Ian Walker on the Volvo Ocean Race

Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing's skipper on the importance of crew, thoughts on the one design and why only one boat is currently entered

The next Volvo Ocean Race has a worryingly small number of entries at present, or specifically teams that have paid up. Right now this seems to total just one – Team SCA – although more are believed to be waiting in the wings and one in particular, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, is certain to go ahead, even though the UAE team has yet to enter formally or order its new Volvo Ocean 65.

Britain’s double Olympic silver medallist and now two time Volvo Ocean Race competitor, Ian Walker, has once again been announced as the skipper of Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, with the third stopover of the 2014-5 race due to visit the UAE for a second race in a row.

At present Walker is in the UK readying to defend his team’s monohull record for the Rolex Fastnet Race, which the crew of the black Farr-design VO70 set two years ago.

The Abu Dhabi crew for the 2014-5 VOR is not yet finalised and Walker is using this period to trial new personnel, while at the same time keeping enough experienced people on board to remain competitive.

“We have got a month sailing on Azzam here,” says Walker. “We are doing two weeks of training, including Cowes Week and the Fastnet. It is nice to be based in the UK for a bit. Our principle goal is to try out some potential team members, largely under-30s, but a couple of senior guys as well.”

They also want to get Azzam back in shape, ready to put her up for sale and carry out some corporate hospitality obligations for both existing and potential sponsors. Last week this included taking out the Harlequins rugby team, who are sponsored by Abi Dhabi’s Etihad Airlines.

The one design aspect has also completely changed what teams are up to at this point, 14 months out from the start. Typically this would have been the busiest time, in terms of dealing with sponsors, contractors, designers, builder, finalising the crew, etc. Not so now. “We have been more involved with Volvo/Green Marine this time, than we were before,” says Walker. “The load has certainly come off the teams in that department and thrown on to Volvo.”

While there was talk earlier in the year about the new Farr-designed VO65 being rolled out of Green Marine in Hythe in May/June, this now appears to have been put back until the autumn.

Walker says he has been down to see the VO65 under construction and notes that the Abu Dhabi campaign has one distinct advantage – it worked with Farr Yacht Design on their VO70 last time. “I can see how they have come to the solutions they have come to, because a lot of it has come out of the lessons learned with us.”

But while Walker is more than used to competing in one designs, he believes that almost more of a challenge than this will be the reduction in crew from ten down to eight. Aside from Walker the only sailing team member to be announced to date is the one Emirati on board, in Adil Khalid who sailed on board in the last race.

“You need six good helmsman, so you want to have a bowman who can steer, and then there’s the navigator,” says Walker. For the Fastnet he will be seeing if he can split the navigator’s role with Simon Fisher. “One of the big decisions you have to make is whether you have a dedicated navigator as one of your eight, or whether you take someone like SiFi, who is also a very strong helmsman/trimmer. That is one of the things we hope to learn, whether myself and SiFi can share the navigation successfully and stand a watch too.”

In line with this, Walker is hoping that the number of scheds they receive on board is reduced during the next race as this would cut down the workload at the nav station. “And it would give more opportunity for boats to get more leverage on other boats and to make the racing more interesting. If you have a position report every three hours, it is very hard to get separation and it means that the navigation is almost a full time job.”

However while the boats might only receive occasion scheds (he’s pushing for every six hours), he reckons (as we do) that the time has come for the tracking of the boats to go more or less live for those following the race (rather than in it). But obviously this only works if there is no third party contact between boats and land. At present all emails and calls are routed through Volvo who can ‘big brother’ them, but in theory it would be relatively easy for someone to sneak on board a portable satphone.

Going one design also effects crew selection. Presumably to keep the wheels on throughout the lengthy 40,000 mile trip around the world, all the same technical skills - engineering, boat building, electronics, electrics, sailmaking, rigging, medical, etc, etc - will be required as they were before, plus with the necessary sailing skills. For example, before there was a strong requirement to have at least one sailmaker among the team, able to deal with optimising and recutting sails, less necessary now the sails are one design.

