A Big Day for Womens Sailing...Volvo Leg 8 finish

by . on 11 Jun 2015 Today was one for the ages, on three fronts, with the finish of Leg 8 of the Volvo Ocean Race.

First the win by the women's crew aboard Team SCA. In winning Leg 8 of the Volvo Ocean Race, Sam Edwards, and her crew have achieved the most significant milestone yet for women's crews in sailing.

This is the first time a women's crew have won a Leg in the premier division of ocean racing against male crews.

Had this race been a light airs drifter with the Volvo 65's ghosting along from Lisbon to Lorient, there may have been grounds for calling this a soft win, but this was not the case on Leg 8.

The second half of the race was a heavy air upwind bash across one of the most treacherous stretches of sea in the world.

The first half was sailed in lighter winds, and as the same crew demonstrated in their exit from the Mediterranean, they could make the right calls in coastal racing and they did this on the first night, snatching a lead that they defended for the rest of the leg.

Most were expecting the women's crew to wilt in the torrid conditions. But they did not flinch, and held or increased their margin against a chasing pack any one of which would have loved to have gotten Team SCA between them and the others in their vicinity on the points table.

The Team SCA crew came in for some fairly negative and pointed questioning in Newport RI during the previous stopover, as to why they were not winning and always seemed to be dropping off the pace. Given that there had been no women's crews in the Volvo Ocean Race 2001-02 Event. That is a gap of over 12 years. How would a male crew perform against this top fleet of mostly RTW race veterans, with none of them having sailed in the event for 12 years?

Team SCA answered their critics over the past four days, set the new standard for women's sailing, and did their first coach, the late Magnus Olsson proud.

Hopefully, this performance will fire up their sponsor for another crack, and encourage other women's crews to do the same in coming races. This result is great for women's offshore sailing but it is also hugely exciting for the sport as the door is now open for women's crews to compete on an equal basis with their male counterparts - which can only mean bigger fleets and more women in sailing, which is just fantastic.

Second, congratulations to Chris Nicholson and the sailing crew and entire team behind Team Vestas Wind. Just making the start line just over six months after running aground in the Indian Ocean, being fitted with a new hull and recycled deck and then being re-launched just over a week before the Leg start is a major achievement.

But turning around with minimal test sailing and doing the upwind bash across the Bay of Biscay in winds that gusted to 40kts to take second place - an improvement on their first Leg placing of 4th.

As Chris Nicholson recalled in today's Media Conference 'We'd never before been out in those windy and rough conditions. It is quite a tribute to all those who rebuilt the boat, and all the contractors and work that went into it. I think it is pretty amazing to think we got the boat here and to finish second was great for us.'

The boat proved to be hardier than the sailors. Several of the Team Vestas Wind crew were sea-sick during the bash across the Bay of Biscay, including Whitbread and Volvo Ocean Race veteran Tony Rae. This was no walk in the park.

Third congratulations to Ian Walker, and the crew of Abu Dhabi, who have won the overall trophy for the Volvo Ocean Race, with a leg to spare. It is a great result for the double Olympic medalist and his crew, who until Leg 7 had finished in the medal podium in every leg.

It was a huge comeback for Walker and Abu Dhabi - the team had finished fifth out of six boats in the previous edition of the Volvo Ocean Race - after losing their mast on the first night of the first leg, and then suffering structural damage leaving Auckland.

As Walker noted in the skippers' media conference: 'We all learn by experience, and sometimes those experiences are not that enjoyable. Sometimes they hurt. Everyone here has experienced the success of winning at some stage in their career and have suffered the pain of defeat. It makes us who we are and makes us better sailors. It is when you go through the bad times it makes the good ones all that more enjoyable. If it was all good times, then you'd get bored with it. You have to go through a bit of pain to understand what it feels like when you do well.'

Walker also made a special point of thanking his sponsors for staying involved after the 2011-12 race - their loyalty was more than rewarded.

Fourthly, congratulations on Ian Walker achieving another milestone in sailing history to become the first British skipper to win a Round the World Race in either the Volvo or Whitbread editions.

The NZL Sailing Team is off to a good start in the ISAF Sailing World Cup Regatta in Weymouth, UK topping the leaderboard in three classes and lying second in a fourth. We have the report in this edition of Sail-World.com and will be running daily updates and images until the regatta completes on Sunday.

Emirates Team New Zealand hit the headlines today, for all the wrong reasons. Th exit of three team members - Chief Designer Nick Holroyd and grinders Winston Macfarlane and Derek Saward. It is not yet known where they are headed if indeed anywhere.

The departures were yet another bone tossed to the NZ media by the Team.

Sooner or later someone in the Team has to twig that whatever snippets of information come into the hands of the Kiwi media, there will be a negative story generated.

Hark back to the early days of the San Francisco regatta, and the Kiwi media were calling for CEO Grant Dalton to be on board the boat, as someone in the newsroom had noticed that whenever Dalton was on board, the team won. After the regatta was over the same media deemed Dalton was too old for the job and should never have been on the boat at all.

Then there was the inquisition as to whether the so-called three-time loser Dean Barker should remain as skipper, or should someone new be tried in the role. A year later when Barker was eased sideways, and elects to leave the team, suddenly it becomes a huge blow for the team - and can the Team survive the loss of Barker's talent, they asked - forgetting that a few months before he was deemed to be well past his use-by date by the sages of the media.

Then there was the constant hammering about the Government money in Team New Zealand and whether this was justified for a team that hadn't won the America's Cup in 15 years. (Ignoring the fact that the All Blacks had a siesta of 25 years between World Cup wins.) No sooner does the Government funding get pulled, then the same media are wondering whether the team will survive financially.

Then there is a the resignation of the Chairman of the Board - 'Will the team survive this latest crisis', shrieked the headlines. Why is this a crisis? Board members come and go in real life, and merit hardly a mention in the media - but Team New Zealand cop the big Headline.

Most organisations understand that if you want to defuse a potential media bombshell, you front-foot the issue. Get the information into the media in a controlled way as soon as it is known and dampen down the issue from the outset. Outwardly, it at least looks like you are in control of your situation

The trick of sitting tight with cheeks clenched hoping no-one notices you have just farted never worked in the school room, and it doesn't work in the world of America's Cup PR either. Someone always notices, and embarrassment surely follows, particularly when your classmates know you are a serial offender, and can't wait to tell the teacher.

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Good sailing!

Richard Gladwell
NZ Editor

sailworldnzl@gmail.com

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