Francisco Lobato – The young boy and the sea
He followed in the footsteps of his “distinguished grandfathers” and went to sea. Francisco Lobato is 25 years old, has ambition in spades and is the only Portuguese solo yachtsman at international competition level; and one of the best in the world.
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If it weren’t for press reports – which usually pay little or no attention to sports which don’t involve two teams of 11 players kicking a ball around – and the face of the lone Portuguese navigator splashed across social networking sites, it would be difficult to pick out Francisco Lobato from amongst the many sailors strolling along the quayside at Belém this sunny morning. Bruno Coelho, an instructor at the Associação Naval de Lisboa, knows that we are waiting for the only Portuguese sailor to have won the Transat 6.50 transatlantic race and rushes to greet his former pupil: “You could tell early on that he was going far. He had drive, he was methodical, focused and very determined”, he recalls.
Shy and retiring, Francisco doesn’t like publicity. When the UP photographer asks him to light a flare and assume a Statue of Liberty pose with the Monument to the Discoveries behind him, the athlete wrinkles his nose. When he finally agrees, you can’t help but feel his presence; this is Francisco Lobato, professional sailor.
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To do justice to the man, you need to resort to clichés. There are some things you can’t avoid doing when you visit famous places: the Eiffel Tower when you visit Paris, a custard tart in Belém when in Lisbon, referring to New York as the Big Apple. On this occasion we just have to reach for the Portuguese Discoveries. This is not a case of national longing, believe me. It is sheer necessity. Five centuries after the Portuguese were at the helm and gave Portugal an important place in world history, a young lad realised that he too could make a difference in the Portuguese maritime honours and set forth on a hitherto unexplored path: solo yachting.
A singular man
The Portuguese proverb “the son of a fish knows how to swim” seems to have been made especially for him. His grandfathers and father were all connected to sailing, and so boats and the sea were part of Francisco’s life from an early age. He was only a few months old when he sailed to Gibraltar and as a child he spent summer holidays aboard his grandparents’ yacht, sailing the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. “At seven I joined a sailing school at the Associação Naval de Lisboa. I started with traditional Optimist dinghies”- the beginning of an epic journey. After Optimists, a beginner’s boat, came Laser class and in both Francisco won title after title in domestic, European and world-class regattas. The time came for him to join the national Olympic sailing team. “I decided to go solo in 2004. I was gearing up for the 2008 Olympic Games in Peking, but the idea of being a solo yachtsman had been going around in my head for some time. The adventure, the adrenaline, the risk, the boats… it all enthralled me so much that I decided it was time to go for it.” He ditched the Olympic Games and plunged into this brave new world.
The switch was not easy, especially “because the costs of going solo are much higher”. More expensive boats, training courses abroad, sophisticated equipment… high costs for a student of Engineering and Naval Architecture at Lisbon’s Instituto Superior Técnico. “I started off in a borrowed boat and the first one I bought was with a loan. Luckily, I got some good results straight away, which raised my profile and attracted much needed sponsors – which is fundamental in this field.” With the missing piece to the puzzle, Francisco could begin to forget about bills and concentrate on results; which were quick in coming. He achieved the following: in 2006, 2007 and 2008 he was Number 1 in the world in mini class, in 2007 he finished 9th in the Transat 6.50 (transatlantic solo yacht race), and in 2008 he won the Les Sables – Azores – Les Sables race competing in a standard class boat against prototypes which are faster. He was also awarded “Yachtsman of the Year” by Sea Sail Surf website. In 2009 he won the Transat 6.50.
There is sea and sea
To be a yachtsman at this level it is taken as read that you like solitude. Francisco has learned to love this side of his profession. “When the sea is calm, you can look around. There a lot of peace, no noise, you are not bombarded with information, there’s time to think about life, about your goals.” But not everything is plain sailing, and the other side of the coin is tiredness. “You have to be constantly aware of how the boat is performing. In a transatlantic race you can sleep a little, but in the Solitaire du Figaro, for example, where the pace is more intense, time is precious and, as the boats sail very close to each other, you have to be always on the lookout to avoid collisions and lose precious seconds.
Managing your drowsiness is really difficult, sometimes you get hallucinations.” In a race, Francisco not only goes without sleep, he also goes without food because it comes dehydrated in packets: “After a while, I can’t bear to look at it. I miss home cooking so much at sea”. When he is in cruise mode, his galley is basically a kettle and a saucepan for boiling water. “The first few days you can still have some fresh food, fruit and bread. But anything else is just unnecessary weight which loses you precious seconds in the race.” Francisco is no stranger to sacrifice. He soon learnt that to get on in his field, he had to make concessions. “I had to learn to discipline myself and make the best use of time, balancing his studies with sailing. Going out with friends at night was a rare and sober event, in order not to jeopardize the physical fitness he had gained in training.”
On-board diary
Francisco probably wouldn’t mind if his voyages were a little like one of La Fontaine’s fables, where animals speak non-stop. “The biggest distractions during a race are the dolphins, whales, fish and birds that approach the boat. Music also helps. Otherwise, as I’m sailing and always doing repairs, there’s little time left over. I can’t even read.”
There are some days that are more like action films than fables. Sailing can be a risky business and being solo only doubles those risks. He got his share of it when in the 2007 Transat his boat overturned in the Bay of Biscay. “I went into survival mode, conditions were extreme and I was just focusing on reaching the line. The wind was gusting at 120 km/h and the waves were about ten metres high. I fell into the sea and lost control of the situation. Luckily a wave turned the boat upright again. A helicopter arrived, but I knew if I abandoned my boat I would lose her as well as the race. I spent the night bailing out and turned the situation around.” At times like this, his conviction hardens: “I have a lot of respect for the sea; it’s something you can never underestimate”.
With no other Portuguese in this event, Francisco had to look elsewhere for inspiration. “I have read a lot about the first lone sailors over the last 200 years and all of them are role models. But there are two that stand out: Frenchman Michael Desjoyeaux and Englishwoman Ellen MacArthur. She is very young and has an impressive list of honours. He has achieved some amazing victories over the years – the only yachtsman who has won the round-the-world Vendée Globe more than once”.
At the moment his attentions are on the Figaro Bénetéau class for the Solitaire du Figaro race (see inset) which he entered for the first time in August, with the new ROFF/Tempo-Team yacht– a 10.15 metre monohull, weighing 3,050 kg and with a sail area of between 66 and 121 square metres.
On the horizon is the Vendée Globe, which is for solo sailing what Everest is for mountaineering. Before that he has other mountains to climb, which is why Francisco Lobato’s story does not end here. The words of a Jorge Palma song come to mind: “While there are winds and sea, we won’t give up”.
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by Maria Ventura
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