whole thing\u201d.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_155068\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" At the speeds IMOCAs travel, things can go wrong quickly. Photo: Marin Le Roux\/PolaRYSE[\/caption]\r\n\r\nTo come back meant facing the possibility that fate could strike again. \u201cDo I really want to do this again? I put four years of my life into this, then something beyond my control has just taken it all away. It\u2019s so disappointing. Do I really want to put myself and my sponsors, my family and everyone who supports me, through that again \u2013 because it\u2019s the same risk. The fact that happened doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s not going to happen next time,\u201d Davies said, recalling her thought process after the 2020 race. \u201cThose were the doubts that I had.\u201d\r\n\r\n\u201cBut I\u2019m still looking for that result and the opportunity to race a really competitive boat all the way around the world. I really hope I make it this time.\u201d\r\n

Back on the horse<\/h2>\r\nThis Vend\u00e9e Globe cycle has been remarkable for lots of reasons. There was an unprecedented 13 new IMOCAs built. This meant there were a lot of IMOCA skippers with boats either in build or in refit, kicking their heels around Brittany, all the while desperate to keep up with the fleet\u2019s accelerated pace of learning.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_155060\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Sam Davies on Initiatives-Coeur has banked the most qualifying miles of any skipper in the Vend\u00e9e Globe. Photo: Jean-Louis Carli\/Alea[\/caption]\r\n\r\nEnter the crewed Ocean Race<\/a>, which for the first time featured the IMOCA class in 2022. For Davies, whose new Initiatives-Coeur<\/em> was undergoing significant rebuilding work, the opportunity to get back to racing in the Southern Ocean with Paul Meilhat\u2019s team<\/a> on Biotherm<\/em> was too good to miss.\r\n\r\n\u201cFor two reasons. One was mentally for me, given what happened in the last race, but also in terms of preparing for a Vend\u00e9e Globe. I realised any Vend\u00e9e sailor that does The Ocean Race can have a massive advantage, because our boats are evolving so quickly. It\u2019s nothing like what even the top boats were four years ago. We don\u2019t sail them in the same way. Everything\u2019s changed so much, and this was the only opportunity to go and send it in the Southern Ocean with the powerful foiling boats we have now \u2013 and with a crew, so you push it a bit harder.\u201d\r\n\r\nWhile sailors in The Ocean Race could practise hard throttling a foiling IMOCA \u2013 on someone else\u2019s boat \u2013 once back to their own projects every skipper faced a conundrum. Unlike previous races, Vend\u00e9e veterans did not get an automatic pass to re-enter. With the entry list oversubscribed, every qualifying race counted to secure one of 40 precious spots<\/a>. This left teams facing some hard decisions: sail conservatively to lock in the miles, or use each opportunity to really test their weapons?\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_155045\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" \u2018We have to navigate a fine line between going fast and preserving our boats\u2019. Photo: Eloi Stichelbaut\/polaRYSE\/IMOCA[\/caption]\r\n\r\nThe upshot is that the level across the whole fleet has risen, says J\u00e9r\u00e9mie Beyou. \u201cI think all the teams are much more professional. The qualification mode makes you race a lot, so teams have to be bigger.\r\n\r\n\u201cI remember my first Vend\u00e9e Globe. We had many problems with reliability \u2013 it was a new boat, and we had a small team. I\u2019d broken the mast, so at the start of the Vend\u00e9e I didn\u2019t know my boat, I didn\u2019t know how to do the manoeuvres alone.\r\n\r\n\u201cI had a discussion with Violette [Dorage, the youngest entrant in the race at just 23] \u2013 she\u2019s much more ready, even if she\u2019s very young, than I was on my first edition.\u201d\r\n

