Volvo Ocean Race Australia's Luke ‘Parko’ Parkinson recaps

by Ian Thomson on 27 Jun 2015 The 12th edition of the Volvo Ocean Race officially finishes tomorrow and I thought it was a good opportunity to tell the story of the crew from down under who have been part of this successful campaign. Today, we start with Parko, one of the two Under 30s that each team was required to have.

Parko grew up in Western Australia and started sailing when he was seven. I met him in Sydney back in 2010 when we were preparing for the Sydney to Hobart. Parko was sailing on Bill Wild’s Rodd and Gunn Wedgetail at the time and as he has a passion for the oceans, that led us to get to know each other a little.

Parko was a seasoned campaigner on the Olympic Class circuit sailing in the 49er class and in 2013 represented his country in the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup. With Wedgetail taking a few years off racing after the 2010 Hobart, he started racing on Syd Fisher’s Ragamuffin. This is where he met Whitty who he thanks for his big break that every young sailor dreams of. He got a chance to do a Trans-Atlantic with Ian Walker and from this he was invited to sail with Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing in this edition of the Volvo Ocean Race.

Before the start of the race, Parko was quoted as saying ‘The Volvo Ocean Race is the challenge I want to work hardest towards. To me, doing the race is the biggest all-around challenge that provides the best sense of achievement and enjoyment. I just want to thank Abu Dhabi for giving me this chance – I will not let them down.’ Well, he certainly didn’t let them down. He has become a highly regarded member of the team and I am sure he will get several offers for the next edition.

The new one design concept has meant that the racing has become quite hard on the crew. No longer can you rely on the boat to be better on a certain angle and hence sail through the fleet when the conditions are right. Now you have the same tools and the personnel are so important. Parko managed to sail every leg but afterwards said that he felt that in future editions that crew rotation is going to be ultra important so you can recover fully. With the boats being a little slower than expected, the time in between each race became shorter and hence you only had four to six days off to recover. Parko is single, no family to visit and wasn’t travelling home like some crew, however, knew it was important to recover and get ready for the next leg. You may think they spent more time in each port, however, the sponsors and corporate sailing required in this race means you sail the four to five days before each ocean leg making the stopovers shorter and quite tiring.

Parko started the race beefed up to 94kg. I recall seeing the images of him at the start thinking he’d certainly seen some sessions at the gym. Here in Gothenburg, he sits at 87kg. At the start of the race, he could pretty much move a sail around by himself. Now it takes two to three people to do the same job due to muscle loss and fatigue. Considering how fit these guys are and how much they focus on their own nutrition, this is pretty insane.

Remaining healthy was a key thing for every sailor in this race and unfortunately Parko picked up a nagging cough in Newport. With no rest, he still has it today and only just saw a doctor getting medication to fix it.

I asked him what the highlight of the entire race was and his response makes me incredibly jealous. Ian Walker said the same thing in today’s skippers’ press conference. Sailing around the Horn is a dream of many. For Parko, not only did he get to do this, he really did it in style. Picture this, you’re on a Volvo 65, you are sending it off the breeze with a fractional zero and two reefs in the main. You can see the Horn and to top it off you are smoking a cigar whilst helming. Yep Parko lived the ultimate dream and considering his skipper thought the rounding was the highlight and wasn’t helming, well that tells you how good it must have been to be in control of the beast.

I couldn’t go without asking him about the marine debris as this edition of the race has seen far more focus on it than previous editions. He was astounded by the amount of debris he saw. The main culprits were plastic bottles and polystyrene boxes that are used for seafood. In the Malacca Straits they were everywhere. And he was surprised at the lack of marine life seen. The constant checking of the keel, rudders and boards was an added undertaking and on several occasions he got to go for a swim to try and clear the debris. They even collected a pallet at one stage and had to back up to remove it.

One thing I really noticed in talking to him on the dock was how much he was about the team. He was always talking about what is best for the team and best for the sponsors. He felt guilty that he sailed all the legs as he thought it would have been better for the team to have a leg off, but no one can blame him for wanting to complete the entire race, after all it was his first. I reckon he’s learnt a lot from this race and the future is bright for him.

So what do you do after winning the Volvo Ocean Race? Well, Parko is off on his next dream next week, the America’s Cup. He has been picked up by the Swedish team Artemis Racing. Keep an eye out for him as he’s an Australian to watch out for. He is doing us proud. He is proof that if you work hard, you can achieve your goals and he can now say that he is a winner of the Volvo Ocean Race. Only a small minority of sailors will ever say that.