Volvo Ocean Race - Knut Frostad on lessons learned
by Rob Kothe on 26 Jun 2015
June 25,2015. Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing and Team Vestas Wind during the ProAm 1 Race in Gothenburg. Victor Fraile/Volvo Ocean Race
http://www.volcooceanrace.com
With the offshore program completed but an inshore race in Gothenburg still to be sailed, Volvo Ocean Race CEO Knut Frostad, who is very passionate about the event is very much looking forward to the next race.
Here is the first part of a long debrief he gave us this week:
On lessons learned -‘we have learned that we want to keep a lot of the things we are doing. The one design format was a success. We think that the shared services was a success.
‘We will keep obviously the boat and the main format of the racing that is very clear.
We learned in this race that the most successful stopovers are where sailing has a huge passion among the people who live there - and I would highlight probably in Newport and Auckland for that.
And that was big success for us, so we are really pleased with that. Then obviously what we discovered on land is, we had really good numbers on public attendance.
‘We are definitely going to beat the numbers from the last race. And especially in the last part of the race, we've had very, very good footfall figures.
‘Last weekend, we had almost just on the start day, we had almost 70 000 in The Hague, and they were inside the race village.
‘And I don't know how many people were outside it, but it was thousands and thousands. And that is incredible for a sailing event.
‘And then, I think for the footfall, we pushed quite hard this time on doing things with the public that was very hardcore sailing.
‘For example, the most successful piece we have had in the race village has been the cross section of the boats. We developed a half cross section of a full sized Volvo Ocean 65, and it has been the most popular element in the village. I mean, more than 400 000 people have climbed through that model.
‘And I think that tells us that in the next race we can do even more. That is hardcore sailing, like really giving people the real sailing experience, and not be afraid of making it - very true to the sport.
‘And then we have learned also that we need to make sure that all the boats have very good preparations, and know everything about every reef in the Indian Ocean.
‘For 2017 we are expecting the existing boats to take part, all of them. But who are the owners of the boats, and who the sponsors will be is not decided yet.
‘We are in dialogue with almost all the sponsors of the existing race about continuing. But it's the sponsor’s decision obviously if they do that.
And we have created a setup where we can build now three more boats for the fleet, bringing the fleet up to 10 boats. ‘
Asked about strong and weak points of the VO65 one design Frostad continued
‘I think the strong points, of the boat we have is - first of all, that it's a one design boat, and that is a very, very true one design. We spent a lot of resources and energy on making sure that the boats were identical. Inside one millimeter pretty much across the whole boat. And I think that has been very successful. There's no one who's been able to prove a single difference between any of the boats, on any of their equipment.
‘Another strong point I think is that it's, I think it's clearly a safer boat for the crew. More crew protection than what we had in the past. And a much, much stronger boat than what we had in the past.
‘I can say touch wood that the whole way around the world, we haven't had one single composite problem. That means that we haven't had a single problem or a single fault of composite structures. So no delamination’s, no shearing or core failure or broken pieces of the hull.
‘And if we have had any damage to the boats, it has been due to boats crashing with something. Either crashing with another boat, or in one instance, crashing with the reef. Which obviously was quite dramatic. So for me, that is a big, big step, and a big positive step.
‘Because I've been through these races so many times, and both as a job as the CEO, but also racing them. And seeing how many times boats have failed due to basically a technical failure, and not because of crashing. And that is not very good for the sport, not so good for the sponsors, and not good for the team. So I think that it's a good step.
‘It's something that sailors unfortunately and teams forget very quickly. Because now they get used to not having problems with the boats that they're stopping them from finishing.
‘But I still remember very well three years ago when we had a lot of boats not finishing races.
‘If there's any weaknesses of the boats, I think that - I think you will always find sailors who would say that, 'We could've had more performance in the boats.' But on the other side, the performance you push on the boats, it will always be related one way or the other to the reliability of the boat.
‘So we know that the stability of the boat is significantly lowered on the Volvo 70. That means that it's not as fast reaching, and in some conditions - still it's a very fast boat downwind. Downwind, we almost have the same performance.
‘And for those who you have heard that someone has said that, 'The boat is slow,'
‘I can just give one example from New Zealand and Auckland to Brazil and Itajaí. We sailed exact same leg as we did three years ago with the 70 footers. And the 65's were almost one day faster. That obviously also has to do with the weather conditions.
‘But you're not one day faster if you're a bloody slow boat. So, and you know we didn't do a new World Record with the boats. We did just over 550 miles, it's not very slow to do 550 miles. But I think, honestly that has more to do with the conditions you needed to set the record.
‘But we never had a perfect 24 hour with the right angle, with the right conditions for the whole 24 hours. In fact when Abu Dhabi set the record in this race, they did it just before Cape Horn, and they were stopped by Cape Horn basically, they couldn't go beyond to actually stretch that record much further.
‘So I still think that the boats have the performance we need, and I still think it's a good model. And one day the Volvo Ocean Race will also change its class, because we have no intention of keeping it forever. But we clearly will keep it to the next race.
‘There's no doubt about it, and we are not going to change the boat fundamentally.
‘We're going to do some refit to it, and we're going to do some upgrades over the winter, next 2016-17. But not a massive change. ‘
In Part II Frostad talks about crew numbers, AIS, possible changes to the boat and the route and format for 2017, some team performances and new teams that might emerge.
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