59° North Sailingvideo
Conrad Humphries // Captain Bligh & Rounding Cape Horn
June 9, 2026 · 1h 35m · 153 views
What this video covers
Conrad Humphreys, a career offshore racer who competed in the Vendée Globe and Whitbread round-the-world races, describes breaking a rudder off Cape Town during the Vendée Globe, limping in for repairs, and restarting thousands of miles behind the last-place boat — an experience he credits with teaching him to silence the relentless internal voice that drives competitive sailors past their limits.32:07 He also led the BBC and Channel 4 television re-enactment of Captain Bligh's open-boat voyage, roughly 4,000 miles across the Pacific, where he had to subordinate his own authority to the actor hired to play Bligh and practice what he calls "followership."35:16 He discusses the Figaro circuit as the essential training ground for the Vendée Globe, explaining that its brutal three-to-four-day legs on 20–30 minutes of sleep daily teach sailors exactly where their limits are.50:16 Host Andy Schell then raises his own Cape Horn rounding ambition — specifically a New Zealand-to-South America passage with paying crew — and Humphreys notes that going upwind through the Southern Ocean, as the Global Challenge did, makes conditions more manageable.1:23:03 Schell reflects afterward on Humphreys's emotional intelligence as the defining leadership skill for skippers managing crews of mixed backgrounds and goals.1:29:28
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