Volvo Ocean Race - Beating heart of Team Brunel

by Team Brunel - Robbert-Jan Metselaar on 7 Mar 2015 With the wind blowing obliquely towards it, the yellow hull of Team Brunel is lifted by a high wave and then thrown ruthlessly into a deep trough. On a downwind course, the bow buries itself violently into huge mountains of water. Gallons of foaming water stream through the gunwales and the cockpit. For six months, the Dutch racing yacht has been exposed to the elements. And now it’s time for major maintenance work, partly through the efforts of the 12-man shore crew.

At the dockside of the Hobson West Marina there are six differently coloured team bases. The Team Brunel base consists of a big tent and two sea containers. One of these containers houses the workplace for the technical shore crew. The other container is used for storing food and spare parts, among other things. And the team also has two mobile offices.

During the stopovers, the operational and technical shore crew work hard on keeping the boat in tip-top condition, and on getting the sailors fit on time for the next leg. Under the leadership of operational shore crew manager Anita van Oeveren, all operational and technical tasks are performed just as they should be. The permanent shore team of Team Brunel also consists of sponsor manager Diederik Forma, team coach Anje-Marijcke van Boxtel, PR manager Robbert-Jan Metselaar, physiotherapist Mark Haak, team director Gideon Messink and technical shore manager Arjen van Gent. The technical crew also includes permanent employees Juan Pinacho and Thomas Ivanauskas.

The shore crew is the driving force behind the team. Both during stopovers and the legs, they keep the team’s engine running. 'The stopovers are the busiest times for us,' says Anita van Oeveren. 'More than a week before the boats reach the finish, I travel to the stopover location with the technical shore crew.

Once we arrive, our first task is to build the team base. This takes about two or three days. In the days before the finish of the leg, I’m also busy organising the logistics. Everything has to be ready when the sailors cross the finish line. The fridge in the apartment has to be filled, the TV has to work and their personal effects have to be in the right house. I also have to fill in the many customs papers and help the technical crew to order parts. As well as that, the shore crew has to have a hearty lunch and an evening meal ready for them. The sailors generally arrange their own meals. I’m helped in my work by a local contact.'

In Auckland, Anita van Oeveren is being helped by Anne-Marie Poels. 'I’ve been living in Auckland for some time,' says the 30-year-old blonde from Limburg. 'I normally work for the company Explore NZ, which rents out various sailing boats, including two old America’s Cup and two former Whitbread Round The World Race boats. I came into contact with Team Brunel through a colleague. I help the shore crew with local contacts and drive through the city in the team car to shop for the technical shore crew, among other things. Today, I’m helping Mark with vacuum-packing the sailors’ food.'

'The sailors are now spending a few days away with their families,' adds physiotherapist Mark Haak. 'So right now, there’s no opportunity to train or treat the boys. That’s why I’m using these days to pack the food for the next leg. Stefan Coppers and Louis Balcaen are ultimately responsible for the food. We give the food bags a final check before they’re lifted on board.'

While Mark and Anne-Marie carry on packing the food bags, in the other office team director Gideon Messink is making a lot of phone calls. The former Whitbread Round the World Race sailor is the leader of Team Brunel. 'That was the CEO of our main sponsor Brunel,' says Messink laying down his mobile phone next to his laptop. 'I keep in contact with the management of the Volvo Ocean Race organisation and our sponsors. I also make sure we don’t spend too much money.' Messink is helped in his contacts with the sponsors by sponsor manager Diederik Forma. 'For me, the most work comes in the last week of the stopover. That’s when our sponsors visit the team and when the Pro-Am races are sailed. These competitions were devised to give our sponsors and their business contacts an opportunity to see how it feels to sail on a Volvo Ocean Race boat. I organise the schedule and logistics for that.'

