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the look and feel of the race stopovers. The 2020/21 race plans are of far more interest. Mark has a good understanding of the history of the Volvo Ocean Race and has witnessed first hand what works and doesn’t work in the French offshore scene. He will need to balance the modern commercial demands with the historical DNA of the Volvo Ocean Race. This is what makes the event stand out from nearly all other sailing events.
I am sure there will be much discussion about what a new Volvo raceboat may look like. Should it be a foiling monohull? Should it be a multihull? Should crew numbers go down further, making the Volvo more of a shorthanded event rather than a fully crewed offshore race? How one-design should we go?
My own view is that if the budgets and reliability are going to be kept in check you need to make large parts of the equation one-design (for economies of scale as much as anything) but you also need to leave some room for innovation.
The question is: how do you open up certain areas without opening a Pandora’s
box of cost escalation and the richest teams dominating? How do you get innovation and maintain cost control? Whatever area you leave open will be where the money is spent – just look at the investment by current America’s Cup teams into the handful of ‘open’ areas left in the AC rule. In my mind Knut’s radical action for the 2014/15 race certainly saved it and, most importantly, he has served the needs of Volvo as the owner of the race well; with- out that there might be no next race. But the time is now right for some new ideas. Sailing and especially offshore sailing will always be a hard sell in the boardroom when it comes up against mainstream sports. I hope that with Mark’s guidance the race will once again be able to capture the heart, mind and spirit of the event as well as of the decision makers who have the power to fund teams. Commercial value and ‘return on invest- ment’ are hugely important, but it appears that alone they have not been enough to grow the Volvo Ocean Race back to the scale that such a rich history deserves. q
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IALING!
SEAHORSE 37
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