Opposite: baby steps in a grown-up environment. The 1981-82 Whitbread Race (with 29 entries) and Onne van der Wal has started a new career with the event’s first ever OBR now deep in the Southern Ocean and a long way from racing in Florida and New England. But, as the Norwegians always remind us, there is no bad weather only bad clothing. On a heavy-displacement yacht with wire sheets and guys hitting 25 knots down big seas, loads are exceeding anything ever seen on today’s much lighter ocean racers… ‘one hand for the boat and one for me’. After two big knockdowns the Flyer crew did occasionally back off on Leg 2 out of concerns for the rig
miles under my belt’, Onne wrote Conny a letter and was invited up to Marblehead for a chat. ‘So I rented a car, drove to Boston and had a wonderful dinner.’ What would become Flyer II was still
on the drawing board and would be built at Royal Huisman in Holland. ‘I felt I could talk intelligently to him about what I’d done: running the bow, trimming and driving, a lot of blue water stuff. And he says, “It sounds like you got a lot of miles, and you seem to enjoy the time offshore. But I need specialists. I have a doctor; I need a rigger. A carpenter. An electrician. An engineer…”’ And I said, “You know, I’m a qualified engineer.”’ Onne paused. ‘Conny’s eyes lit up and he said, “Interesting.”’ After dinner Conny walked him out to
his rental car and shook hands goodbye. ‘I said, “So how do we leave it?” and he said, “I will see you in Holland in February.”’ Onne had landed his dream job, but it wouldn’t start for another five months. That autumn Onne ran a 72-footer and
received a bonus from the happy owner which he spent on his very first camera, an Olympus OM-1. He says he originally thought of photography as a way to share his vagabond life with his parents, but in February 1981 when he moved to Holland to work on the partially built Flyer II he brought along that SLR and his two lenses. He was the third crewmember to sign on to Conny’s team; over the next six
months 150 sailors would be whittled down to a final race crew of 16. During the long Dutch winter Onne
installed all the boat’s systems. ‘Every time a new pump or motor came onboard I would say to the supplier, “Where’s the manual? How does this work?” So I knew the whole boat, which was very clever of Conny. He put together an amazing team, like a CEO with a corporation, that’s how he ran the programme. Everybody had their division.’ The crew themselves lived on a house-
boat; Onne almost shivers, remembering the poor-quality clothing of the day. ‘Sleeping on an unheated boat in the Netherlands in February was a good test.’ After launching they trialled both team
and boat. ‘Then we sailed across the Atlantic with a test crew. The whole Amer- ican sailing scene loved seeing Conny’s new boat, totally custom and of course very nicely executed.’ The blue-white-red hull mimicked the Dutch flag snapping proudly above the transom, with the boat’s name in small lettering on the topsides; the package was ‘both clean and beautiful’. Not so clean was the boat’s first entry
into Newport. ‘Coming in here in the fog we hit Kettle Bottom Rock at 9kt with a kite up… and we stopped. That’s some solid rock.’ The boat was hauled to New- port Offshore for repairs, when designer German Frers also took the opportunity to add a keel shoe for extra righting moment.
SAIL Magazine knocks Relaunched, Flyer II and her band of merry men headed up to Marblehead and Hood Sailmakers, to develop and complete the sail programme for the forthcoming round-the-world race. One afternoon, hanging on a mooring ball in the huge har- bour, ‘I hear this on the topsides’… Onne knocks on the table in front of him. ‘I have a look, and it’s three guys in suits and a little rowing boat; “We are the publishers of SAIL Magazine.” I didn’t know what a publisher was, so I asked. “Well, we basi- cally run the magazine. I’m the publisher. That’s the editor. And he is head of sales. Can we see your boat?” So I showed them over the whole boat, stem to stern.’ After a 45-minute tour Onne asked if he
could show them some of the pictures he’d taken with his OM-1. ‘It was quite a small camera so it was easy to tuck in my foul weather gear when I’d go to the top of the rig to switch out the halyards after a peel or a gybe. I’d say hold on…’ his hand raises alongside his face, the eye squints and head cocks, and a forefinger presses an imaginary shutter; ‘… click click click. Then I’d go back down.’ He’d also found time to get that film
developed. ‘I had slides in a sleeve,’ Onne tells me. ‘And Keith Taylor [SAIL’s editor] says, “Holy shit, you were up there!” And I said, “Well, it’s my job, you know?”’ So the next day they called and said,
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