fatipa: teamellen website, challenge, whingeing

tcm

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In another thread, fatipa says that if being depressed or whatver is ellens way of dealing weith the challenge, then fair enough, That might actually be the very way to do it - whereas as the constatnt being cheerful gets you nowhere. At least, it's an issue of whatever wortks for her. The same applies to grunting tennis players or repulsively-overconfident pre-fight boxers.

ok fair enough. The grunting tennis players or pugilistic boxers - that's their mood, right? And in the same way, for elllen, her mood might indeed be somewhat depressed/moaning/whatever as a way of dealing with it or whatever, no prob.

BUT tennis players and boxers don't actually write emails including grunts and/or explosive punches at the computer or TV. Not very much anyway, and not ususally on live tv.

In other words - the ellen emails are uncontrolled insofar as they are unedited. Am i the only one who was surprised at this?

Ellen may be a great sailor, even the greatest - but the same need not apply to her text, need it? Or atleast, not insofar as each one contributes towards the l;arger story of the challenge. Her emails are in no small part representative of the entire challenge, and reflect upon the sponsors. Normally a sponsored event (foopball, cricket, anything) is presented by professional presenters, editors the lot. They don't just "mike up" Roy so he can mutter his way through a match "i think i'll bashim again now!" and put that on the telly for 90 minutes, or a whole season.

I think ellens own thoughts should have been sub-edited - or sub-edited with more skill. The same applied to Preecies comments on the last (crewed) attempt, even worse at wrting from the v stressful position of being on a rtw boat.

Simply hoicking her emails straight on to website is inept (and oputting his up was inept in the extreme!) It's ok for one interview with a boxer("i'm gonna killim!") , but you wouldn't give him 20 minutes every day for 3 months - which is what we're getting here. A website text team should manage that process. Or a better team - perhaps one that doesn't try to express mast heights in multiples of step ladders or boat displacement in terms of bags of sharp sand.

They seem to be managing the whole reporting issue much better on the vendee globe. Perhaps that's because they use real journos (who sail) , not keenie sailors (who write a bit)? Dunno

For eveyone's sake (mainly ellens image which is a valuable issue for her and many others) the emails ahould be incorporated, quoted and cut. Time after time the website asks "what sail plan have you got" and the answer is " two reefs and a storm jib, but i'm really tired and stressed $$$ i don't think i've got the energy to etc etc" which isn't good for the challenge, for ellen, the sponsors, or anyone.

None of this denigrates the challenge - just the background. If I were the sponsor I'd have stepped in only on this issue, and i'm surprised that they have not - it's not an issue of the way in which the challenge is run but the way in which it is presented.
 

Ships_Cat

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Agree completely with what you say. I unbookmarked her site very early on as I found it so tedious and have not been back since.

If I was a sponsor I believe I would be complaining about the image presented too.

John
 

BlueSkyNick

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I think it is their attempt to demonstrate the magnitude of the challenge, ie how gruelling, knackering, etc,. By publicising all this, it makes it look like a far greater achievement than if she says its fantastic, a leisure cruise, don't wanna come home type of bollox. Then she gets more credit, gongs, TV interviews etc.

Not saying they are right, though, just trying to give an explanation.
 

PeterStone

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I think it's the sponsors, or at least the people manning her website who are the prime culprits here - hence my tongue in cheek post the other day invoking your er good name. They have set such a ridiculous over the top tone to reporting on every nuance of her mental and physical state. In that sense I agree with you.

The difference between the Vendee Globe website and Ellen's is that the Vendee Globe is directed at sailors. Ellen's is purely a marketing exercise for the public - sailors or not - many of whom would be forgiven for thinking Ellen is the first woman ever to have set foot on a boat.

I think Ellen is to be congratulated on her honesty and I doubt very much that she is using her suffering to gain sympathy but I'm not so sure about the rest of the 'team'. They take every opportunity to exaggerate her suffering, it seems to me, and I think it has backfired judging by the number of critical posts it has encouraged.

Funnily enough, I have started to re read Adrian Hayter's account of his first ocean voyage in Sheila and his comments pretty much mirror Ellen's - and much of his whingeing he later realised was entirely due to exhaustion.
 

l'escargot

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I think putting the e mails up "raw" gives a good feeling of what she is going through and a greater understanding of the challenge. I think everything gets sanitised too much these days to let everyone stay in their little comfort zones.

Anyone who wants a more upbeat condensed version of events can just go to one of the news sites.
 

cameronke

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Disagree!

