It’s the finale of The Ocean Race in Genoa and we’re wrapping up with our final interviews for the official film on Discovery+.

We’ve had the warmest of welcomes into this world, met a lot of great people and been given unrivalled access for filming by all the crews involved.

Along with director Rob Bevan, we’re shooting the first in-house 4k feature for Discovery+. Capturing the sailors stories over six months as they traverse their Imoca sailing boats around the world in one of the most dramatic competitions the race has ever staged. Five onboard camera crews have lived with the teams and seen everything across the Atlantic, the Southern, the Pacific and the Mediterranean Oceans. We picked up the stories in Alicante, Cape Verde, Cape Town, Itajai, Newport, Aarhus, The Hague and the conclusion in Genoa.

We’ve found the sailors to be really interesting humble people with really varied backgrounds, one stated that over confidence is a dangerous thing in off-shore sailing and that rings true throughout. As an onlooker I can see how similarities in these characters with those in other dangerous sports that I’ve worked on. Though different in many ways there is a connection in the humility witnessed here with a lot of the motorbike racers I’ve worked with. When there is a risk of death or serious injury in what you do maybe it keeps life in perspective.

During the race this group of people onboard these boats will be removed from civilisation for long periods of time and go though extreme hardship to compete. As a reward they will see parts of the world that not many will ever see. This race for me harks back to the great days of exploring and an evolutionary trait in us to test ourselves and find out what’s over the horizon.