But there is no doubt - with the boat one design, the crew is now the only ‘variable’ between teams, and personnel choice will be of absolute importance. Walker agrees: “Never has it been more important to get the right people in terms of the sailing of the boat - that and your logistics and management of the team.”

As to the type of crew he wants, Walker adds: “It is very hard to look away from experience offshore, because you want people who have been out there and seen it all before. They are going to be the people who prevent damage and optimise performance. I would have found it hard on my first Volvo Ocean Race, for instance, without the likes of Damian Foxall and Neal McDonald as watch leaders. It is hard to look away from the salty seadogs of the Volvo Ocean Race.”

However Walker feels the reduction in crew comes at a cost. “There are so many CVs I get from really good, keen young guys, who may be trimmers, mast, or back-up bow - 6ft 3in and fit as fiddles - and would have been great people to have on board, but you just can’t take them now unless they have that helming/trimming ability to the highest level.”

In addition to Simon Fisher and Adil Khalid, on board for the Rolex Fastnet Race from ADOR v1 are Nick Dana (now bowman, not MCM) and trimmer Jeremy Elliott. They are joined by ex-Groupama (and Green Dragon) crewman Aussie Phil Harmer and Kiwi veterans Tony Mutter and Cameron Dunn, plus newbie Tom Johnson, Jeremy Wilmot, Philip Carson and the Artemis Offshore Academy Figaro sailor, Jack Bouttell.

“I’d like to have a bit of continuity,” Walker continues. “If you start with a whole new sheet of paper, you are not going to take some of the benefits from having done the program before. So I’m hoping to have a percentage of the crew back from last time, plus a couple of new guys, with a few fresh ideas.”

In addition to the crew two being lighter than before, the closeness of the competition thanks to the one designs is going to make for an even more brutal experience for the crew, in a race that was already hard before. “There is every reason to think you could be in sight of the other boats for the whole leg,” warns Walker. “It is going to be very, very different. It is going to be way harder.”

At present there seems to be no limit on changing the crew from leg to leg, providing the crew has the suitable qualifications and meets the safety requirements. So perhaps teams will rotate their personnel more than they have in the past? “You could certainly pick different teams for different legs with different emphasis in terms of technical capabilities, but you have to balance that up with people signing up to do the Volvo Ocean Race, because they want to sail around the world. They don’t just do it because they want to get paid for one or two months sailing one or two legs. You also build up a stronger team.”

However Walker acknowledges that on Groupama in the last race there were a few planned substitutions and they won. “We swapped some people on Green Dragon and I thought it was quite successful. We gave Damian [Foxall] a break for a leg and we brought Budgie [Ian Budgen] in. It gave Damian a rest and he put a bit of weight back on. I think it was quite positive. But I’m sure you could go too far down that route as well.”

One design

Walker says that the plan is for theAbi Dhabi Sailing Team to take delivery of its VO65 in the first quarter of next year and while it has yet to be confirmed, it is likely to be hull no5.

So how does he expect it to perform? “The weight of the boat will make a big impact on the performance. We don’t know the weight of the boat finally yet. I think where it will be a struggle with the small headsails, plus its lacking waterline length and a smaller sail plan, which will affect it going upwind through the tropics. I suspect that downwind it won’t be much difference when it is planing, because it is lighter. I think they will be more Open 60ish, with smaller jibs and no loose-luffed sails, everything furling. But because of that it will be harder to do a sensible windward-leeward inshore perhaps.”

In terms of sails the inventory is similar to the VO70 but there is now only one jib on the headstay with a furling no2 set between that and the heavy weather jib. The kites are similar to before, but without the inshore spinnakers. “So there will be a furling A3, a furling masthead Zero and furling fractional Zero,” says Walker. “Last time we were allowed an extra A2 spinnaker because they wanted colourful sails for the in-port racing. There has been no talk of that this time.”

