Campaign
Flying the flag for Poland
Two young Polish leaders have scored some inspiring victories in major offshore regattas, beating world class teams with far bigger budgets The project has come a long way
Bang for buck, it’s hard to think of a big boat project that scores more highly than I Love Poland. The VO70 that was originally constructed for US skipper Ken Read’s Puma campaign in the Volvo Ocean Race, Mar Mostro is now enjoying a fulfilling second life as the 70-foot platform for an extremely successful and well-run tour of the offshore racing circuit. And a lot more besides. Earlier this year, the young Polish
crew sailed I Love Poland to line honours and IRC Super Zero class victory in the RORC Transatlantic Race. It’s just the latest in a long list of achievements, such as winning line honours in the Rolex Middle Sea Race, the Gotland Runt and the Roschier Baltic Sea Race. The project is spearheaded by two ambitious 27-year-old Poles, Maciej Patoka and Konrad Lipski. Patoka is the business brain, the man who brings it all together on shore. Lipski is the navigator on the boat, and the one who coordinates the sailing team and helps point the boat and the project in the right direction on the water.
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from its beginnings in 2018 and its purpose and direction have taken a few different turns too. ‘The original aim was to promote Poland abroad,’ Lipski says. ‘The Polish National Foundation financed the purchase of a state-of-the-art third generation Volvo Open 70, and the project began in September 2018. The boat was sailed across the Atlantic to Miami to act as a promotional platform for Poland. ‘I got involved at the end of 2018
but I could see that the project was struggling with a clear purpose. Because of course, it's an amazing boat, amazing for racing, but also very demanding as well. I grew up racing in Optimist, 29ers, 49ers, so for me, it's it was always about the racing, about making the boat go fast. So together with Maciej Patoka in cooperation with Polish National Foundation, we decided to shift the focus of the project to participating in prestigious regattas worldwide, which of course also indirectly helps with the broader goal of promoting the country.’ Today, they point out
Above: this former Volvo Ocean Race Open 70 has enjoyed a remarkable new lease of life as I Love Poland, winning line honours in the Middle Sea Race, RORC Transatlantic, IMA Carib- beanMaxi Challenge, Roschier Baltic Sea Race, Round Gotland Race andmore
three separate, but connected, goals of the project. The training and educational
aspect of I Love Poland emerged organically out of the original project but has now become a core part of the programme. ‘Usually at the end of an Olympic campaign or at the end of your dinghy racing career, there are two choices in a country like Poland: become a coach or just quit sailing and go to another industry,’ Maciej Patoka says. ‘For me, to jump on board a
boat like a VO70 was just a dream,’ Lipski adds, but how do you make that experience more than a one- off? How do you turn it into a lifelong career in the marine industry? That’s what we’re aiming to achieve with I Love Poland.’ The programme encourages applications from young Polish sailors. In its first four years, I Love Poland has received more than 1,100 applications from people with very different backgrounds Some, like Tokyo Olympic silver medalist Agnieszka Skrzypulec, bring a lot of experience from other
ROBERT HAJDUK/PFN
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