Volvo Ocean Race

I have always liked the Volvo Ocean Race — it’s the first race that I really remember following myself.  I started racing during the summer of 2006.  At that time, the Volvo Ocean Race was well under way.  I remember being so excited when I found the web site and realized that I could get a regular fix of information about racing. 

The boats were new and fast Volvo Open 70s.  Canting keels came into use in this round of boats.  Some brought additional problems of their own (Movistar crew abandoned ship due to issues related to their canting keel system).  This round of Volvo Ocean Race also brought the addition of in port racing — to give me another race fix while the distance legs were on hiatus.  I remember the boats stopping in Annapolis; and vividly cheering for Paul Cayard and Pirates of the Caribbean while holding a lot of respect for Mike Sanderson and ABN Amro. 

Fast forward to 2011 and the Volvo Ocean Race started again on 5 November in Alicante Spain. The legs of the race include the following stops.

Leg 1 – Alicante to Cape Town

Leg 2 – Cape Town to AbuDhabi

Leg 3 – Abu Dhabi to Sanya

Leg 4 – Sanya to Auckland

Leg 5 – Auckland to Itajai

Leg 6 – Itajai to Miami

Leg 7 – Miami to Lisbon

Leg 8 – Lisbon to Lorient

Leg 9 – Lorient to Galway

 This time, I decided that I wanted to learn a bit more about the boats, teams, and race itself.  Here’s what I’ve come up with so far. 

Teams have 11 crew members on board during each distance leg of the race.  First, include the skipper and navigator.  A rule of thumb is that each crew would include three team members who are under 30 with previous ocean racing experience.  That brings the total up to five team members plus a media crew member.  The other five slots need to be filled with sailors who bring experience and skills that round out the needs of the team.  Positions and necessary skills include things like helmsman, trimmer, watch captain, bowman, navigator, grinder, boat captain, and aerodynamics. 

Teams entered in teh 2011-2012 Volvo Ocean race are:

Groupama – Skipper: Franck Cammas

Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing – Skipper: Ian Walker

PUMA Ocean racing – Skipper: Ken Read

CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand – Skipper: Chris Nicholson

Team Telefonica – Skipper: Iker Martinez

Team Sanya – Skipper: Mike Sanderson

Boats are still designed to the Volvo Open 70 design just like 2005-2006.  Team Sanya is the first Chinese entry.  Anti-piracy plans involve a safe haven port in the Indian ocean and shipping Volvo boats to the launch for the next leg. 

In America’s Cup racing, the choice is easy for me — cheer for the American boat.  However, in the Volvo Ocean Race, teams are a lot more international.  So, to me, it’s not as straightforward as just picking the home entry to cheer for.  This race, I don’t have a runaway favorite.  I think I’m caught cheering for both PUMA and Team Sanya.  Maybe this is based on PUMA being the most American team to me; in combination with my fond memories of Mike Sanderson back on ABN AMRO.  There’s also something to be said for cheering for the under dog.  I’ll give Team Sanya credit for the first Chinese entry in this race — even if the race crew is not predominately Chinese. 

More information about this race can be found at the Volvo Ocean Race web site.  There is even an online game that you can play through the race with more than 158,000 online boats particiating now.