Volvo Ocean Race – Ref! Ref! Substitution!
by Team Brunel - Robbert-Jan Metselaar on 4 May 2015
Onboard Team Brunel. On the grinder trimming the sails after a sail change. Stefan Coppers/Team Brunel
'Hello love, how did it go at work today?” It was great! I spent six hours grinding a sort of big mincing machine and from time to time they threw a bucket of water in my face. Who’d be a sailor in the Volvo ocean Race? You either like it or you don’t!
Of course, it’s a great job. You and your mates see the most beautiful places in the world. And you also race against other boats. Priceless, right? Well, not exactly. You see, you’re forgetting that on every watch the men have to spend at least two hours cranking the mincing machines to raise the sails and trim them. And they have three watches a day, which makes a total of six hours cranking or grinding as they call it in sailors’ jargon. Six hours times 150 days makes 900 hours of grinding. Over nine months, that means grinding non-stop for the duration of 600 football matches!
It doesn’t look much on TV when you see one of those big muscled guys grinding away at one of those things. But for the sailors, grinding is the most important thing there is.
On a broad reach, the sailors ensure that the boat stays riding the wave by grinding extra fast (in this case that means pulling the sail in). It’s the same as a windsurfer does by pumping on the surfboard with his forefoot! A ‘pussy grind’, as the crew calls a weak or slow grind, can mean that we miss a wave. That can lose us 100 metres. And that might be those 100 metres that we’ve already lacked on two occasions when crossing the finish line. But that’s another story.
How many players in the English Premier League could handle 600 matches a year? None. In fact, with 20 teams in the league that means 10 matches per weekend. And for a total of 38 matches per season, that makes only 380 matches a year for the entire league!
Which means that whenever a whistle blows to start a match somewhere in England, there’s always one sailor busy grinding during the Volvo Ocean Race! And it stays that way for the entire season. In all sorts of weather conditions!
And then there are still 220 entire matches left over. And we haven’t even mentioned steering. Or humping sails, spares and provisions. Or....or...ref? Substitution!
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