Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing skipper Ian Walker has declared it’s now “down to business” as the 2014/15 Volvo Ocean Race sets sail today.
After seven months of gruelling training, the captain of the boat named Azzam – Arabic for determination – is hell bent on banishing the painful memory of three years ago and steering his team to first place in Sweden next June.
Walker, a two-time Olympic Games silver medalist, is confident about ADOR’s chances over the next nine months, and knows that if his crew captures the title of Volvo Ocean Race winners 2014/15, they will have earned it.
For the first time in the event’s 41-year history, every team is on a level playing field after organisers adapted the rules resulting in all boats competing in the race having to be built to the same specifications.
“It means that the boat in the lead will be there because it’s the one that’s sailed the best,” said Walker. “The boats are more reliable, so now it’s purely down to the teams and the race will be a test of trimming, steering, navigating and teamwork.”
Walker, who won silver in the 470 class at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and then in the Star four years later in Sydney, said his team have trained well in preparation for the race, covering 19,000 nautical miles (half the actual distance the of race) since they began the groundwork back in February.
Walker added: “We can control ourselves, we can’t control the other teams, and we’re happy with ourselves.”
In terms of the VOR, the Abu Dhabi team is the most experienced crew of the seven who will set sail from Alicante, Spain, today (start: 16:00, UAE time) on the first leg of the race, heading 6,400 miles south to Cape Town, South Africa.
“We’ve got a good mix of youth and experience, I handpicked them and I wouldn’t swap them for anyone,” Walker said of his seven strong crew, plus one multimedia reporter.
There have been encouraging results leading up to the race with Azzam claiming the Round Britain race and finishing second behind the US-based Team Alvimedica – the youngest crew in the competition – in last week’s in-port race.
Five of the crew have sailed with Walker previously, and four were on board in the 2011/12 VOR. On that occasion, the early promise of winning the Alicante in-port race turned to disaster on the opening night of the actual race, when the ship’s mast broke and forced the team back to Spanish shores.
Walker said: “It was a different boat and design and included some radical, carbon fibre rigging. It had been through six months of testing but on the first night the rigging failed and that led to the mast breaking.
“We were out of the first leg and were always playing catch-up – it’s certainly something we’re not looking to repeat.”
Walker and his band of brothers are seen as one of the frontrunners for the VOR title but the skipper believes every team will have their chance.
“Brunel have the most experienced skipper in Bouwe Bekking, with this being his seventh race, and they’ve had similar training to us, while Spanish team Mapfre are led by Olympic gold medalist Iker Martinez,” he added.
There is also sure to be considerable focus on Sweden’s Team SCA who have first all-female crew in the race in more than a decade.
Even though his eyes are firmly fixed on the overall prize, Walker admits that a win on leg two, from Cape Town to ADOR’s home port of Abu Dhabi, will be something he and the whole crew will be keen to navigate towards, and would make for a lovely early Christmas present, with the crew set to arrive in the Arabian Gulf in mid-December.