High-wire act<\/h2>\r\nGetting the most out of the latest IMOCAs is now a high-wire juggling act that requires the ability to race technically accurately, analysing vast amounts of data and calibration settings, but also employ some old-fashioned seamanship to know where the danger zone is.\r\n\r\n\u201cWe all have to navigate this fine line between going fast but preserving [our boats]. And that\u2019s what I find really fascinating,\u201d says Dalin. \u201cBecause numbers don\u2019t give you the answer \u2013 even though we\u2019ve got gigabytes of data with fibre optics in the foil, the rigging loads, acceleration in all directions. But no numbers tell you how to sail the race. The numbers don\u2019t tell you where the line rests. Your gut is going to tell you where this point is.\u201d\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_155054\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Brit Sam Goodchild could well challenge the podium. Photo: Pierre Bouras[\/caption]\r\n\r\nAs Davies points out, the sensors are not invincible (they are also power hungry). \u201cIf something slips in a jammer, or if a hydraulic releases a bit \u2013 you can dismast. But you also have to put marks everywhere \u2013 and watch the marks because you pretty much know that halfway around the world, some of your load cells will stop working. Then you\u2019ve got to be able to do it the old-fashioned way.\u201d\r\n\r\nAfter two editions of the race that have seen foiling IMOCAs partly fly \u2013 and partly lurch and skid \u2013 their way around the world, the current crop benefit from more reliable construction, bigger foils, and sophisticated rake controls (though not T-rudders, still banned under class rules) for increasingly sustained flight.\r\n\r\nAs well as VPLP<\/a> and Verdier<\/a> there are boats by Owen Clarke, Farr, David Raison, three scow-style boats from Sam Manuard (including Initiatives-Coeur<\/em>, built to older moulds but updated, and Charal 2<\/em>), and two new builds from Antoine Koch\/Finot Conq. Hull shape is a major development area, with focus on avoiding the bow burying into waves as the boat comes off the foils.\r\n\r\nDalin says this was a big priority for his Verdier-designed Macif<\/em>. \u201cMy new boat is much better in that respect. We\u2019d get quite a lot of water on deck, and I\u2019d pretty often have big decelerations. The new boat is above the waves nearly all the time. But when it slows, sometimes you can still nose dive. So before, I was always bracing myself and getting ready for the decelerations. This time, I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s more dangerous, but it\u2019s much rarer.\u201d\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_155046\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Thomas Ruyant is one of the front-runner. Photo:Eloi Stichelbaut\/polaRYSE\/IMOCA[\/caption]\r\n\r\nJ\u00e9r\u00e9mie Beyou says his Charal 2<\/em> also sails at a more level pitch: \u201cIn terms of attitude, constant heel and trim, it\u2019s much better than it was four years ago. I have tools to trim the boat easier than last time, with the extension or rake on the foils, and our systems on the rudders. The boat is much more sensitive to that. That is a big step forward.\u201d\r\n

Brutal<\/h2>\r\nBut with higher average speeds come potentially higher impacts. \u201cIn terms of slamming and the loads, it\u2019s a bit higher \u2013 and it was already high, so sometimes it\u2019s a bit too much. Inside it\u2019s still brutal,\u201d Beyou adds.\r\n\r\nDalin agrees. \u201cThere are ways to tame it a bit, but it\u2019s still pretty violent. No matter what anyone tells you, when the seaway is big, there\u2019s no single boat which, if you go fast, is going to be comfy.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe bone-breaking impacts can shatter both boats and skippers. Biotherm<\/em> had three new bulkheads fitted during The Ocean Race\u2019s Cape Town stopover to give the boat\u2019s skeleton more stability, then three more added since.\r\n\r\nDuring the 2023 Retour \u00e0 La Base solo transatlantic Sebastien Simon knocked himself out, awaking covered in blood. After completing the race doctors discovered he\u2019d also fractured a vertebrae in his neck.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_155070\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Ruyant\u2019s latest generation Vulnerable has a fully protected cockpit. Photo: Pierre Bouras[\/caption]\r\n\r\nTeams are going to huge lengths to keep skippers safe. Sam Davies has turned her living space around with an aft-facing chair with suspension, as on a RIB. \u201cAll the really violent movement is basically being thrown forward the whole time. If you sit facing backwards, then it\u2019s a lot less risky, otherwise we end up destroying our screens the whole time.\u201d (The \u2018flip\u2019 side is that all Davies\u2019 autopilot controls, radar screen views etc are reversed). Dalin has moved his nav station and bunk aft of the cockpit, with a custom-built chair, that looks like something an astronaut would belt himself into for take off.\r\n\r\nSmall details matter \u2013 Davies has fitted a tap to the bottom of her jet boil canister because pouring boiling water becomes impossibly dangerous (Boris Herrmann<\/a> suffered burns that required hospital treatment during the Ocean Race while preparing food). Macif is built with no aft-facing flanges in the bulkheads to avoid every possible protrusion that could cause injury.\r\n\r\nThe skippers have been experimenting with body armour. Head injuries are a big concern, and sailors have tried everything from rugby skull caps to hard helmets. Sam Davies shows me a beanie she\u2019s been trialling with impact protection from a mobility aid company. Musto has developed waterproofs with panels<\/a> similar to those used in motorbike gear. Dalin says he often wears knee pads to avoid sores: \u201cYou have to be so careful. Even a small cut, or if you spend too much time on your knees, you can get infections, and it can become pretty bad.\u201d\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_155051\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" An aft-facing nav seat on its own suspension helps protect Sam Davies from being thrown forwards in lumpy seas. Photo Jean-Louis Carli\/Alea[\/caption]\r\n\r\nBut there is also a psychological element. \u201cIf you\u2019ve got your shock-absorbing seat and your noise-reducing everything on, if you protect yourself, then it\u2019s a lot less scary,\u201d says Davies. \u201cSo then you send it.\u201d\r\n

