Volvo Ocean Race - The Race within the Race

by Rob Kothe & Jedda Murphy on 7 Feb 2015 Before the Volvo Ocean Race 2014-2015 started CEO Knut Frostad said he hoped that the crews would be the focus of this race and that he felt the one design concept certainly would go a long way towards that.

Now it seems the experiences of the Team Vestas Wind crew through the crash and rebuild of their badly damaged boat and it’s hoped for re-entry in the race could very much be THE story of this 2014-2015 Volvo Ocean Race.

Sail-World has been talking with Knut Frostad about the Vestas saga:

He told us - ‘The rebuilt Team Vestas Wind boat has to come as a one design boat. They cannot come in anywhere else. We cannot say this boat doesn’t measure but we are going to allow it in. The day we do that we destroy our own strategy.

‘Of course if it was an open class boat that would had to measure and inside the measurement you could play with what you wanted you could add the cfdonsfengarbon here and there and the structure right left and centre.

‘You cannot do that in this case. We have tolerances for weight. We have tolerances for measurements and it has plus and minuses on each side. You are not allowed to put an extra bulk head or anything. You are not allowed to do anything.

‘It has to be like it was but that said it’s quite remarkable what you can do today with carbon.

‘In the America’s Cup they cut boats in half and they put new sections on them and obviously this boat will be built brought back to one design and it will be brought back to the same quality level as the others. The challenge is to do this in time.

‘Lisbon is their target. Are we confident? Do we know that is going to happen? No because honestly, because it’s not been done before.

‘The boat went to Malaysia and in Malaysia we flew in all the accomplished experts who work in the race and we have the best guys. They do Formula One and they did the two last races and they tested the whole boat.

‘They scraped up all the areas that are delaminated and the designers Farr have gone through all this through their recommendation but until you get the boat physically in your hand and you then see can we keep this boat.

‘Is it 100% intact. Is there just a minor repair needed or is it slightly even bigger and on top on that this really hasn’t been done in the one design concept before and you can’t say that keel structure is ok and I will use it.

‘Either it is 100% or it is not so they have a plan today which is pretty conservative which just makes it to Lisbon.

‘That plan is that they have to replace X, Y or Z and then maybe they have to replace less`, maybe they have some problem they don’t know about today and they have to do more. You don’t know.

‘It is a race against time. That I can tell you. It is an insane race against time and they are going to work day and night.
‘Persico Marine has made a separate building for those boat. They got hold of an extra building next to their yard. Torn down one of the walls and built a new door, got this one building dedicated to it and the team, are going to be there day and night.

‘Nico is going to be there. The team is going to be part of the group helping. They just need arms and hands.
Asked about how the Danish sponsor Vestas, the world’s largest wind turbine builder had responded to the disaster which has taken their boat out of the race.

Frostad responded. ‘‘The Vestas company attitude has been fantastic. The great thing was they got the taste in the first two stopovers how this could work and it worked really well for them and they had extremely positive feedback from the
customers and internally.

‘Then I think they were very overwhelmed by the atmosphere we have in the race right now because the one design has broken down the barriers between the teams so all the teams got together immediately the crash and said hey we are going to help.

‘In Abu Dhabi Vestas customers were there. They had the full customer programme, sailing on all the other boats as guests.

‘I have never seen that happen before. This was organised by Mark Turner from Dongfeng but all the teams CEOs got together and said how we help our friend who is struck on a reef, because we want to keep them in the race.

‘We want to encourage Vestas to continue and they offered free programme spots in the ports.

‘So all the team have allocated guest spots on their boats in all the ports. Some teams have even given guest spots in the inport races where they only have one spot available.

‘The other teams have offered branding opportunities to Vestas.

‘The boats left the dock in Abu Dhabi and they were all flying a flag we support Team Vestas Wind.

‘It was endless.

‘For Vestas they are new to this sport and they said wow what an atmosphere. I think it was touching. The Vestas CEO had seen the speech at the prize giving at Abu Dhabi and he was touched.

‘This is good for our sport if we can build on that kind of atmosphere because it is going to make it for sponsors so much more interesting to be in this sport when you know that this is just not an arms and legs and elbows game where we fight against who gets the biggest branding.

‘In fact we care and so Vestas even in Abu Dhabi they had their clients out sailing and enjoying. Chris Nicholson was there. He gave them a fantastic speech. Told them the whole traumatic story he has been through.

‘We are keeping the story alive so when Vestas, now in China without the boat will have a significant presence.

‘We have rebranded the half model we have of the boat in Sanya. We have a cross section of the boat. It has been rebranded completely into the Vestas boat.

‘We have a new film in the cinema we are transporting around the world about the crash.

‘Chris Nicholson will be there. He is going to tour take the clients around and tell them the story and the Inport Race will be called the Team Vestas Wind Inport Race.’ Frostad concluded.

It’s an amazing attitude change in what has been for many years a hard race, sailed by hard men.

So now there are two races. While the remaining six teams continue on the Sanya to Auckland leg and then onto Cape Horn and up the Atlantic, the Vestas crew will be in Italy, with Brian Carlin, their very talented OBR and we look forward to watching the ‘other’ race.

Can Team Vestas Wind sail proudly out of Lisbon on the final legs of this race?

Time will tell but it certainly already added another element to what is definitely the most interesting VOR in the race history.