Diederik works closely with PR manager Robbert-Jan Metselaar. 'My most important task is to ensure that the media write about Team Brunel,' says the former editor-in-chief of the water sports magazine Nautique. 'I write press releases and take photos for the website and social media. I’m also responsible for planning interviews with the sailors. And I give journalists guided tours of the team base and the boat.'

After each leg, it’s the job of the technical shore crew to get the boat back into tip-top condition. 'My team consists of two permanent employees and two freelancers,' says technical shore crew manager Arjen van Gent, as he sands off a carbon-fibre dagger board with an electric sander. 'We’re responsible for maintaining and repairing the boat. Once the lads have crossed the finish line, we start cleaning the boat straight away. After that, we start with maintenance and any repairs. A day before the finish, I asked Jens Dolmer for a work list. The list enables us to draw up a work schedule and buy parts. Next to the team base, we have a workplace where we carry out maintenance on small components. We do maintenance work on the boom, the mast and the daggerboards outside in front of the tent. We have two team-base sets, one of which goes straight on to the next stopover. The set from Auckland goes to Newport and the set from Sanya goes to Brazil.'

On the scaffold under the boat, the Dutchman Henk Speerstra and the New Zealander Roger Woodbury are polishing the hull. 'I’m travelling around the world and got into contact with Team Brunel through Facebook. I’m a carpenter who gained his sailing experience on a Skûtsje,' says the sturdy Frieslander, laughing. 'And now I’m on the other side of the world working on the hull of a carbon-fibre racing boat.' His colleague Roger Woodbury lives in Auckland and has been involved with Team Brunel since Sanya.

Because the race is exactly halfway through, and the hardest leg is ahead, all the boats get a major overhaul in Auckland. 'You can compare it with a car that has to have a major service every 20,000 kilometres. The garage replaces the brake pads, various filters and maybe the fan-belt. In the case of a Volvo Ocean Race boat, things like the keel, the rudders and the mast get a thorough going-over. All the carbon-fibre components are also checked for cracks with an x-ray machine. '

'Although the boat is on shore, we don’t remove the keel. We do check, clean and lubricate the bearings and the canting mechanism, however. Apart from that, we take the winches apart, inspect every part and repair or replace them as need be. We also turn the daggerboards round. The lower parts of the boards are damaged by raising and lowering them. Because the daggerboards are symmetrical, they can be inverted without any problem. So we virtually sail with new, undamaged daggerboards.'

The mast is also taken apart. 'We’ve dismantled, examined, cleaned and, if necessary, replaced all moving parts. The spreaders and boom are also removed, checked and cleaned. When we set up the boat again on Sunday, we’ll replace a major part of the shrouds, halyards and part of the stays. Because the mainsheet and the moving parts of the backstays don’t last out for half of the Volvo Ocean Race, we replaced those parts in Sanya already.'

Although Arjen and his men do most of the maintenance themselves, they get the help of specialists for some of the jobs. 'Ramming into the waves for long periods has resulted in a small crack in the bow,' continues Arjen van Gent. 'This is a job for a specialist that we’re happy to leave to an expert at the Volvo Ocean Race boatyard. In simple terms, the hull consists of two layers of carbon fibre with a layer of foam between them. There’s a crack in this structure in our boat. So first they will cut away the bottom layer of carbon fibre, then a new piece of foam will be fitted, and the hole will be cleanly sealed with a piece of carbon fibre. After that, the whole section will be sanded smooth. Finally, part of the hull will be spray-painted again and the entire hull will be polished. '

The technical shore crew works long hours to get the boat ready. 'Because the lads will start the most severe leg of the race in ten days’ time, the boat must be more than a hundred per cent in order. That’s why we’re looking for problems – before they turn into big problems. A bolt that hasn’t been tightened properly or a worn halyard can be fatal. Perfection takes time. We begin at seven thirty in the morning and work about twelve hours a day. We can’t just lay down tools at five o’clock. The boat has to be back in the water on Monday 9 March at the latest, so that the sailors can train again and we can give our sponsors the thrill of their lives.'