News Around the World
When you’ve been buried in the most emotionally draining five years of America’s Cup sailing imaginable then finally you ‘summit’, wouldn’t you just want to get as far from the water as you can and avoid as much as possible anything that might remind you of the competitive cauldron that is waiting for you back home? Glenn Ashby really did hit the road after Bermuda… on four wheels and two
Chris Nicholson: It was, right from the start all the way until past the Falklands. It was just massive – such a big leg. I got ashore and saw some of the guys on the other boats and we all gave each other a big hug and said, ‘Man, how was that!’ Just massive. SH: Knowing the forecast, how did you prepare for all that mentally? I understand your wife and children left Auckland early, several days before the start to return to Australia and that this was a planned decision. CN: Yes, they did. That was no accident, and that is the way we do it. It is not for everyone, but I prefer it that way. You could call it selfish, but for me it is an easier way to prepare with a clearer head the day or two before the start, when you are really locking down for what is in store. I have erred towards the early goodbye over the years, and now Megs and the kids are happy with the way we deal with it. SH: I jumped off the Abu Dhabi Volvo 70 in Auckland at the start of leg 5 in 2012, and one of the crew was apologising to me as he was trying to grind the mainsheet on, with tears running down his cheeks as he had just said goodbye to his wife and kids on the dock… CN:Believe me, everyone is having those moments… and if you’re not then I think there is something wrong with you. SH: Three of your crew – Nicolai, Martine and Emily – had not been around the Horn before. What sort of conversations did you have with them before leg 7? CN: As a group, we well and truly covered most of the Southern Ocean discussions back in Cape Town before leg 3. During that leg we had a serious dose of the Southern Ocean and what sort of damage can happen to the rig and of course how we had to fix that, so there wasn’t a lot more to discuss in Auckland. We had made lots of notes from leg 3 and we went over those,
plus I had quite a few one-on-one discussions with several of the crew as everyone needed something different for leg 7. Some crew are completely robust but they may not look after themselves enough, some crew may not be quite as robust and you have to get them to rely on others a little bit – a lot of different discussions, but these conversations happen over weeks and months; you get to know what may trip them and then the team up at a later date, so it is a long process. It is not until I reached this position that I
20 SEAHORSE
realised these are the kind of conversations that Grant Dalton had with me in my first VOR on Amer Sports One in 2001-02. SH: How did Martine, Nicolai and Emily get on? CN: They were good, and the way they dealt with leg 7 I saw all of it in a positive way. They still gave me a little worry at times in regards to not understanding the full risk of what was on the line here – par- ticularly when you are in the middle of nowhere and it is blowing 40-50kt. They are younger, and they want to push harder and go faster; and, sure, I am all for going faster, but I am also trying to weigh up the risk at the same time. I guess they haven’t been caught out before in the way I have
on the Volvo 70s Movistar and Camper, two massive examples of what can go wrong in the Southern Ocean. With these VO65s and how reliable they’ve proved to be, the new crew are probably more correct than I am… but I was happy with how we dealt with leg 7 and how the boat was in good shape when it got to Brazil, ready to go again with a healthy crew. SH: Alex Gough took a risk on Scallywag on leg 4 to quickly sort out a twisted sheet on the outrigger and was flicked over the side. Did you as a team discuss that incident? CN:Certainly we did. That kind of thing happens all the time, stepping out onto the outrigger to fix something. In calm conditions going over the side is, I guess, the easiest recovery, but still it is something you would never, ever want to have to do and so we weigh up risks all the time. If we step on an outrigger we are clipped on, but that isn’t the whole answer, as if you fall when clipped on you will be seriously damaged by hitting the boat, so it is a whole buy-in from the driver, skipper and watch captain to the person heading out on the strut to weigh up risk and sea state. SH: What is the trickiest part of a watch on these boats? CN: Quite often the beginning of a watch is a bit of a handful down south, as however many times you ask everyone to get on deck early it is a 25-minute job to get dressed. So people cut it fine and come up late or tired. Most issues occur then, as often we are about to reef and still waiting for people; so you delay that manoeuvre a few minutes and the reef doesn’t go to plan. For me that is the most dangerous time when I really have my guard up. SH: When people are clearly fatigued do you try to speak more slowly – using fewer words?
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MEL ASHBY
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