Ian Walker insists the entire Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing crew will put their “heart and soul” into winning the Volvo Ocean Race.
The 44 year old Azzam captain has enjoyed a 20 year professional career in sailing, including winning two silver medals at the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996 and four years later in Sydney.
Despite being one of Britain’s most successful sailors, he hasn’t managed to win the ocean race in two previous attempts as skipper in 2008/09 and 2011/12.
“I want to win this race,” Walker stated defiantly at an ADOR team press conference at the Volvo Ocean Race destination village in Abu Dhabi yesterday.
“I’ve been sailing for 20 years and spent most of it trying to win medals at the Olympics, but I’ve spent most of the last 10 years trying to win this race.
“I’ve surrounded myself with people who have the same objective.”
While ADOR were the last team to confirm their entry for the last race, Walker said there has been a lot of analysis gone into creating a clear blueprint for the latest edition of the ocean race epic.
A six month training plan and building a knowledgeable and skilled team is already paying dividends, with Azzam winning the first leg from Alicante to Cape Town and claiming third place in the second from Cape Town to Abu Dhabi.
“We’ve seen in race so far that the teams who are doing well are the ones who’ve spent the most time out on the water. They’re at the top of the leaderboard.”
Walker preached that experience was the major factor guiding him as he put his crew together.
“The key word is experience in sailing and we are the most experienced team in this race, with over 20 years race experience between us.” he said.
Trimmer and helmsman Roberto de Castro is a real veteran of the race, having completed six already, while it is navigator Simon Fisher’s fourth Volvo Ocean Race.
Phil Harmer won the last race with Groupama 4 and New Zealander Daryl Wislang was second in 2011/12 with CAMPER.
Irishman Justin Slattery is also a previous winner and is back on board ADOR for a second time, along with Emirati Adil Khalid.
The only race rookie is Australian bowman and helmsman Luke Parkinson, although he has raced with Walker before.
“One thing we did was to try and get a selection of people from different teams in the last race,” said Walker.
After winning the opening leg, ADOR came home to Abu Dhabi third, although podium places are what Walker is targeting throughout the nine legs.
“We would have liked to have won (this leg) but we couldn’t have put more into winning it,” he said.
“Our emphasis is on consistency. Our aim is to finish in the top three each leg with a view to maintaining that consistency that we feel will win us the race at the end of 39,000 miles.
“You can see already it’s going to be a tight race. We’ve had tight finishes so far and that theme will continue.
“The VOR is something we put our heart and soul into for a long period of time. We’re very proud of the group we’ve put together. We do this race and this sport because we love what we do, we love the challenge.”
Walker said his best decision so far has been sailing west of the Cape Verde islands in the first leg that ultimately put them in a psotion to win it.
The next leg begins on January 3 and will see the fleet sail to Sanya, China.
