I am sure there are still areas to develop. Not huge gains or anything like that, but you are always refining – or you should be. You only have to be slightly better and if you get enough time to look into enough things properly you will always improve. They won’t be big improvements, but I am sure there are a few still out there. SH: The organisers are hoping that loosening the rules on concealing your race strategy will open things up a bit… BJ: That’s possible. But the fleet could also just stick together like last time. It depends how confident you are in your weather team and your navigation team and how you sail the boat. If you back yourself… I expect some teams will back themselves and just see how they go, but it still may end up with us all staying relatively close. SH:Which of your previous campaigns did you enjoy the most? BJ: I have been asked this before… And I still don’t have a good answer. Obviously all the races that you win, it is always a great time and moment. This race is hard but it’s a lot easier on those campaigns when you are doing well, easier for every- body! Also campaigns that have just been a great experience, a great group even though you haven’t won sometimes. But the ones
30 SEAHORSE
that stick out are the ones you win, plus some 24-hour records and things like that. They’re all good in their own ways. SH:What do you think when you see races that still remain ‘open’ in almost every way like the Vendée Globe, at one end of the scale, then all the unexpected interest in the Corinthian Golden Globe at the other? BJ: All these races are just different. I have been involved with the Volvo for so long, 25 years, or something like that. The Vendée Globe is a totally different sport almost. It is amazing what those guys do. It’s not something I would want to do. I think it looks bloody tough! It doesn’t look like there is a whole lot of enjoyment there from my point of view, but I am sure it is very rewarding. The Corinthian type, going back to the old style of racing, it’s for the experience and things like that, which is not something I have ever got into so much. But if I finish a Volvo race, regardless of the result I always feel I have done something worthwhile in my life. SH:Moving on, there is now an impression that with dramatic change announced for next time there may be a bit of soft-pedalling among potential entries this time who now prefer to wait. BJ: The next edition of the race is going to
be very different again, and at this stage it looks pretty exciting! Hopefully the boats are going to be as tricked-out as it appears today. In the Cup who knows where that is going next… but it will no doubt all change again. I think whether it is the Cup, whether it is the Volvo, the guys who do either just enjoy competition at the highest level; if the Volvo can provide that and the Cup guys have an interest then I’m sure they’ll become keener to do it again. But it’s a very different game now – some may want to get into it but many others won’t. SH:What interest have you picked up about next time? BJ: From my point of view, I think just at home in Auckland, because I’m involved in a boat again you tend to find a whole heap of people that weren’t interested much in the race suddenly now are interested again – and some of them are looking closely at what’s being talked about for the next one. The next edition might also entice some
Vendée Globe campaigns. I think obvi- ously they have a big headstart on the type of boats and how they work. Plus the Vendée Globe budgets are not small any more, there are some good teams spending quite a bit of budget. I am sure there will be some interest from those guys.
HENRI THIBAULT/DPPI
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