Volvo Ocean Race - Hands like coal shovels

by Team Brunel - Robbert-Jan Metselaar on 24 Jan 2015 Volvo Ocean Race - A team is as strong as its weakest link. Fortunately, Jens Dolmer is the key shackle in the yellow Brunel chain. Some say he fights bears with his bare hands; all we know is that this sailor is a real tower of strength. He tosses around a bag weighing 25 kilos as if it’s his daughter’s school satchel. But there’s a lot more to this tall Dane than just brute force. And that was proved again this morning.

In the early morning light, we leave the busy Singapore Strait in the company of Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, Alvimedica and Mapfre. We race at top speed, neck and neck between the last super-tankers riding at anchor. We are sailing the last stretch to Sanya pretty much close hauled, which means that we have to cleave through the waves diagonally, head-on. The result is uncomfortable pitching, or more accurately hard ramming. Mapfre and Alvimedica are just behind us. They can clearly see Andrew Cape’s white buttocks hanging overboard while he’s taking a dump. This is not the time to lose ground. Not a metre! Suddenly the Dutch VO65 boat makes an unexpected lurch to the left. Below deck, the diesel engine kicks into life and starts to run on its own, moving the gigantic canting keel to the lee side (the lower side). Immediately we start to heel over dramatically and the boat loses speed.

Most sailors would now think 'What now?' but not Jens Dolmer, who appears to be rinsing out his mouth we acetone. He immediately goes in search of something that seems to lie in the dark depths of the boat. It turns out to be a small chest full of hundreds of plugs, fuses and light bulbs, which looks a bit like a bomb in the film classic Die Hard with Bruce Willis. Finding his way through a labyrinth of electric components with what are said to be the biggest hands in the Volvo Ocean Race fleet, Dolmer is totally unperturbed by the loss of time. Within 60 seconds, the Dane has come up with a way of by-passing the existing system. On deck there is a loud cheer as the keel responds and cants to the windward side (the higher side). The damage done is ‘only’ half a mile.

'Always ask yourself the what if question,' Jens always insists. 'What if we sink? What if we hit an object? Know what you have to do! Be prepared.' And Jens was prepared. If he had not dismantled and reassembled every single component in the boat more than ten times before the start of the race, we would now have to sail to China with the keel in the middle, without a hope of winning.