Lisa McDonald, Volvo womens skipper talks about their campaign

by Volvo Ocean racee media on 8 Jun 2002 Lisa McDonald, skipper Amer Sports Too, pre-start leg nine Volvo Ocean
Race

Q: What do you think of the current Volvo Ocean Race and would you
consider doing it again?

A: It’s a great race to be a part of, it is more than just a race, it is a
regatta, it’s a year of your life, it is a great bunch of people who do
this crazy sailing for their livelihood, as well as take part in the event
and look after the event. You’d be silly to say you wouldn’t want to take
part in it, I would definitely like to look at how I take part in the next
race, and I would be very keen for Volvo to let us know, sooner rather
than later, how they plan to evolve into the next stage of what they’re
going to do with the next event.

Q: Would you like to see a gearing towards a boat in favour of women,
rather than a team of females on a boat that needs 1.5 tons of sails
moved?

A: There are no simple questions, answers or explanations for how the boat
should go forward and how it should be developed. I certainly believe
there is room for bringing the current fleet up to date, or evolving into
a new fleet. It doesn’t matter what the boat is, I personally would like
to see a campaign which is tailored for people our size – it’s not just
the boat, it’s not the sails, it is not just one thing in particular.
There has never been a female team, over the four generations of female
teams, which have had the time, money and preparation to be sailing in a
boat which is tailored to their needs

Q: What are the biggest lessons you have learnt this race?

A: You never can learn enough, every time you turn around you are learning
something new, how to deal with a situation, how to find adjustments and
fine tuning on manoeuvring the boat, how to squeeze every last drop of
maximum potential out of everything you do on board. It is a ridiculous
way we live, we don’t have any of the comforts that people normally think
about sailing, nor should we if we are pushing the rules to the limit. I
think you learn how to deal with it and how to make it work for you as you
go.

Q: You came into this race incredibly late, perhaps you wouldn’t come in
so late again?

A: When we finish this race in less than a week’s time in Kiel, if you
take a year from that date, this race wasn’t even an option for me, or the
girls, we weren’t even thinking about it. We were watching all the teams
get fired up and thinking ‘oh well, there’s no options at this stage’.
Then literally within two weeks Grant Dalton rang with the idea from
Nautor Challenge, and it happened! Grant Dalton, Nautor Challenge, Amer
Sports and UBS all came together and made the impossible happen, and if
they hadn’t and we hadn’t taken it on, I would have hated sitting there
watching the race. I was looking forward to the next race, but if you skip
a generation you have twice as much to learn, at least this time we were
given a great boat, we had a great infrastructure of a campaign already in
place, all we had to do was come in and do the sailing and it has been a
fantastic opportunity for both us and our sponsors.

Q: You have 13 women with lots of experience that will help you in four
years time.

A: We’re starting to stack up the experience as the guys around us have
years of more experience than us. We’re starting to stack it up, girls are
staying in the sport a bit longer and women in sailing is changing all the
time, you have to stay in the sport longer in order to learn enough to do
better – it’s a roll-on effect. The opportunity that Nautor Challenge has
given us has helped us with the next stage of that – next year it would be
great to be able to have enough preparation to build and design a boat
where everything is the right size for us, the right gearing for us.

Q: You must be tired now..

A: I am absolutely shattered. For our team in particular, the last month
has really taken it out of us; less than a month ago we were in Halifax
with a wounded boat and a mentally wounded crew. When we retired from leg
seven across the Atlantic we didn’t know if we would be able to finish the
race, it all happened over a matter of 10 days when we were able to work
with our sponsors, our shore team and logistic side, racing to get the
boat to La Rochelle for leg eight. Leaving La Rochelle, we were in
ridiculously rough conditions, and we raced up here with a knackered crew,
to Gothenburg which has been one of the best stops in the whole race.
We’re now looking forward to Kiel, we’ve pushed through, wanting to make
it to the bitter end, and we will.

I think the whole crew is really tired, we were racing to the start line.
This time a year ago the first of the boats had been launched, the boys
had started sailing it in France and had already brought themselves
together and were on their way to the start. We weren’t even a thought or
a phone call at that stage, and it has been a really long arduous ten
months, the job that the girls has done has been commendable – they really
have pulled through from the eleventh hour, to the hell of a broken rig
and having cookers go down the Southern Ocean, hitting fish, water makers
down – all the dramas they’ve all come through, I think that is highly
commendable for each and everyone of them. We have been against the odds
seaside and shore side, racing to the starts, but I can’t speak for them,
but I can say it is a very emotional time for us and I just hope what we
have learnt this time we can take to the next stage.