Learning from past lessons, Ian Walker and Azzam crew made a point of consistent excellence

Paul Oberjuerge writes that, on the heels of a calamitous 2011/12 Volvo Ocean Race, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing skipper Ian Walker prioritised dependability and rode sound strategy to sailing's most satisfying success.

Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing's Azzam shown sailing during Leg 8 of the 2014/15 Volvo Ocean Race, which the crew clinched overall victory of on Thursday with a third-place finish in the leg in Lorient, France. Ainhoa Sanchez / Volvo Ocean Race / June 10, 2015Show less

Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing's first night in the Volvo Ocean Race certainly was memorable, in the way disasters often are.

Ian Walker and the crew of Azzam, who had been so impressive in the run-up to the 2011/12 race, had been racing only a few hours when the mast of their sleek new boat folded in half.

Azzam limped back to port in Spain and initial optimism about stepping a new mast and rejoining the race was soon seen to be unreasonable. Ador was out of Leg 1 and, for practical purposes, out of contention for the Volvo championship, too.

Later in the race, deep in the Southern Ocean, Azzam’s hull nearly failed, requiring harrowing repairs and abandonment of that leg, as well.

All of which informed Walker’s and Ador’s approach to the 2014/15 round-the-world “Everest of sailing”. This time, Job 1 would be to keep Azzam in the race.

It is no coincidence the most dependable boat and crew won the current edition of the nine-month race. Winning it with a leg to spare is a bit of a surprise, but less so when we reflect upon Azzam’s unbeatable melding of performance with reliability.

One crew ran their boat on a reef. Another, perhaps pushing too hard in a fierce environment, saw a mast fail near Cape Horn. Others performed erratically, choosing the wrong sail or taking the wrong course.

Azzam pushed on relentlessly, finishing on the podium in the first six legs, winning two of them. For months now, the goal was to get to the next port in once piece and the table would take care of itself.

If any consolation was to be had from the 2011/12 race that found Azzam finishing fifth from six boats, it was the incontrovertible evidence that the boats from Farr Yacht Design, as the original Azzam was, were slower than the rest of the fleet.

What was appealing about the current race, and rewarding, now that it has been won, was the Volvo Ocean Race decision to contest the 2014/15 race in the one-design Volvo Ocean 65 boat.

The hope was that seven teams with identical boats and equipment would create a race environment where the best sailors would win, and it is hard to argue with the results.

If identical boats often made for long bouts of eyeball-to-eyeball inshore-style racing in the bluest of blue-water environments, the length and difficulty of the first six legs, all of at least 5,000 nautical miles, eventually separated the fleet just enough to reward the best.

It often led to sleep deprivation and deep exhaustion but it also was often deeply compelling, with most of the fleet in sight of each other hundreds of miles from any port.

Out of that crucible came the most worthy skipper and crew and boat and team. That would be Ian Walker and the eight men aboard for each leg and Azzam and its pitch-perfect onshore team.

As Azzam learned on that October night in 2011, the Volvo Ocean Race often is a pitiless and punishing competition. But surviving it, winning it, forever identifies a sailor as a member of the oceans’ elite.

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