Seven-time race veteran Brad Jackson (above) is visored up and ready to go on Torben Grael’s Volvo 70 Ericsson 4 in the 2008/09 race, on the way to a repeat of his win three years earlier on ABN Amro with skipper Mike Sanderson. While the IOR ketches like NZ Endeavour (left) were the race giants it is rarely argued that the Volvo 70s were the all-time monsters. Paul Standbridge (right) on Team Dennis Conner’s Volvo 60 Toshiba – having unexpectedly just taken over as skipper from Chris Dickson at the end of Leg 1
SH:Was the ‘new’ course much of a draw for you this time around? BJ: Yes, the course did play a part. I wouldn’t say that the Southern Ocean is something I always love, but it is still one of those things, one of those places, you test yourself a bit more down there... and you are glad you have got out of it. And it can be pretty cool. It’s one of those love/hate things. The course helped me make the decision for sure. SH:Who’s going to win this time? BJ: Easy. The team that has done the best job of preparing well, of putting the right bits of the puzzle together and the team that sails the best. It’s not rocket science. That’s who is going to win.
GOLDEN YEARS Five round the world races was good enough for Paul Standbridge… Seahorse: Today’s race looks very different from your last event in 1997-98. And the next one promises to put all of this in the shade. Paul Standbridge: In one respect this one has taken a turn for the better, the sailors always look forward to more Southern Ocean sailing. The more the better. But I’m less certain about the mixed crew
format. I tend not to discriminate and have always chosen the people I sail with on the basis of merit not sex or colour. SH: Tempted at all by recent race? PS: No. Absolutely no temptation to race round the world again. That was my deci- sion before, during and after my fifth race. But where I could maybe still be tempted is if the right shoreside role materialised. SH: Did the previous reduction in Southern Ocean sailing play any part in you moving away from this event? PS: No, that was just something that coin- cided with my decision. That said, it did nothing to encourage me to think again. SH: And the ones you did yourself… PS: The five races I sailed from 1981 to 1997 covered a pretty impressive range of yachts! Starting on a Swan 65 ketch, then on to the Farr maxi Atlantic Privateer, which was pretty innovative for its time, then the Rothmans Humphreys maxi and finally two laps on the Volvo 60s Intrum and Toshiba (an unusual story!). SH:Most fun? PS: The most fun will always be the first. Twenty-four years old and racing into the great unknown. All first-timers on the boat. And remember that back in the day New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina were all still off the beaten track. SH: And the type of sailor the event has attracted over the years… PS: I think it’s still a similar breed of person attracted to racing around the world. However, we started back in 1973 with adventure sailors. I joined as an adventure racer and progressed to racing sailor. We picked up America’s Cup sailors along the way and have ended up with Olympic medallists winning the event; I went the other way for a bit with the America’s Cup. But I guess we won’t see too many more
Cup sailors in the race now because there are not many of them left these days. For
sure the overlap in the different disciplines is massively less than it was. Everyone is just much more specialised now. Can that change… I have no idea but it won’t be easy. SH: Could the increase in Southern Ocean sailing pull in some new names? PS: I don’t think the southern legs have much influence over who does this race any more – it just adds to the attraction and the thrill for those who do show up. SH: As you indirectly touched on, since the Martínez/Walker/Grael generations there’s been little flow into oceanic racing from the recent Olympic sailors. PS: It’s really just a numbers game, although Volvo’s planned race academies might well help here. Back in the day we had 30 boats on the Whitbread startline with 14 or so crew per boat. With so few crew now it’s kept to Volvo veterans and people already very close to the teams, so not much room to expand. Now there’s not much need for many of the younger guys. Plus training them up takes time and costs a lot of money. Same with the Cup until the switch to
the smaller cats – ironic that there you’re now seeing the opposite with some of the older guys getting caught out by the young 49er, Moth and foiler sailors! SH: Best fun to sail with? PS: I am happy with all the boats I raced on and the skippers I have worked for. Padda Kuttel in 1981 and ’85 as owner captain. Lawrie [Smith] is always fun to sail with. Race hard play hard. My last race on Toshiba for Dennis [Conner]. We started with Chris Dickson as skipper and then I took over in Cape Town after leg 1. If I was 25 and French maybe I would
hard to sail with Ben…
have to go round on one of the big cats again. But I am 58 and love being an armchair round-the-world yachtsman. Anyway, if I really was 25 I’d be trying q
SEAHORSE 31
MARK LLOYD/DPPI
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