Often happiest alone at sea, Mike Birch is pictured shortly before the start of the 1978 Route du Rhum by his friend Christian Février on Walter Greene’s little trimaran A Capella – later renamed Olympus Photo for the race. Very lightly built, the boat employed a simple system of aluminium struts to relieve the loads running into the fragile wood-built main hull. Note that in both photographs, although the weather is fine, Birch still wears a harness – a legacy of nearly drowning during an earlier delivery with his first wife Joséphine
In Dartmouth Mike Birch continued his
training. In August a friend called me. He was interested in this sailor who had been forgotten in France since the Ostar. He suggested that I meet him and sail with him. He gave me his telephone number. For the next two weeks I called Mike in
vain. Joséphine finally agreed to take my call. I explain that I am a racer first and foremost, that I need some photos for my magazine and to sail with him a little. A moment of silence passes. Finally, Mike accepts my request. He arranged to meet me in Dartmouth the following week. To cross the Channel and sail to Deauville, where he was to christen his boat. The day before our meeting I take the
ferry from Roscoff to Plymouth. Then the train to Dartmouth. A taxi drops me off on the platform. I call Mike. He lives in Kingswear, on the other side of the River Dart. A quarter of an hour later I see a small mahogany pram struggling against the ebb. Mike. I discover his triangular face for the first
time. With a broad forehead that reminds me of a fern. His figure is graceful, the opposite of Eric Tabarly’s ball of muscles. ‘The oak and the reed,’ as Loïck Peyron noted. Handshake. A good trip? His voice is warm. He hands me the line, which I turn on the dockside fairlead. ‘Do you want to see the boat now?’ I nod happily. Mike weaves his way through the sail-
boats anchored in the middle of the river. I discover the three bows of the buttercup yellow A Capella. A shock. I was familiar
with the little Vals of Newick. Inexpensive and efficient gulls. In comparison A Capella’s silhouette was that of a war machine. Bigger, taller, more streamlined, built
for speed. A Capella was the result of Walter’s reflections after the Ostar results. ‘Walter likes Dick’s boats but finds them a bit soft for his liking. If you want to sail upwind you need a very stiff headstay.’ A Capella’s central hull is 10.70m long
and very thin. The plastic floats are from Newick. Everything else is made of moulded wood, with a large, square box on top to form the cockpit and the cabin. The cockpit is high and well protected.
To stiffen A CapellaWalter has placed two aluminium tubes at 45° connecting the rear of the central hull to the cockpit. Rustic, rough-hewn. Walter Greene in the rough! ‘This is a great upwind boat,’ adds
Mike. ‘I can really load up the backstay. The shroud anchorages are wide apart and the loads are helped by steel bars beneath the main beam.’ A Capella had already covered 10,000 miles since her launch. Without a single piece of damage. We then went to the family cottage,
perched on the heights of the river. Joséphine had prepared a pile of pasta car- bonara. Near a window the Jester Trophy, won in the Ostar. A sort of triangle with silver, bulging sides under which Mike’s route across the Atlantic could be seen. The next morning we set off for
Deauville. The wind is light. I am surprised by the good speed of A Capella. The floats seem to me only a little weak in volume.
But it is Mike who surprises me the most. Silent, constantly adjusting and anticipat- ing. He moves like a cat. Mike is really at one with his boat. He
laughs gently at me and all the photos I take of him. ‘You’ve taken more pictures today than I have in my entire life! What on earth are you going to do with them?’ I had sailed the previous month with all
the main sailors in the new Rhum race. For various reasons none of them, apart from (Phil) Weld and (Michel) Malinovski with their huge designs, look capable of beating him. My belief in him is so strong that it will not leave me until the race starts. This man was definitely from a com-
pletely different planet! In Deauville the actor Jacques Perrin is named the god father of the boat. The wife of the director of Olympus, who came from Japan, breaks the bottle. On 3 October Daniel Perrin, who had become Mike’s agent, signed a meagre contract for 40,000 francs with the Olympus photo company. Daniel was the first to spot Birch’s talent. He was also the person who had asked me to meet Mike. In October I had to make a difficult
decision to choose the next cover of Voiles & Voiliers, of which I was art director at the time. I knew it had to be a photo of Mike onboard his boat taken during our crossing. I said nothing to my two editors, convinced that they would refuse. A totally unthinkable act today. The issue is due out on 28 November. In secret I frame the photo and compose the texts that would go on it… transferring
SEAHORSE 43
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