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on to get us funded and secured in the race, then will shift to where my talents really lie, which is running the sailing team. SH: What were the important things to do quickly? DW: Get the endorsement of the sailing federation here in Hong Kong, not just for government funding but also to highlight what we are doing in the community. Getting this support has set in place a strong relationship for us to deal with all the logistics involved with a stopover. Hong Kong is a fantastic place for this but clearly there are challenges – I think there are five times more boats here than moorings, and we learned with the 100ft Ragamuffinhow big a challenge that can be.
I have been living here since December 2015, I went back to
Sydney for the Hobart and 18-footer worlds, but I have to be on the ground here in Hong Kong to have the credibility to make this work. SH: Communication with Volvo during the CEO transition… DW: It’s interesting that while all of this is going on I haven’t had
somewhere in between those models. I raced with Steve Hayles years ago and more recently in the 2015 Hobart on Ragamuffin, where we got second behind Comanche.
A-sails and downwind angles will hold no fears for Dave Witt – seen here working at the day job – once he gets his hands on a VO65 as skipper of the Hong Kong entry in the next Volvo Race. Note too the elegant masthead transition into the gennaker luff
a chance to sit down with Mark Turner yet, as a result of the gap from Knut moving on and Mark taking on the role. And the race is not far away, so I’m sure I’m one of many people to be sitting down with Mark later this month. This is why I elected to go with the 50-50 funding model, because if I am going into a boardroom to talk a significant sum from a ‘support sponsor’, that is not a sponsorship that needs to be fulfilled over 11 stopovers. One of these supporters will have interest in, say, three stopovers, and so you can share that effort around; but when you are asking for a cheque for €8million, then every single component of that sponsorship at every single stopover needs to be ticked. SH: First people in your mind to contact? DW:Crew-wise Matt Humphries, Luke Parkinson and Steve Hayles. This would be the core experience onboard. I got Luke his start in the last race, through Ian Walker who sailed with me on the Hong Kong-Vietnam race to look at Parko – and he liked what he saw. I’ve known Luke since he was 17, so it’s great to see his devel- opment up through the VOR and AC and now with Artemis. SH: Was the key question of which navigator to pick simple? DW:It all depends on how you run a VOR campaign. With someone like Andrew Cape on Brunel, I have sailed with him and he is a pretty autonomous navigator, then there is the Ian Walker and Simon Fisher set-up, who share the role. I have positioned myself
20 SEAHORSE
I found Hayles outstanding, a really good guy to work with. He will listen to you but he won’t accept what you say if you’re wrong, and I think that is the balance you need. I’d say my weather routeing skills are not at the level of Steve’s, so I think I should focus my time on where it is more important, plus Matt Humphries has navigated before, so the talent and knowledge base is onboard. SH: Lessons from the last race… DW:One of the big lessons was the sail programme and managing wear and tear. Ian Walker on Abu Dhabi turned the boat downwind to furl sails throughout that race, in contrast to the Dongfeng guys who pushed their sails really hard in the expectation they would hold together; the reality is either of those campaigns could have won the race – if the Dongfeng rig had stayed up it could have been very close. So the sails held up really well in the last VOR and you would expect the sail programme to evolve and improve next time. SH: Speaking to Nick Bice in the VOR loft, his observation was the Abu Dhabi wardrobe stayed in much better condition than other teams’. Walker’s crew also elected not to drag sails over the non-skid deck but always lift them. Nice attention to detail. DW: One key lesson doesn’t change really – to win any big race it’s all about the blokes. But not the ability of the blokes, it’s the chemistry and gel of the team. Ian [Walker] will tell you that was a massive asset in winning the last race; after the funding that is the biggest challenge. SH: Understanding that, what is your training and timeline? DW:Like anything it comes down to funding, the quicker that is signed the more time you have, but importantly you have to be a good judge of character here. I think if you are on your game you should be able to sit down for a chat and a coffee with a bloke, then have a beer with him in the evening and by then you will know exactly what type of character he is and if he has a good chance of fitting in or not. I think too often people in a skipper or CEO role look at a sailor’s CV or pedigree and forget about the bloke, and I think if Ian was honest, he would say what he did with his winning VOR campaign last time was focus on personalities more than CVs. I reckon if you had 100 blokes trying out you could strike a red pen through 50 of them straight away, which saves a huge amount of time. Plus I have four core guys anyway. We’ll also have Chinese crew – there is a very interesting junior sailor we are looking at. If that works out we will have an excellent blend. SH: And lessons from Dongfeng, where none of the Chinese crew spoke any English when they joined the team? DW:The biggest thing I took away from Dongfeng was how they ran the team onboard. A lot of people thought they’d struggle – and just look where they ended up. My take is the Chinese guys had their roles, the French guys had theirs and nobody tried to do anyone else’s job. That’s the key on any 100ft Maxi: when you have 20 blokes and suddenly a bloke in the middle starts telling you where to point the boat – he’s obviously not focusing on his job, is he? People management is vital, which comes back to selection. Something like the America’s Cup is different as it’s a day race, so they step off at the end of the day and have a moan if they want to. You go to a Maxi Worlds or to St Tropez and look at crews who step ashore and immediately spilt into factions to socialise; on Rags20 guys got off the boat and socialised together. And that type of mentality is very important to foster in this race. SH: How soon can you sniff out if an individual will fit in? DW: (Pause) A day. Or if I’m slow, two days. Certainly a day and a night offshore. It is fascinating that once you create an environment that works well for the boat and the team, a misfit can be spotted in five minutes. It’s the same in a rugby team, but offshore racing is unique as you don’t get to go home… SH: Expectations? DW:I will have a budget to win, but our primary aim is to make sure we have a team that does a good job for Hong Kong. Blue Robinson
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