Unknown entity<\/h2>\r\nSo what can we expect from this year\u2019s Vend\u00e9e Globe? \u201cEveryone tells me it will always be the unknown,\u201d says Vend\u00e9e rookie Dorange, who\u2019s been asking for advice. \u201cEven those who\u2019ve done the Vend\u00e9e Globe three times say to me, \u2018Don\u2019t imagine, it will be the unknown.\u2019\u201d\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s safe to speculate that if conditions allow, records are likely to be broken and competition is likely to be furiously close. But outcomes are impossible to predict.\r\n\r\n\u201cPreviously in IMOCA, if you had a reasonable boat and an okay budget, then you\u2019d pretty much be guaranteed to be in the top five. Now with that, you can just be in the top 20,\u201d says Davies.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_155061\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" J\u00e9r\u00e9mie Beyou is a seasoned five times Vend\u00e9e Globe campaigner and will sail the new Sam Manuard-designed Charal. Photo: Marin Le Roux\/PolaRYSE[\/caption]\r\n\r\nSo how many skippers are realistically in with a shout? Beyou is circumspect. \u201cLast time, I fell into the game of being one the favourites, the two guys to beat were Alex Thomson and myself!\u201d he shrugs. \u201cSo no prognostics for me. Maybe it\u2019s 10 boats...\u201d\r\n\r\nStarting unscathed is the first task, then it will be about hanging onto the pack and seeing what the Vend\u00e9e dice rolls. \u201cThat\u2019s what I want to do \u2013 hopefully, be in the lead group. If I can do that, and manage to sail it like a transat all the way around the world, then I\u2019ll be really happy.\r\n\r\n\u201cAfter the two transats this year<\/a>, I was like, \u2018Do you think it\u2019s physically possible to keep going like that for 10 times the length of what I\u2019ve just done?\u2019\u201d Davies ponders.\r\n\r\nIs it? \u201cI\u2019ll tell you in three months\u2019 time.\u201d\r\n

Key Vend\u00e9e Globe 2024 contenders<\/h2>\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_155064\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Charlie Dalin. Photo: Vincent Curutchet\/Alea[\/caption]\r\n

Charlie Dalin<\/a><\/h3>\r\nPicking a favourite is fiendishly hard, but having led the fleet home last time around, there\u2019s only one goal for Dalin and his new Macif<\/em>. The boat is immaculately prepared, the team and skipper know what to do to get around in front \u2013 now it\u2019s largely down to fate and fortune.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_155057\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Thomas Ruyant. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot\/Alea[\/caption]\r\n

Thomas Ruyant<\/a><\/h3>\r\nDalin and Ruyant have duelled each other across oceans for years, but it was Ruyant who won both the 2021 and 2023 TJV and 2022 Route du Rhum. Foil damage put paid to his chances in the 2020 Vend\u00e9e \u2013 will his Antoine Koch\/Finot-Conq design Vulnerable<\/em> prove to be anything but?\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_155059\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" J\u00e9r\u00e9mie Beyou. Photo: Jean-Louis Carli\/Alea[\/caption]\r\n

J\u00e9r\u00e9mie Beyou<\/a><\/h3>\r\nOne of the most seasoned campaigners on the circuit, Beyou\u2019s new Manuard-designed Charal<\/em> is a consistent podium finisher. Beyou will not want to take any risks on his fifth Vend\u00e9e, but if he can get around unscathed expect to see Charal<\/em> right at the front.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_155058\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Yoann Richomme. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot\/Alea[\/caption]\r\n

Yoann Richomme<\/h3>\r\nCan you be a Vend\u00e9e favourite as a rookie? Richomme last year won his first ever solo IMOCA race in the Retour \u00e0 La Base transat, after a 2nd in the TJV. The two-times Figaro winner has a sistership to Ruyant in Paprec Ark\u00e9a<\/em> and is known for his ability to push his boats seriously hard.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_155063\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Sam Davies. Photo: Vincent Curutchet\/Alea[\/caption]\r\n

Sam Davies<\/a><\/h3>\r\nThis will be the fourth Vend\u00e9e for British-born Davies, and her first with a newly-built boat. Davies has experience in spades and banked the most qualifying miles of any skipper, having taken every chance she could to \u2018Send it\u2019. Her results seem to be peaking at just the right time.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_155065\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Boris Herrmann. Photo: Vincent Curutchet\/Alea[\/caption]\r\n