I want to see inside the head of such a driven dedicated person. I want to feel the highs and lows. I have said before how boring it would be reading "lovely day, gentle breeze, sailing along nicely".

I could never do what she is doing but it is good to get a raw insight into how she is feeling. I reckon that after what she has been through she has every right to be a little on edge, highly strung or downright low


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WayneS

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What tells you more about what is going on?

1

No wind. Boat rocking about. Frustrated.

2

No ****** wind. Alarms going off. Done so many sail changes that my body is broken. MP3 player has become a casualty of my frustration......


We have all been tired and frustrated, but I'm sure that none of us have been through what she has for the last two months.

I think that the reporting is great and helps us all to know exactly what she is going through. Enough of this stiff upper lip crap that we are all suppose to conform to.

W
 

Magic_Sailor

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I disagree.

I could be wrong but I'd've thought that you'd be the first to bemoan spin, in say politics (where it's enough to make you puke!)

Therefore to edit (read spin) her emails would be wrong.

I'm fed up with spin everywhere - always putting the best gloss on things.

Magic
 

PeterStone

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Yes, agreed, all her emails should remain intact. She has undoubtedly driven herself to the limit day after day. Which among us has ever done that? Who are we to know what behaviour becomes normal in those circumstances?

We know that Mike Golding will have been through similar. He doesn't appear to have complained in the same way but it is inculcated in men from an early age to be stoic - stiff upper lip and all that. He may well have suffered just as much and, considering his disappointments, possibly more.
 

Ships_Cat

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You are assuming that Ellen is not into spin herself when she writes her emails, are you not? I am not saying she is, but you are assuming that she isn't (unless you have inside information, of course).

John
 

tcm

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spin

um, i though spin was saying exactly what wasn't there. Eg my son once said "it got a perfect score - an A in every exam! ....apart from one in which i got a b and two in which i got a C". Now, that first statement is indeed spin - a cosy way of describing "lying".

But it's a long way from what i was suggesting - subediting or holding or chucking away some parts of her emails - before we would get to "spin". Spin would indeed be saying yes all fab she's happy happy happy, and using only thos parts of the emails to support that.

I simply suggesting that they don't publish every single bit of verbiage that she writes whilst exhausted and knackered and put it on right up there front and centre on the website. This isn 't to sy frexample that a full diary might not be available at another time, or by um perhaps by special subsricption - in other words readers would then be able to recognise that they were getting a backstage pass to the blood and guts of those emails. Just made this bit up, not sure.
 

benjenbav

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None of this is surprising. It's a product of the availability of information. For example: In the Falklands War Michael Buerke stood up and said "I counted them all out and I counted them all back in again" a soundbite that lasted for a generation and was broadcast on a news report that was edited to fit in the 25 minute slot that the BBC had for news. In Iraq there was 24 hour rolling news so we had, "I'm standing in a desert, there's gunfire in the distance. There goes a shell....and another one. Here amid the sands we journos don't know what's going on so we are just interviewing each other. Oh there's another shell..."

We all need to take comfort from the fact that Ellen's thoughts will be distilled through a pro-writer and they will be available in all good bookshops in time for Christmas.
 

Otto

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The point is that while she is a brilliant sailor, articulation isn't her strong point and it doesn't have to be since she is not trying to make a living from writing. The disservice that the web site does for her is that it makes her come across as a whining boor who can't cope with the situation she has put herself into and frankly, Joe Public who does not sail and to whom she is trying to appeal finds that rather off-putting.
 

Magic_Sailor

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I don\'t think so

Saying the opposite of what has actually happened is called a lie.

I see spin as "editing the truth" to put your particular gloss on it. Leave out the bits which don't look so good etc.

Magic
 

Rowana

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I can\'t be bothered

Since this type of sailing, including the vendee, is so far removed from the gentle pottering that I enjoy, I just can't be bothered logging into these websites or keeping up with all the hype.

Good for her if she makes it, comeserations if she doesn't, but it won't make a blind bit of difference to me either way. Sorry
 

l'escargot

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[ QUOTE ]
... who can't cope with the situation she has put herself into ...

[/ QUOTE ]
I think she is coping and she is doing it the way most of us do - by moaning.

They say that the problems start when everyone stops complaining - it usually means that they have given up.
 
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I'd rather read about what she's thinking in her own words rather than it being edited by some "let's put a happy face on events" spin doctor.

There is way to much spin and forced joviality nowadays, so what if she's feeling miserable it only demonstrates that she's human.
 
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