Jessica Watson talks to Helen Fretter about what her round the world journey was really like and how accurate the Netflix film True Spirit isIn the late Noughties and early 2010s, sailing garnered astonishing levels of attention due to a series of teenagers bidding to become the youngest sailor to sail around the world. One of the most high profile was Jessica Watson, who set off from Sydney in 2009 aged 16, and completed her loop of Antarctica \u2013 and a dip north across the Equator in the Pacific \u2013 to return an all-Australian hero after 210 days at sea.
\nIt was a remarkable story, much of which was told in real time in Watson\u2019s blog and video diaries. Thirteen years on, Netflix has made a feature-length sailing film based on her voyage, called True Spirit. Following the film\u2019s release in the UK, we spoke to Watson about the experience.
\nTrue Spirit is available to watch on Netflix worldwide
\nJessica Watson in the spotlight
\nIn the film version of True Spirit viewers are introduced to the teenage Jessica Watson aboard her S&S 34 Ella\u2019s Pink Lady on a trial solo sail, when a violent collision with a 63,000 tonne cargo ship off Queensland leaves the yacht dismasted, and both Watson and her family ashore shaken.
\nIt\u2019s the same opening scene Watson begins her autobiography with, and it\u2019s as shocking to watch as it is to read her written account: \u201cI grabbed at the tiller, flicked off the autopilot and tried to steer us. It was hopeless.
\n\u201cThere was nowhere to go, nothing I could do. Shuddering and screeching, we were being swept down the ship\u2019s hull. A glance told me that the ship\u2019s stern, with its bridges protruding, was fast approaching. The noises were getting louder and, knowing that the mast and rigging were about to come down, I rushed back below hoping for some protection.
\n\u201cThe cupboard next to me ripped apart as the chainplate behind the bulkhead splintered it into a million pieces. The boat heeled to one side then suddenly sprung upright with the loudest explosion yet as the entangled rigging suddenly freed itself and crashed to the deck.\u201d
\nWhile the collision would be a terrifying experience for anyone to go through, let alone a teenager on their own, the film highlights how the media storm that met her ashore was even more intimidating. Many commentators questioned the judgement of Watson\u2019s parents, an additional pressure which the film captures neatly.
\nWatson, now 30, admits that the prospect of being the centre of attention once again with the film\u2019s launch didn\u2019t entirely fill her with joy. \u201cI certainly went into this with mixed emotions. I enjoy my life, I like not being recognised very often, and so there was a bit of trepidation. But at the same time, I\u2019m just so grateful and hopefully this is good for sailing.\u201d
\nAn ethical dilemma
\nThe teen solo sailor trend was a remarkable phenomenon. Australian Jesse Martin was one of the earliest, when he completed a non-stop, unassisted solo around the world voyage to and from Melbourne in 1999 aged 18. Martin recounted the trip in his S&S 34 Lionheart, also the title of his book, which was a major influence and source of inspiration for Watson.
\nWith increasing unease and debate on the ethics of encouraging young teens to take on such potentially dangerous challenges, both within the sport of sailing and across newspaper columns and chat-show sofas around the world, the World Sailing Speed Record Council discontinued recognition of its \u2018youngest\u2019 sailor category. Martin has since remained the perpetual record holder, despite the flurry of much younger skippers which followed.
\nJessica Watson (right) with actor Teagan Croft who played her in the film adaptation. Photo: Everett Collection Inc\/Alamy
\nMuch of the debate ignored the fact that the teenagers were often extraordinarily experienced yachtsmen from remarkable families. Certainly that was the case for Dutch sailor Laura Dekker, as well as American brother and sister Zac and Abby Sunderland, who both attempted circumnavigations (Zac successfully, Abby\u2019s Open 40 was dismasted).
\nJessica Watson also had a fairly nomadic childhood with years spent living on boats or converted buses. Ironically, her father had a television hire company but the Watson family never owned one, as she recalled in her autobiography: \u201cI think Dad saw how dependent people became on them and how they restricted the lives of their owners \u2013 keeping them inside and inactive \u2013 and he decided he didn\u2019t ever want to be like that.\u201d
\nThe Watson family\u2019s unconventionality gets a little lost in the film, so keen were directors and scriptwriters to make them relatable, and show the toll Jessica\u2019s attempt took as an emotional undercurrent tugging throughout the film. For Jessica herself, however, the family storyline was a powerful one to watch.
\n\u201cSeeing the emotional experience that [my family] went through is pretty intense. I think I\u2019ve appreciated it better in the years since, particularly when other sailors I knew have been in trouble at sea and I\u2019ve had to sit on shore. It\u2019s far worse waiting for news, I would rather be out there in the thick of it. So it is really a reminder of the one extraordinary thing they did by reluctantly letting me go.\u201d
\nOther figures who had a huge part in Watson\u2019s story \u2013 including Golden Globe Race organiser Don McIntyre, who secured her S&S 34 \u2013 are blended into one single character who becomes her mentor, shore team, and sounding board.
