\n The 35-year-old, who lives in France but calls Falmouth home, is representing Team Biotherm in the 4,500-nautical mile multi-stage offshore race which began in Kiel this week and ends in Montenegro on September 20.\n<\/p>\n
\n The opening leg of the contest docks in Portsmouth on August 14, with the race departing from the Royal Yacht Squadron for leg two three days later.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI\u2019m definitely excited,\u201d said Goodchild, who is joined in the boat by skipper Paul Meilhat, co-skipper Amelie Grassi, Jack Bouttell and Gauthier Le Boc.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI have spent a lot of my racing life in France, as that is where the offshore racing world is based, but bringing these really cool boats which we sail around the world into Portsmouth is really exciting.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI will catch up with some old faces and show them what we do, so I\u2019m really looking forward to it and I am hoping there will be a good turnout!\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Sam Goodchild will race in The Ocean Race Europe with Team Biotherm (Image: The Ocean Race Europe) Goodchild is one of seven Brits competing in the race this year but there are no UK-based teams, something he hopes can soon change.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI enjoy France but I live out there for work,\u201d he said. \u201cI have been over there for the last 10 years for sailing. \u201cI come back regularly and I still consider the UK home but being over there helps my career the most.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIf we can have more interest in sailing, more people sailing and more British sailors on the start line, that is definitely the direction I want it to go in.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Goodchild was part of the crew who finished second in The Ocean Race two years ago, a worldwide event.\n<\/p>\n
\n He feels he learned plenty from that experience as he targets success this time around. \u201cTwo years ago, it was my first time sailing those sorts of boats so it was a learning curve,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe race lasted six months as opposed to six weeks so it was a bit more of an endurance. \u201cThis time, I have been racing in these sorts of boats for the last three or four years non-stop, which changes the whole scenario, so I am looking forward to the challenge.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cOf the seven crews here, they all have good sailors on and the level of competition will be very high, which is what we are looking for.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Sustainability is one of the key aspects of The Ocean Race Europe and it is also a topic close to the heart of Goodchild, who is aware of the impact taking part in a sport he loves can have on the climate.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe whole team makes an effort as to what we can do to reduce our impact,\u201d he said. \u201cWe travel around Europe, which isn\u2019t great, but we try and do it by train, which takes a bit longer but it is nicer and more interesting.\n<\/p>\n
\n “In partnership with the Tara Foundation, we have also installed a microscope on board to capture microplankton for use by scientists (Eco Taxa Database), who then use and analyse the data.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt is a big part of our sport at the moment, what we can do to reduce our impact, so we all have to do our bit.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Seven international teams, seven stopovers, 4,500 nautical miles, racing for the ocean. The Ocean Race Europe comes to Portsmouth 14 – 17 August – the city where the race first began in 1973 as the Whitbread Round the World Race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 35-year-old, who lives in France but calls Falmouth home, is representing Team Biotherm in the 4,500-nautical mile…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187],"class_list":{"0":"post-338954","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}