Walker believes that there will be six to eight teams on the start line in Alicante next autumn. “I think we’ll get the boats. One of the by-products of the new system [going one design] unfortunately, which maybe wasn’t foreseen was that Volvo committing to build all the boats and effectively managing a lot more in terms of shared services and making it a lot easier for the teams, has created a situation where there is no rush for people to enter or do anything.

“Before, everyone was scrambling to enter as quickly as possible and get designing and building boats. Now does it matter whether you enter in May 2013 or October 2013 or even March 2014? So I think maybe that’s why there hasn’t been a rush of entries - it just needed a few more teams committed like ourselves and SCA early on and there would have been a big panic about who was going to get which boat. It didn‘t quite get the critical mass to force people to declare their hand early.”

Trying to create a level playing field with the sail limits for the next race hasn’t sped up teams entering either. Normally major campaigns would view the maximum amount of time on the water as being vital. However with the next Volvo Ocean Race this is self-limiting. As Walker explains: “You have one suit of sails and they are also your back-up sails for the race, so there is some incentive not to do too much racing on your pre-race sails.”

However Walker believes the reason for teams entering late is more likely to be due to money. “It costs a of money to run programs and I think everyone is trying to run to a tight budget, with the exception of Team SCA, given how much sailing they are doing. People can’t afford to start sailing full time until next year.”

He adds that with the boat going one design you don’t need the same amount of time as you did before. “Before we were having to do design changes and modifications and recut sails and had lots of different options to pursue. You had to optimise for measurement, and there was a hell of a lot of work going on that this time you can’t do. So yes, time on the water is going to be important but how much do you need? One month, two months, one year, two years? Last time around we launched our boat in June and it was a brand VO70 with everything that went with it. So if you were to launch a one design boat in June, you are going to be in a lot better state. Personally I think six months should be more than adequate with a good team of sailors to optimise the boat and to get yourself prepared for the start.”

While the boat is a strict one design, Walker says there are still details yet to be finalised out over how this will work in practice. For example he says a decision has yet to be made on hull finish. “Clearly you have to be able to paint and sand your boat and how they manage that, we’re not sure.”

Also of concern with the new VO65s is that statistically it is likely that there may be an issue (big or small) with some aspect of the boat which needs addressing. The decision will then need to be made about whether the item in question is only changed on one boat or across the whole fleet. However Walker points out that it could be greyer than that. There may be parts of the VO65 which it would be nice, but not essential, to change.

“That will be frustrating, compared to the old days when you would spend a lot of time making your boat absolutely perfect and operational. Saying that, they have put a huge effort into the details: The accuracy of the boats, the masts and all the sails, which have been made off the same mould, consecutively, with the same batch of materials. They couldn’t do more to ensure that the boats are the same because if the boats aren’t the same, the whole event loses its credibility.”

While being the best possible one design is vital, a downside of the effort required to achieve this is that it increases cost. Team SCA’s Richard Brisius told thedailysail that the cost of the new VO65 is similar to what they spent on Ericsson 4 winner of the 2008-9 race. Walker says that the cost of the one design is the same as they spent on the Abu Dhabi VO70 in the last race.

“So much effort has gone into the accuracy and one design nature of the boat. And there is a lot more material in the boat because it is so much stronger - it is not that much lighter than the VO70. But that is not where the savings are. That is your sail budget – that is US$750,000 instead of US$2 million for us in the last race and I’m sure other teams would have spent a lot more. Plus you don’t need to build a spare mast, booms, daggerboards, rudders and you don’t need to optimise the boat. And you have a saving on crew.”

In terms of all-up budget, Walker reckons that it would be possible to do a cheap campaign this time for 8-9 million Euros. To win the race he believes you need nearer 15 million. “And if you wanted to run a team like the winning teams of years gone by, where finance doesn’t affect too many decisions, you’d be anywhere upwards of that - 18-19 million Euros depending on when you start your team.”

In terms of Sunday’s Rolex Fastnet Race, the conditions at present do not look like record-setting ones. As to their prospects of monohull line honours, Walker says that it needs to be ideally reaching and too windy for the 100 footers.