Planning for the unknown comes naturally for Volvo Ocean Race sailors

The sun is set to rise on the Volvo Ocean Race fleet today with the start of Leg 1, which will see the yachts sail 6,497-nautical miles from Alicante to Cape Town, South Africa. Ainhoa Sanchez / Volvo Ocean RaceShow less

Advantages aside, the caprices and caveats are many. The boats in this year's Volvo Ocean Race are identical and all seven teams have at least a couple of savvy hands on board.

Yet on the open seas, kismet can turn with the tide.

In his first two Volvo races, both of skipper Ian Walker’s boats were damaged during the opening leg.

Six years ago, when piloting the Green Dragon, his boat struck a whale.

Last time around, as skipper of the Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing entry, Azzam, the mast shattered six hours after leaving the Alicante port.

But Mother Nature and fickle fortune aside, as the opening leg to Cape Town begins on Saturday, Azzam has been universally hailed as a front-runner in the nine-month marathon, if not the outright favourite.

Only the Dutch entry, Brunel, has been mentioned in the same speculative class.

That sentiment does not generate a smile from Walker as much as it does a cautious, confident nod as the Volvo’s opening stretch of 24 days at sea beckons.

“We’re exactly where we want to be,” said Walker, 44. “I’d be disappointed if we weren’t sort of well-regarded, having prepared as we have.”

Ignore the “sort of” part. With the most-experienced crew in the seven-boat fleet – Walker’s crew has made a combined 20 Volvo starts – Azzam is a known quantity in a sea of relative uncertainty.

Not surprisingly, the other teams expect to be looking at the sterns of the Dutch and UAE boats for huge chunks of the 39,000-mile race.

“You have to say that Abu Dhabi and Brunel, they probably have the most experience, and they were the two biggest names coming in,” Charlie Enright, the Alvimedica skipper and an event rookie, said.

Handicapping the race was easier in the past, when there were huge gaps in the designs and financial viability of the boats. With a switch to a standardised, one-design yacht this year, the only difference between the boats is the colour scheme and corporate logo on the mainsail.

With all seven skippers looking for places to eke out an extra half-per cent of performance on decidedly equal boats, the Azzam brass whipped out a collective clipboard and began checking boxes months ago.

“I can show you that spreadsheet,” Walker said. “Where we’re gonna train, what we’re gonna do, where we’re gonna race, what day we get to Alicante.

“We have executed that plan. We haven’t had any setbacks, no real distractions.

“We’ve basically had a plan, and hopefully it’s a good one, and we’ve rolled it out. Other teams have had different challenges, whether it’s starting late, a lack of funds, or training a new crew. We rolled straight into it with experienced guys and rolled out our plan and we’re ready to go.”

As an appetiser, Azzam won the Round Britain and Ireland Race, an 1,800-mile event staged under high winds in August. Brunel was one of two boats in the Volvo fleet that did not enter.

“It was a confidence booster,” Walker said. “In actual fact, we sailed very well in tough conditions, generally extended from the fleet and built up a very big lead. It allowed us to know that, under those conditions, we were on the pace, or better than on the pace.”

However, the Dutch crew won the Round Canary Islands race in July.

Brunel’s venerable Bouwe Bekking, 51, is making his seventh Volvo appearance, the most of any skipper, and his crew have made 18 combined starts in yachting’s toughest endurance race.

Dutch boats have won the Volvo race three times, the most of any nation, and the Netherlands have a passionate interest in the sport.

There was not a single Dutch sailor in the Volvo race three years ago, which is hard to believe.

“If we could win it, it would be a huge plus,” Bekking said. “This time Holland is represented, and that’s good for Holland.”

As Bekking was assembling his crew from scratch, Walker was building upon his Azzam experiences from three years ago, when the team was dogged by mechanical issues and finished fifth in a field of six yachts.

Four crewmen return, including navigator Simon Fisher.

“When you’ve got continuity,” Walker said, “you’ve got a head start.”

Any leg up will do.

The crews have been in Spain for the past month, and have spent as much time eyeing the opposition as they have in charting their own futures.

“Inshallah, the Abu Dhabi team will finish in first place,” said UAE crewman Adil Khalid, who is making his second world tour on Azzam.

“We will be on the podium at the end, of that I have no doubt. Of course, we are in better shape than three years ago. We are ready. All the teams have the same boat, so it’s all down to us now and our skill.”

No doubt, beyond the boats, any exercise in comparison is clear.

The crews from Spain and Denmark, aboard Mapfre and Vestas Wind, respectively, were not finalised until mid-summer.

The SCA boat is staffed entirely by women, who historically have not fared well in the gruelling race.

Two crewmen on Dongfeng, the Chinese entry, were described yesterday by their team chief, Bruno Dubois, as “apprentices”.

Enright’s longest uninterrupted stint at sea is 12 days, half the length of the first leg.

“The problem with this race is, there’s 100 ways you can lose it,” Walker said. “You can get injuries, you can hit things, make bad decisions.

So, no matter how much of a favourite that you are, or aren’t, it does not count for very much when you’re out on the ocean.

“With one-design boats, the difference between the favourite and least-favourite won’t be enough to offset some poor sailing, poor decision-making or plain bad luck. It’s going to be tight, for sure.”

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