\nSome scenes in True Spirit have been dramatised. Photo: Everett Collection Inc\/Alamy
\nHow close to reality is True Spirit film?
\nWhile it\u2019s gratifying to see sailing in a mainstream family film, sailing hasn\u2019t always succeeded on the silver screen and there are elements of True Spirit which will rankle. It\u2019s something Jessica Watson is well aware of.
\n\u201cOf course, as sailors there\u2019s parts of the movie which will be a little bit maddening for us.
\n\u201cI was never relaxed about the details. I always wanted the details to be right where possible. So I have mixed feelings [about some of it]. But there\u2019s so much I love about it too, that it showcases how beautiful it is, how special it is [to be at sea], and there\u2019s nothing better than a little S&S sailing along for me.
\nScene from the Netflix film of Watson\u2019s solo circumnavigation. Photo: Images: Everett Collection Inc\/Alamy
\n\u201cIt was a case of spending a lot of time with the director and the cast, talking about the inspiration behind it and helping them understand that world. And then I had to step away when it came to shooting some of the details and left them to do that.\u201d
\nThere is one scene \u2013 a knockdown which Watson did experience in real life \u2013 that involves a degree of suspension of disbelief. \u201cThat massive wave did happen in the Atlantic, but it probably didn\u2019t happen quite that dramatically,\u201d Watson says. \u201cThough they did capture the essence of the feeling that time does stand still when you\u2019re upside down in a knockdown.\u201d
\nWatson arriving back in Sydney Harbour to a hero\u2019s welcome in 2010. Photo: Reuters\/Alamy
\nThere are other moments where dramatic licence takes over, including one where Watson is nearly swept overboard through the lifelines. The reality was rather more boring. \u201cI had a furling headsail and then a staysail on an inner forestay, where the storm jib went as well. That all worked incredibly well. As the weather picked up, I was able to just furl the headsail away and have the storm sail ready to go,\u201d she explains, \u201cSomething I\u2019m quite proud of is I that I never went on the foredeck \u2013 in fact I never left the cockpit \u2013 in over 30 knots of wind.
\n\u201cSure, I maybe sacrificed a little bit of speed, but that was part of the really conservative way that I was sailing. I could put my fourth reef in from the cockpit, but very often approaching really bad conditions I\u2019d have the mainsail stitched and away.\u201d
\nUnsurprisingly there\u2019s little in the movie to show more mundane tasks, such as waiting for GRIB files to download. In fact, Jessica Watson was very well supported for weather routing by New Zealand meteorologist Bob McDavitt, who sent multiple daily updates which Watson would overlay with her own weather charts.
\nJessica Watson and Ella\u2019s Pink Lady cross the finish line for her unassisted solo circumnavigation. Photo: Christophe Launay\/DPPI Media\/Alamy
\nWhile routing has always been accepted for solo record attempts, with no official governing body to answer to, the question of what counted as \u2018unassisted\u2019 for youth sailors was open to interpretation. In 2007 British teenager Michael Perham became the youngest person to solo sail across the Atlantic aged just 14, while his father shadowed him sailing in a separate yacht.
\nFor Watson, there was controversy whether her 23,000-mile route ventured far enough north of the Equator to count as a true around-the-world. \u201cIt certainly doesn\u2019t worry me,\u201d says Watson. \u201cThe biggest thing for me is that there\u2019s no official record, as none of the bodies recognise the youngest records, which is perfectly understandable. So I don\u2019t understand how there can be a debate about whether or not you comply with a rule that doesn\u2019t exist.
\n\u201cThe route I took, chosen with my team, was about making it as safe as possible. It put me in the right oceans at the right times, and it did the things that are generally recognised as sailing around the world. I\u2019m very at peace with that.\u201d
\nScene from the Netflix film of Watson\u2019s solo circumnavigation. Photo: Images: Everett Collection Inc\/Alamy
\nThe next Jessica Watson?
\nWhile Watson was inspired by reading about Jesse Martin\u2019s adventures, would she welcome new young sailors inspired to tackle a circumnavigation after watching True Spirit? \u201cAbsolutely, if people are serious,\u201d she says.
\nSuch a project is, however, very reliant on having the right yacht. \u201cPeople do ask me if I would do it again, and my answer is only if the boat was exactly the same and I had the same support crew, otherwise it\u2019s a resounding \u2018No!\u2019.
\n\u201cIt was absolutely that boat and how she was set up that enabled it to be possible. Someone said almost as a criticism, \u2018lt was just the boat that got her there.\u2019 But I agree with them.
\n\u201cThe S&S 34 is just such a gorgeous little boat. There\u2019s nothing quite like the way that they sail beautifully upwind in a bit of a blow.\u201d
\nWatch True Spirit on Netflix
\nBuy True Spirit book by Jessica Watson at Amazon
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Jessica Watson talks to Helen Fretter about what her round the world journey was really like and how accurate the Netflix film True Spirit isIn the late Noughties and early 2010s, sailing garnered astonishing levels of attention due to a … <\/p>\n