Boris Herrmann<\/a><\/h3>\r\nThe German skipper delivered a career best with back to back 2nds in the Transat and New York-Les Sables races this spring, while the fullsome Malizia<\/em> has proved itself capable of handling the biggest Southern Ocean conditions. A strong podium contender.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_155056\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Sam Goodchild. Photo: Jean-Louis Carli\/Alea[\/caption]\r\n

Sam Goodchild<\/h3>\r\nGoodchild\u2019s IMOCA campaign hit the ground running with a 3rd in the 2023 Fastnet, and he just kept going, with more 3rds including the TJV, and his first solo IMOCA race, the Retour a la Base. A dismasting this summer was little setback and he\u2019s another rookie podium challenger.\r\n\r\n[caption id=\"attachment_155062\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"630\"]\"\" Justine Mettraux. Photo: Vincent Curutchet\/Alea[\/caption]\r\n

Best of the rest<\/h3>\r\nThis is where it gets hard. Yannick Bestaven (Ma\u00eetre Coq V<\/em>) winner in 2020 or Ocean Race winner Justine Mettraux (Teamwork<\/em>, pictured)? Then there\u2019s S\u00e9bastien Simon, Maxime Sorel, Nico Lunven, Louis Burton... easily 8-10 serious campaigns that could make a very large lead pack.\r\n\r\n
\r\n\r\n

\"\"<\/a>If you enjoyed this\u2026.<\/h2>\r\n
\r\n
Yachting World is the world's leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.<\/em><\/div>\r\n
<\/div>\r\n
Build your knowledge with a subscription delivered to your door. See our latest offers<\/a> and save at least 30% off the cover price.<\/em><\/div><\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n
","excerpt":{"rendered":"

As 2004 drew to a close, a 15-year-old Sam Goodchild was leafing through his dad\u2019s copy of Yachting World \u2013 the magazine no doubt slightly dog-eared and delayed, by the time the subscription had been delivered to the family\u2019s home in Grenada. Inside was the remarkable story of Conrad Humphreys, one of three British skippers in the Vend\u00e9e Globe, who had to single-handedly repair the rudders on his IMOCA Hellomoto, diving underneath the boat off Cape Town. Sam felt a jolt of inspiration. \u201cI remember quite vividly reading an article on Hellomoto,\u201d he recalls. \u201cConrad\u2019s was the story that stuck in my mind. And that was where the idea of doing the Vend\u00e9e formed.\u201d It was a time of change for the Goodchild family. Six weeks before the Vend\u00e9e Globe fleet set off in France, Hurricane Ivan had ripped through the island they\u2019d made home. Infrastructure was destroyed, and Sam spent a term going to school in Antigua, some 250 miles away. Not long after, he flew back to the UK, swapping barefoot sailing in the Caribbean for boarding school and dinghy racing on a chilly reservoir. But the Vend\u00e9e spark kept burning. Twenty years later, he celebrated his 35th birthday while leading the 2024 Vend\u00e9e Globe. That teenage dream had been made real in a way he could never have predicted. Liveaboard life Sam Goodchild was not quite born on a boat, but very nearly. \u201cIt was a matter of months,\u201d he says. \u201cMy parents decided to go cruising while my mum was pregnant. My dad sailed across the Atlantic just after I was born, then I flew out with my mum. I was two or three months old.\u201d The family spent six years living aboard a 38ft wooden double-ender, cruising around the Caribbean. \u201cIt was a fairly slow life, mostly living on anchor. My brother turned up when I was three. There was a bit of homeschooling, and on a few of the islands, like Grenada and Tortola, we went to a real school. \u201cNow, having my own kids, you appreciate how daring and just how out-there it was to do that in the early \u201990s. To jump on a boat and say, \u2018we\u2019ll figure things out as we go\u2019 with two small kids and a third one coming.\u201d Goodchild\u2019s father picked up some work doing carpentry as well as teaching. \u201cMy dad liked building things, and he built me a little dinghy, a plywood and epoxy Optimist, called Sea Urchin. When I was five or six, that was my happy place,\u201d he recalls. Any short-handed ocean racer has to be a jack-of-all-trades, able to make repairs on the fly. Goodchild grew up around boat work. \u201cA lot of that came from my dad. I remember we used to call the engine room the angry room, because every time dad went in, he\u2019d come back out angry! From building things with wood and tinkering, whether with engines or electronics or anything else, the fact that it interested me …Continue reading »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1571,"featured_media":157617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[892],"tags":[747,1633,1481],"review_manufacturer":[],"acf":[],"introduction":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157603"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1571"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157603"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157603\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":157632,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157603\/revisions\/157632"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157603"},{"taxonomy":"review_manufacturer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yachtingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review_manufacturer?post=157603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}