‘Life at the Extreme- the Volvo Ocean Race'

by Helen Hopcroft on 4 May 2007 As soon as the book, ‘Life at the Extreme’, entered my household there was a fight about who got to read it first. My editor had warned me that this was going to happen. ‘It’s a boy’s book’ Rob Kothe said as he passed the handsome hardback edition to me. ‘You’ll probably find that your husband won’t put it down.’

Rob was right. It was over a week before I managed to wrest control of the book from my other half. It was only then that I was able to see why he had been so immersed in the book; reading it while he ate, sat in the static head and talked on the phone.

The dust jacket describes the text pretty well;

‘Imagine a sport where the participants put themselves under the same level of stress as a soldier fighting on the front lines of a war- that’s the reality of sailing in the Volvo Ocean Race Round the World.’

‘Participants are pushed close to the brink, to that precarious point of balance where one error or an unseen hazard could deliver cataclysmic consequences…’

‘For ocean-racing sailors, the Volvo Ocean Race represents the pinnacle of achievement. The world’s top offshore sailors and the sport’s rising stars team up for a wild ride around the planet in the world’s fastest monohulls, racing in the roughest oceans and the most dangerous weather nature has to offer.’

After a brief introduction to the race and the players, the book follows the 2005-2006 race chronologically. All nine legs are given separate chapters and are fully illustrated. The writing feels fresh and immediate. Rob Mundle doesn’t use hindsight to judge the events of the moment; he describes things as they happen, which makes it a genuinely exciting read.

Sail-World asked Mundle, who also wrote the international bestseller Fatal Storm, what he enjoyed most about writing this book.

‘The best part of the book was literally putting it together. It was eight months on the road or in the air or whatever, following the race from start to finish.’

‘It is just such an incredible event. It’s not until you get that close to it and really get inside the guys that you understand what they expose themselves to, the dangers, the stresses, the strains and everything else.’

On the New York to Portsmouth leg, Mundle respectfully handles the death of ‘ABN Amro Two’ sailor Hans Horrevoets; the incident is not sensationalised.

If you didn’t follow the race in detail, you will be reading with the ‘what happens next?’ question burning in your brain. If you closely followed the last race, you will still get pleasure from the clear, easy to read style and the superb pictures.

The book is aimed at the coffee table market, but it’s not standard coffee table fodder. It’s a book that you want to pick up and read, not just flip through in a desultorily fashion while waiting for someone to bring you a cup of tea.

One of my few criticisms of the book is that the Volvo photographic team was exceptional and it would have been good to have credited them more prominently. Their names don’t feature on the cover or the title page. They are profiled in detail, but this doesn’t happen until the last section of the book.

For the record; the team’s names are Oskar Kihlborg, David Branigan, Maria Muina, Jon Nash, Paul Todd and Rick Tomlinson. The photographs in the book are by Kihlborg, Nash and Branigan.

Mundle agrees that their work is superlative.

‘To write a book about an event where the result is known, well and truly known worldwide, by the time the book gets out…you’ve got to really work hard to get the angles and the stories that the others don’t get... And to be able to reinforce that story with such sensational photographs really has made the book.’

‘Those guys, like me, were able to get very much inside the event.’

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After the description of each of the nine legs is a section where past race participants tell of their adventures. Probably the funniest contributor is Australian Olympic sailor Chris Nicholson. His first ever ocean racing experience was the 2001-2002 Volvo Ocean Race.

‘Now this is where I have to make a confession’ his contribution reads. ‘On my resume I didn’t say that I got chronically seasick, and because the application didn’t ask specifically about offshore racing experience, I simply said 'raced off Australia’s east coast', which, in fact, meant that I’d done one Sydney-to-Southport race and spent a total of 2 nights at sea.’

It’s a cracker. At one point he is washing the dishes up in a bucket in the cockpit, so he doesn’t get sea sick by doing it in the galley. He tipped the dirty water over the side and thought he saw a glint of sliver reflect in the sun. Then he realised that he’d tipped all their spoons over the side.

‘Now I’m far from a dishonest person, but I admit that I panicked. I asked myself 'should I just pretend it never happened? Then I thought 'No. They’ll all know it was me because I was the last person that washed up.'

Trying to sound unconcerned, he told his skipper Grant Dalton what had happened. Dalton told him to find something to replace the missing spoons so Nicholson went looking for raw material.

‘As I went below, wondering what on earth I could do to create some spoons, I looked to my left and there, in front of me, were all the brand new, $1000-a-pop Ferragamo sunglasses from one of our sponsors. The lenses were the perfect shape, so I grabbed a small screwdriver and ripped apart four pairs of the sunglasses. There, instantly were our spoons…I don’t think it was quite the image Mr. Ferragamo wanted for his sunglasses.’

Another entertaining section describes the first race in 1973-1974. Englishman Butch Dalrymple-Smith travelled in style. His section reads;

‘…when a group of journalists visited Sayula in Cape Town they were amazed to find that we still had 11 jars of caviar left after 45 days at sea. They could only guess what we had started out with.’

‘After each day’s 6-hour watch those coming off the deck would be handed a rum tonic or a vodka or gin as they stepped down the companionway…By running the boat with 4 on deck, each of the sailing crew could get 1 day off in every 5. The day off was spent helping with sail changes, washing up, serving the cocktails…’

Caviar and cocktails are in stark contrast to Skip Novak’s observation about the austerity of the current race conditions.

‘In 1989-1990 out went the books- too heavy. In 1993-1994 music was banned- too much weight and distraction. In 1997-1998 one set of clothes and shared sleeping bags, yes sir! And nowadays? Shaved heads are de rigueur, and even talking to each other (other than about boat speed) is verboten!’

‘Life at the Extreme’ ends with a comprehensive glossary, so non sailors won’t be alienated by terms they may not be familiar with.

Mundle agreed that this was a conscious strategy. ‘I wrote it as a book that both the sailors and the non sailing people public could appreciate’. It seems that this approach has worked well; ‘I just got an email from the publishers to say that it’s sold out already across the US.’

‘Life at the Extreme’ is available at Boat Books.

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City : Crows Nest
State : NSW
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Country : Australia
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