These are heady times for armchair sailors. On October 11 the Volvo Ocean Race got underway from Alicante, Spain. A day later the inaugural Portimão Global Ocean Race set sail from Portugal and on November 9 the big one, the Vendée Globe will leave from Les Sable d’ Olonne, France. Three different around-the-world race each with their own character, their own place in the global sailing scene, all of them bound to bring drama, excitement and pure inspiration to sailors around the world.
As co-founder of the Portimão Global Ocean Race and a veteran of three Whitbread Round the World campaigns (the Whitbread now being the Volvo Ocean Race) I feel that I have some perspective. It’s only my perspective and I know there are other infinitely more qualified voices out there, but this is my blog so you get my point of view.
Things could not be better for offshore ocean racing and by extension, the broader sailing community. Eight full blown, cutting edge, VOR 70’s are hurtling around the planet dragging corporate sponsors to exotic destination with PR machines in tow. Mainstream celebrities want to be seen with the sailors and vice-versa. Offshore sailing has arrived squarely in the mainstream as a dynamic, media driven, cash guzzling public relations bonanza and it’s about time. The teams, their sponsors and the race is a phenomenon and if you have not witnessed up close the power and excitement of a Volvo 70 at full cry, I suggest you try and make one of the inshore races.
Things are brutal on board; there is no other way to describe it. Life revolves around squeezing the most speed from the boat, 24/7. I read that on board Team Russia they carry only a single spoon per person with three spares. It’s an effort to save weight but less than two weeks into the race they have already lost four spoons. I wonder how that dynamic will play out on board. In my day we had wine with dinner, every night, and a cabin to sleep in. Granted the equipment was not up to the task and half-inch wire guys used to snap with alarming regularity, but that was all part of the adventure. Same too with the suicide of the Russian skipper in ’89. I was his Watch Captain! I took up solo sailing shortly after that.
I have only admiration and respect for the VOR, the sailors and the corporate circus that will accompany the race over the next nine months. By contrast the Vendée Globe might as well be a different sport. France turns out in full force for these modern day argonauts. When their race starts from Les Sable d’ Olonne next month there will traffic jams 20 miles out of the city as people pour into the tiny seaside town for the start. When the first boats arrives back next February hundreds of thousands of “ordinary” men and women (and their dogs) will be there to welcome each and every sailor back home to France. For those of us who love sailing and wonder why the rest of the world does not see things our way, go to France – your heart will be warmed.
The Vendée, like the Volvo are both at the pinnacle of their success. The Vendée will have 30 boats on the start line, half of which are serious contenders for winning. The fleet includes two past winners as well as a number of other veterans who have sailed that gruelling race more than three times. Unfortunately for the Vendée this is the swan-song for many of the competitors. Add to that the campaigns are becoming prohibitively expensive and the boats too complicated to sail and you start running out of sailors to compete. You can’t have a great event without great competitors.
It’s this reality that convinced myself and my partner, Josh Hall, to step into the breech and create a new around-the-world race, one that is affordable for sailors while still meeting their aspirations and goals. The Portimão Global Ocean Race will become a serious player on the world sailing scene precisely because it fills a need that seems to be getting bigger. We are lucky to have this race sponsored in a time when the economy is in a free fall, and we are thrilled to have the Portuguese city of Portimão as the home for the event. Our main objective now is to get our 10 sailors back safely to Portimão next year and use their collective experience to build upon. I hope that you will bookmark our race, keep it in perspective, and join us on this global adventure.
