News Around the World
Old enough to vote… Abu Dhabi under-30 crew and accomplished 49er sailor Luke Parkinson (above) is gaining a reputation as one of the finds of the latest Volvo Ocean Race. Physically resilient, excellent at multi-tasking and a fast driver, Parkinson can expect the phone and email lines to start buzzing when he gets back to Oz after the race. And he could yet be going home as a first-time winner
AUSTRALIA Lab test
The sharp end of a Volvo 65 is not a friendly place. The designers and builders of these boats have tried to make them as safe as they can, with raised coachroofs and deeper cockpits, higher free- board plus fewer sails in an attempt to reduce fatigue, but nothing can alter the intensity of life at the extreme end of the boat – the narrow, non-skid workstation in the middle of the freezing Southern Ocean that is the foredeck.
As bowman in the Volvo Ocean Race, you need to be fit, agile and strong. And Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing’s Luke Parkinson is strong. One look and you can see the physicality of the guy, with biceps normally seen binding in an international rugby scrum, Parko has the grunt for the relentless sail changes in this round-the-world match race. What is also quickly apparent about this Australian under- 30 crew member is that he is constantly hungry… in both senses. Racing alongside Ian Walker onboard Syd Fischer’s Ragamuffin in the Sydney Hobart then Hong Kong-Vietnam race, Walker saw the determination in Parko’s every move, what Dennis Conner used to call ‘the commitment to the commitment’. It was then a logical call for Walker to include Parko in the team on Azzam: ‘Luke has fantastic helming skills coming from a 49er background, plus a real love for ocean racing. He adds youth, fitness and strength among all us old geezers and nothing is too much trouble. If it can potentially make the boat go faster, he will do it, it doesn’t matter what it is. Luke has come a long way and we don’t regard him as an under-30. But I am the first to admit we are a little protective of him as well!’ With the commitment come the calories, and Parko eats every scrap of food given to him then comes back for more, which is how he got his nickname, The Labrador. He eats, then bounces around the boat with his mop of blonde hair like a Labrador puppy – and after wolfing down his freeze-dried lunch, Parko eyes the remains of a crew member’s bowl until they relent and hand over the dregs. And so I asked the Labrador, after having studied footage of the 2011- 12 VOR Southern Ocean leg – which broke Azzam, Camper, Sanya, then flipped Telefónicaon its side at 20kt+ leaving the helmsman dangling off the wheel – what were his thoughts on heading south?
14 SEAHORSE
‘The stage to the Horn certainly is a test, going so far south with the cold. But if you hype it up too much you could psyche yourself out, so I will just treat it like another leg. I have checked and re-checked all my gear to stay warm and comfortable and have looked over the boat again and again, that is how I build confidence in myself to do something a little out of the comfort zone.’
‘A little out of the comfort zone?’ Parko is going to have to crawl across a foredeck at 50°S, on a Volvo 65 that is spearing under - water with green water up to the mast. Footage from the last race saw grinders crouching down to wrap themselves around the pedestals as tons of freezing ocean roared into the cockpit, so how tough exactly is this ‘out of the comfort zone’ experience? ‘The Volvo does everything to grind you down mentally and physi- cally, then will throw in something like a broken neck seal (so plenty of ice cold water trapped inside your dry suit), to kick you when you’re down. That’s when you must stay strong.’ Plus Parko is helming in these conditions, pushing the boat hard in big breeze and bigger seas, through the pitch black of pre-dawn, when your eyes are raw with salt and fatigue, your face is numb with cold and the skin is peeling off your palms. This is the real test for the Labrador, as fatigue and fear creep in. And he is not alone. When I asked multiple Southern Ocean offender Bouwe Bekking and first-timer Charlie Enright how they would deal with fear during leg five, they were brutally honest. Bouwe said if he was not comfortable helming and not hitting the right numbers, he would hand over the wheel to someone else – rotate and recharge was his motto. And Charlie on Alvimedica– he said he would just close his eyes. Blue Robinson
FRANCE
Alone we would not have finished Cheminées Poujoulat, co-skippered by Bernard Stamm and Jean Le Cam, was first to finish the two-handed Barcelona World Race. She averaged 13.82kt on the water and sailed a true distance of 27,950nm. The whole race lasted a little more than 84 days… roughly the same time it took Michel Desjoyeaux to win the Vendée Globe in 2009 on the same Farr 60-footer (then named Foncia).
MATT KNIGHTON
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