Category: volvo ocean racing

TEAM VEASTAS ASHORE

The unshaven, exhausted, uninjured team were holed up, incommunicado, for three days in the remote archipelago after their boat ran into the reef on Saturday afternoon at 1510 UTC.

“I’m really disappointed of course,” said Chris Nicholson, their 45-year-old skipper from Australia, shortly after arriving at dockside in Mauritius.

“On the other hand, we have to realise how fortunate we are for everyone to be here in one piece, and to be healthy. It’s pretty amazing, so there’s a lot of emotions at the moment.”

Marc Bow/Volvo Ocean Race

“The past four days have been very challenging for all of us, and I am extremely proud of the whole crew’s professionalism, composure, and endurance.

“It’s clear that human error is responsible for the shipwreck, there’s no avoiding that. And as skipper, I take ultimate responsibility.” 

They had smashed into the coral rock at 19 knots – the equivalent of 35 kilometres an hour – in their 65-foot boat, spun 180 degrees and crashed to a halt, grounded on the reef.

They remained on the reef until the small hours of the following morning, before abandoning the boat in pitch darkness and wading in knee-deep water to a dry position on the reef, led by Nicholson – aka Nico.

Marc Bow/Volvo Ocean Race

A small boat from the local coastguard then took them early on Sunday to a small islet, Íle du Sud, which is known as a favourite with shark-watching holiday-makers.

Their blue vessel, caught underneath breaking waves, is badly damaged, but the crew decided to remain for an extra 24 hours to complete a clean-up operation around the area.

“The bad things had to come off,” said the skipper, having just stepped off the local fishing boat, ‘The Eliza’, that transported his crew back to the mainland.

“We had a clear list of removing that equipment, and once we had all those off the boat it came down to removing things that were expensive.

“We’ve done a really good job in clearing it all up.”

Marc Bow/Volvo Ocean Race

Experienced New Zealander sailor Rob Salthouse was also keen to focus on the positives.

“It’s just good to be back on dry land,” he said.

“I think the team has grown strong with what we’ve been through.”

Danish sailor Peter Wibroe, white shirt stained yellow by sand, sweat and sea salt, was full of admiration for his leader.

“I must say that the team worked really well together, especially Nico, the skipper, who led the whole situation in a very professional way.

He continues. “We all felt extremely safe despite the situation.

“We were conscious about what was going on and we all had our responsibilities.” 

“We worked really well as a team, and that’s why we’re all here today.”

Marc Bow/Volvo Ocean Race

A WAY OF LIFE OCEAN RACING

A look back at the “Whitbread Around The World Race 1973-74”. I knew so many of the sailors and had been invited to sail the race myself; however life does not always follow our plans.
Life at sea is a way of life. The greatest change apart from the boats in the now “Volvo race” is perhaps the food. I used to say I ate better on a boat than I did at home. That is no longer the case.

LET ASHLEY TRY OUT

I was supposed to be part of this video supporting Ashley Perrin’s bid for a place on the all women’s team in the next Volvo race. The timing didn’t work out. Here is the finished product.
Ashley was on the crew of “Tempest” the 80 foot Sparkman & Stephens ketch in the 2005 Transatlantic race. We won our class; without Ashley this would likely not have happened.

A SENSE OF ADVENTURE

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By Agathe Armand

He sailed the Whitbread four times and is regularly returning to the Southern Ocean in his sixties. Offshore legend Skip Novak tells us all about a race that changed his life and one that still lingers in his blood.

“With the one-design, the focus is back on the crew, back on the people, back on the personalities involved” – Skip Novak

Raised in the Midwest, USA, Novak sailed dinghies on the Chicago lake as a child. The American sailor heard about the Whitbread Round the World Race (later the Volvo Ocean Race) by chance, a couple of months before the start of the second edition in 1977-78.

Named navigator after a couple of beers with the King’s Legend skippers Nick Ratcliffe and Mike Clumsy, Novak ended up sailing four editions of the race.

Now 61, he has been sailing all his life and is still chartering expedition boats in high latitudes. We met him at Race HQ in Alicante, Spain.

After sailing the Whitbread from 1977-78 to 1989-90, what do you think makes this race such a special event?
“The strength of the Whitbread/Volvo Ocean Race is the people involved. We’ve discovered that over the years as media evolved. In the very early days, it was concentrating on the boat and the results and it has evolved into a people story. That’s where all the action is.

You don’t think it has lost its adventurous core in 40 years of history?
“The foundation of this race, as different from the America’s Cup or the Olympics, is really about adventure. If you don’t have a sense of adventure, don’t do the Volvo Ocean Race today. Despite the fact that the media is now a fly on the wall story while we were really on our own for 30 to 35 days in the old days, it is still an adventure sail. No doubt about it.

“It’s very hard to be romantic now and think wide with all the onboard footage, but it’s a natural evolution. We didn’t really care about media in the beginning, but we started promoting it when we realised this was a lifestyle. We wrote books and made films in view of doing it the next time. It’s only natural.

Speaking of evolution, what is your view on our new one-design Volvo Ocean 65?
“The one-design is a natural conclusion to various dilemmas over the years. I remember, in 1981-82, it was very apparent after we started sailing three or four says down the Atlantic with Alaska Eagle that we had a dog. We were faced with going around the world for nine months with a slow boat. It was quite difficult to take psychologically.

“Of course, as the race evolved, the boats changed but there were still differences in performance. The one-design solves that problem. The focus is back on the crew, back on the people, back on the personalities involved. I think we’ll see more of these great stories in the media.

On a more personal level, tell us about your sailing journey. Where does your high-latitude addiction come from?
“After sailing through the Southern Ocean on the Whitbread legs, looking at the Sub-Antarctica islands fly by, rounding Cape Horn and seeing the mountains of Tierra del Fuego, I vowed to myself then that one day, I’d go and see that. After 1985, I did. We built a boat and sailed there. 25 years later, I’m still down there. We were one of the pioneers of expedition sailing in high latitudes.

“I’m a mountaineer as well so I was living these two passions, sailing and climbing, in very remote areas. The only way to get to the Antarctic peninsula, South Georgia or Patagonia is to sail there. So I’m still feeding the rat, as they call it in mountaineering. I’m living high risks and making a business out of that. It’s incredibly satisfying and I love it.

No more Volvo Ocean Race then?
“I think I would struggle physically now, my knee couldn’t take the boat’s heeling angle. But it’s great to be out on the ocean pushing a boat, that’s for sure!”

Skip Novak’s participations to the Whitbread Round the World Race:

1977-78: King’s Legend (2nd overall)
1981-82: Alaska Eagle (9th overall)
1985-86: Drum (8th overall)
1989-90: Fazisi (11th overall)