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In port race Alicante

October 07 2008

The In-port Race in Alicante is the very first contest to open the Volvo Ocean Race. Its goal is likely to make the whole event more colourful and interesting, stressing dynamism and lots of manoeuvres in a short time and pressing everything to the length of a football match to give a spectacular show featuring the best sailing boats in the world to the audience and fans standing on within close distance of the shore.

Some 40 years ago the Whitbread Race – the mother to the Volvo Ocean Race – gathered adventure lovers and organized a race around the world. No one planned to set records as the lockers were full with bottles of beer and many photos of those days caught the competitors smoking cigarettes or tobacco pipes on board right in the middle of some ocean. All this has gone to history and the modern Volvo Ocean Race gives multi pages description on what is the Volvo Open 70 boat, its dimensions, the weight of its keel, the number of sails for each leg and many other things. New generations of competitors can be barely called “amateurs” or “lovers” and we are all proudly addressed as ATHLETES. For instance, last week we received the anti-doping control regulations or else we need to have a special diet and our life is not compatible with the majority of usual pleasures. It’s hard to imagine sportsmen in this race who smoke or go to a gym less than once a day.

These changes have obviously altered the core style and ethos of the competition. They have made the Race one of the most important and prestigious sporting events in the world and have raised the aspiration to test human will and character in extreme conditions to a breathtaking level. The last Volvo Ocean Race enjoyed 2 billion people of cumulative TV audience and this is the direction where modern sport is moving to and this is how the competitors and the organizers want to see it.
Last Saturday we had a chance to experience all these innovations and influence of the top sporting world here in Alicante. Every boat was equipped with 12 antennas to transmit any signal imaginable including HD TV, several video cameras capable of being moved and managed from a single TV centre. There were helicopters flying non-stop above our heads and muting all commands on board. The number of TV operators before the start exceeded all sensible norms. Now when I see pictures of this recent race it seems that it was somewhere far from here and did not happen to us: we were so deep inside the process in our thoughts with the highest concentration focused on our job on board.

The in-port race was set to begin at 13-00 but already at 09-00 in the morning we were sitting and listening to meteorological forecast telling us to expect light winds and possible 90-100 degrees wind direction changes during one minute which reality confirmed later on. The start of the second race was even postponed by half an hour, since the 60 degrees wind direction change. The organizers had to relocate the buoys and marks and there was nothing left for us except realizing the fact that we are likely to lose our advantage in light winds as “Kosatka” was designed to sail in oceans and that we don’t feel strong in such calm water.

We had a good start in the first race going ahead of 2\3 of the fleet… and then we started to make mistakes: incorrect choice of sail to go downwind, wrong coordination and tactics on board as well as some other important faults did not allow our team to perform well last weekend. Add to this the mistake on the start of the second race when Stig hit the Delta Lloyd boat and a Race Committee boat which made us pay badly – 360 penalty, a hole in the hull and some damage to bowsprit.

We all worked as we could and had the highest concentration: manoeuvres were completed at the maximum possible speed, the guys were working on winches at full pelt and the sails were hoisted in just seconds. I had to work on the bow and control hoisting the spinnaker together with Pedro as well as being a grinder and packer of the sails inside, preparing them for the next turn. I didn’t say a word during these 4 hours of two races and tried to do everything that depended on me. Group dynamics, speed, physical and mental energy merged here on a small spot which made us all limitlessly happy when simply thinking of the fact where we were and what a race this was.

In 4 days we’ll have our first off-shore leg start going to Cape Town. All boats have to leave the Mediterranean, cross the equator and the Atlantic, “touch” the islands of the South America, go close to the Southern Ocean to finally finish in South Africa in the beginning of November.
Everything is just starting!