Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing’s Justin Slattery says the team must strive to get better every day if they are going to win the Volvo Ocean Race.
Azzam’s bowman, trimmer and helmsman says the crew are pleased with how they have done so far, but knows only continual progression will see them crowned overall race winners in Gothenburg next June.
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Slattery is the most experienced Irishman to have competed in the ocean voyage epic, with 2014/15’s edition being his fifth race, and he knows what it takes to win too, having been on board the victorious ABN Amro in 2005/06.
“You can never relax, you have to strive to make differences and get better,” said the Cork native.
“We’re in a good place but we’ve got to keep getting better. If we don’t, we’ll start to slip. We’ve got to maintain our consistency.”
This is Slattery’s third straight stint racing alongside his skipper Ian Walker, having been part of the ADOR crew three years ago and Green Dragon in 2008/09.
He said: “We’re comfortable with where we are but we’ve also got our guard up. There’s a long way to go.
“We’re only two legs of nine into the race, there’s still 20,000 miles or more to go. It’s going to be a long seven months.”
Slattery popped home for a few days after arriving in Abu Dhabi, where ADOR finished third, but he’s back in the UAE capital now.
“It’s fantastic to be back in Abu Dhabi as it was a pretty long leg up here, a lot of sailing,” said Slattery.
“It’s not for the faint hearted. It’s the sort of race that’ll wear you down after a while, so I was really looking forward to that (going home and seeing family), because before we know it we’ll be back on the boat and off again.”
Meanwhile, the Team Vestas boat is off the rocks of the St Brandon reef that it ran aground on at 19 knots (35kph) three weeks ago.
Vestas’ shore manager Neil Cox and boat skipper Chris Nicholson oversaw a three-day operation to lift it off the reef and onto a Maersk container ship.
