Sunshine Coast sailor Casey Smith ready for Volvo

by Ian Grant on 8 Oct 2008
Sunshine Coast sailor Casey Smith will record an important entry in his personal log book when the 2008-9 Volvo Ocean Race officially starts the Globe Challenge in Alicante Spain on Saturday (local time).

Casey Smith (29) has been selected as the bowman on the Ken Read skippered Puma for the 11 port 37,000 nautical mile race around the World including weathering the notoriously rough and rugged Cape Horn.

Memories of growing up in a warm and relaxed environment and learning to sail on the more placid waters of Lake Cootharaba and various other Sunshine Coast courses including Mooloolaba before gaining further experience in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race will be placed on hold when he becomes fully focused on his role as the Bowman with the Puma Racing Team.

He can expect to face life at the extreme ranging from sailing through the steamy equatorial doldrums to reaching breathtaking spinnaker sailing speed racing with the power of the ‘screeching sixties’ along the edge of the ice flow as they head to weather the storm tormented Cape Horn.

The exceptionally durable and talented sailor who has sacrificed the opportunity to enjoy sailing in a far more human friendly environment will complete the first stage of fulfilling a personal career ambition when the Puma Racing Team begin the first leg of their challenge to become the Volvo Globe Race champion on Saturday.

There will be no fine dining on board with the crew relying on freeze dried rations to sustain their energy while they settle into spending the off watch in their bunks during the first leg of the challenging marathon.

Hope of a strong performance by the Puma Racing Team will depend on how they apply their experience with the prevailing weather conditions however they are on the pace after finishing third in the short course In Port race last week.
But while this result was encouraging in terms of tactics and team work the ‘real deal’ begins on Saturday when the seven high performance racing crews start the marathon test of endurance over the 6,500 nautical miles between the start in Alicante Spain and finish in Cape Town South Africa.

The fleet will then race to the historical port of Cochin in India, then onto Singapore before racing to Quingdao,China the host port and venue for the recent yachting Olympics.

Extra rations will be on the shopping list while the crews will re-evaluate the sail locker as part of the preparations for the physically demanding 12,300 nautical miles tracking a course from Quingdao back over the Equator and into the inhospitable waters of The Great Southern Ocean towards the marine grave yard of Cape Horn.

Every individual Volvo Race crew member will express a sigh of relief when they weather this land mark.

However all the crews will still face a little over 2000 nautical miles before they can step onto dry land in the party port in Rio de Janeiro Brazil to enjoy a well deserved break and re-access their tactics before completing the race in St Petersburg in March 2009.