the gym programme, it might be nutrition, it could be tactics, sails or whatever. By hiring some of the guys we chose we managed to cherry-pick some of the best ideas in the teams from the last race. SH: You were one of the earliest teams to get going this time. How long do you think your ‘early mover’ advantage will last? IW: I guess it depends how efficient the other teams are at learning. It’s not always as easy to learn from the race as it is in training. I don’t think the edge is very significant in the first place. You just had to watch the first week of this race to see that, and I am not sure where the edge is really. I just get the feeling if you are confident in your numbers all the time you have a reference to what you should be doing. You might not see it in any big area but it is just for that consistency 24 hours a day, seven days a week in different conditions. We’re still learn- ing, I think. The first stage was mostly light and mainly downwind, so it was not that representative of the race as a whole. SH: The last race was a tough one for you personally. If you knew that the next race was going to be as tough as the previous one, would you have gone back? IW: I am a big supporter of one-design. I was the only skipper to support it when it was first put forward. I am not sure I would put myself through the old rule again unless I had the biggest budget and I started first and I knew I was going to have the fastest boat… Doing this race without getting the design and build right, it’s pretty hard work. It’s OK to do it once or maybe even twice because that is part of learning. But I am not sure I’d want to put myself through it again. Actually it’s irrelevant... if they hadn’t gone one- design there wouldn’t be a race anyway. So it is a moot point. SH: So you are the only skipper who wanted it, but my impression now is that no one is really looking backwards. Is anybody still going to talk about the ‘good old days’ when you could design and build your own boat? IW: I think the sailors miss it in many ways because they are the ones who have to sail the boats. But I reckon for anyone who is involved in raising money and putting their teams together and the economic realities of it – they’re not looking back at all! I’m not just happy [about one-design] because we won the first leg, I think it had to happen. And there are still ways we can change things for the better.
But one thing we do have is good racing. I haven’t had good racing in the Volvo before, because I was too far out of it. Now there was some good racing between the Juan K boats and Camper did a good job. People seem to forget that there were some very close finishes and fantastic racing before. But we weren’t involved in it other than the one finish into Lisbon. SH: What needs to change for the next edition? IW: I think the organisers have been very bold with what they have done and I think it needs to be applauded. If they hadn’t really grasped it and gone one-design and taken on a really huge financial and logistical commitment then it wouldn’t have happened. I think the real question is how much do you want the organisers to do, and how much do you want the teams to do? Do we need the boat- yard? Do we need central services? Who controls the rule? Who controls the class? What do we do with the boats between races? I think there is a whole bunch of stuff that needs to be looked at very carefully. There is a broad discussion to be had about whether the sailors are having enough input into what is happen- ing and how commercial the race has become. Certainly, talking to some of the guys they feel that it has gone too commercial and generally too far that way.
It’s a lot of strain to put on the sailors, trying to do pro-am racing, in-port racing and then go offshore the next day while doing other commitments and getting your boat sorted, all with fewer people. It’s draining – but if that’s what has to happen to raise the money to have the race, then it has to happen. Hopefully at the end of the race they will sit down and listen to some of the experienced guys and team leaders and they will move it forward in the right way. SH: How many more Volvo Ocean Races do you have in you? IW: I don’t know – let’s get this out of the way first. I figure if I win it I won’t need to do it again. And if I don’t win it nobody will ask me to do it again!
Ian Walker was talking to Andy Rice
KNACKERED – Terry Hutchinson
Sitting in Palm Beach trying to recover from the Melges 32 world championship. Body is sore from roughly 34 miles of hiking upwind, to which of course you get the matching ride downwind. I can also tell this was the last event of the year as the gas tank is empty!!! The past month started in Oman and the final event of the RC44 season. Onboard Vladimir Prosikhin’s Nikawe felt poised for a good event. Not sure why I felt we were due except when you show up and start training sometimes you can just tell. The first hint came in the match racing as we went 3-3 on the day and yet Vladimir and the boys were sailing well. Smooth, consistent, focused – which just made you think that if we don’t do anything out of the ordinary, just steady and consistent, we may have a chance.
Racing in Oman is spectacular. The country and people are very friendly and welcoming. Oman Sail has started a programme introducing youngsters to sailing and the country has genuinely embraced our sport. Conditions were light and relatively steady. Teams raced the entire event with the overlapping genoas, which is one of the great features of the RC44. Even when it’s light, with this much sail the boats go pretty well! As I said, we started out with a good feel. Onboard Nikawe had a wire-to-wire win, Vladimir’s and Team Nika’s first in over four years of attempts. That was without question the most rewarding part of the week! The team hammered it all week. In Cascais we’d coughed up a 4pt lead going into the last race. We learned from that and this time we raced all the way through, nothing conserv- ative, just full hammer all the time. This, coupled with a really nice new mainsail designed by Quantum designer Brett Jones, set Nika’s boatspeed as the standard for the week. From Oman it was on to Miami for the Melges 32 worlds. As I said, pretty much every part of my body hurts! The beauty of the 32 is the harder you hike the faster you go so a pretty simple formula. Hike!
Like most 2014 events this would be a war of attrition. The competition was very good and consistent sailing would be hard to come by over 10 races. Conditions were 12-25kt for the first three days out of the ENE. For anybody who has sailed outside Miami Beach you know that this means lumpy gravy… 4-8ft waves outside Government Cut and each day was ‘on’ the moment you left the dock.
Onboard Alessandro Rombelli’s Stigwe had a mixed bag. We are relatively new as a team and, well, my Italian is none too flash so in many aspects consistency was just hard to come by. The amazing thing about these events is the measure between winning and losing is quite small and yet the margin between Stigand winner Jason Carroll’s Argowas really big! Collectively in tough times you could see Argo’s teamwork shine. After seven races on the Stigwe were winning the event by 1pt and yet we finished with a 12, 12, 8… ouch! But it highlighted weaknesses in our game and things to improve upon. Painful, yes –we just have to work on getting better. Over the five days Anderson Reggio ran a spectacular event that
Paul Winkelmann’s new Judel-Vrolijk HH42 Island Fling scored well on its racing debut at the Raja Muda Selangor International Regatta, taking the overall win in the distance race to Langkawi
SEAHORSE 9
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