Australian Volvo Ocean racer leads Star Class in Sail Melbourne

by Di Pearson on 16 Jan 2002 Victoria’s Ian 'Barney' Walker is using his shore time in the Volvo Round the World Race to contest the Sail Melbourne Regatta in the Star class to win valuable points towards his Olympic campaign.

No newcomer to Olympic campaigns, Walker missed out on the Soling spot for the Sydney 2000 Games, but yesterday won all three heats in the Star, and followed that up with a further three out of three wins today, with his crew Nick Williams, to take a clear lead in the 12 race series which continues tomorrow with a further two races to be sailed.

After this regatta, Walker will go straight to Lake Macquarie in NSW to contest a further Star regatta, then it’s straight to New Zealand to jump aboard Volvo Round the World yacht, and the only Australian entry, Newscorp, to start the third leg of the race. He will celebrate his 39th birthday the second day at sea, on 28 January.

On arrival in Brazil, the next stopover for the Volvo’s, Walker will once again 'jump ship', to fly to Miami to contest yet another Star regatta, the Bacardi Cup. Once that is over, it will be all Volvo Round the World race again - Walker is one of the principal steerers, some-time trimmer and tactician.

Once the big race is over, Walker and Williams will concentrate seriously on their Star campaign, going to Kiel Week in Germany, the Europeans and then the Worlds. The pair sailed for six years together in the Etchells and are continuing their winning partnership.

Walker says their hardest Australian competition will come from Colin Beashel/David Giles, the Australian representatives at the Sydney 2000 Games, and perhaps Iain Murray/Andrew Palfrey, should the two undertake a serious campaign.

An extremely multi-talented sailor, Walker’s resume reads like a who’s who:

Three Sydney-Hobart overall wins aboard Melbourne yachts, Terra Firma, Ausmaid and Challenge

One Sydney-Hobart line honours record breaking win aboard Nokia in 1999

One National’s win in the Etchells keelboat

2nd in an Etchells World championship

One National’s win in the J24 keelboat

Competed in Whitbread Round the World Race in 1997-98

As far as swapping his Volvo 60 footer for the Star goes, Walker said 'no, it’s not really a problem, yes, the boats are completely different - a big wheel boat to the Star feels horribly small, but it’s like riding a bike, you get into it again pretty quickly.'

Crew member, 32 year old Nick Williams added 'he adjusts remarkably well'.

Asked what it was like to be sailing at home again, Walker replied 'it’s been nearly three years, you know, I’ve been away sailing a lot, and today should be interesting (referring to winds of 22 knots upwards and choppy seas), you might see some aluminium floating round water today (referring to boat’s masts), but hopefully it won’t be ours'.

Can this Melbourne pair win the right to represent Australia at the Athens Olympics?

In their first major Star regatta, at the Worlds in Medemblik, they finished 6th - they were very pleased with that result, having raced against the best sailors in the world who had been sailing in the class for some years.