Rob Greenhalgh interview - A Born Winner
by Louay Habib 3 Nov 2006 07:40 UTC
Rob Greenhalgh, Dan Johnson & Peter Greenhalgh on RMW Marine win the Invitational Race before the Ssangyong JJ Giltinan Championship for 18ft skiffs © Frank Quealey & Allan Barron
Although at 27 he was already recognised as an exceptional talent in a variety of sailboats - he was a world champion but that was in an 18ft Skiff – Rob Greenhalgh had done very little big boat offshore racing, let alone experience the hardship and stamina required to race around the world in the fastest monohulls ever built.
But Rob took his opportunity with both hands and trained and worked hard to succeed. Testament to his drive to succeed was evident in physical training and diet during training: his body weight went from 78kg to 90kg to give him the power required to be a force within the team. But Rob had one thing in common with his highly experienced team mates: he is a born winner and ABN AMRO ONE went on to win the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-06 by a comfortable margin.
We caught up with Rob at his home in Hamble near Southampton, England and asked him about his experience on the ABN AMRO ONE team.
Q: You had the least amount of offshore experience in the ABN AMRO ONE team. Was that a major issue for you?
A: I joined ABN AMRO in February 2004 and skipper, Mike Sanderson was confident that I would fit into the team. He was right, but I was a little apprehensive as I had little experience in big boat offshore racing, but we did a lot of practice and training and everything came together well. I got into, got on with it and I really enjoyed the role.
Also as the Volvo Open 70 was a new class it wasn’t just me saying: “strewth this thing is a bit of a weapon”. Everybody was learning at the same speed. Maybe if we had been racing a Volvo Ocean 60, Moose (Mike Sanderson) would have picked some of the old guard, but the new class required different skills and there was no harm in having some new faces in there.
Q: You had a real baptism of fire on the first night out of Vigo, what was it like on board?
A: You can do loads of training but racing is different; every one was a bit pumped up and pushing hard, it was windy and rough and very dark. We saw forty knots of wind speed, so the whole fleet got a bit of a pummelling. We broke gear, we had some broaches, we had trained in these conditions, but in race mode, you load things up a bit more. We broke a tiller arm which caused us to go into a big wipe out, tearing the code zero and previously we had lost a steering pedestal when crew got washed down the deck and smashed it to pieces. I suppose it was the same for all of the boats and you could put the damage down to lack of preparation; lack of time on the water.
We learnt quite a few lessons that night and in the first three legs, lessons that could only be learnt with time on the water. We never had any doubt about the safety of the boat throughout the entire race, but you have to accept that there is always some danger when ever you go to sea.
Q: What have you been doing since the end of the Volvo Ocean Race?
A: I have been sailing on Colm Barrington’s Ker 50 called Magic Glove for the Commodore’s Cup, Cork Week and Cowes Week. I also competed at the International 14 Worlds and I am trying to find a sponsor for my 18ft Skiff campaign to do the Worlds next year.
I like to keep my hand in dinghy sailing, as it keeps me sharp. Also with Skiff sailing, the technology is pretty much ground breaking, so it keeps me in the picture about developments: Skiff sailing definitely keeps me on the ball. I will be competing at St. Tropez on Mari Cha IV and returning to ABN AMRO ONE for the Middle Sea Race and the Sydney Hobart Race. I will be doing the Mumm 30 Worlds and then onto Miami and Key West with Magic Glove.
It is a big variety of sailing and, even before the Volvo, I enjoyed doing different types of sailing, it keeps things interesting.
I have been taking a bit of time out as well, I really enjoy fishing and cycling and hanging out with my partner Lesley and our two year old dog ‘Salty’. He was a little puppy when I signed up for ABN AMRO, so I haven’t seen much of him until recently.
Q: Winning the Volvo Ocean Race at your first attempt must have been amazing, what were the highs and lows that stand out for you?
A: Coming into Cape Town winning the first leg was pretty special and I really enjoyed the inshore races, especially as we came out top of the whole inshore series, which was a bit of a surprise, especially after a dismal first race in Sanxenxo!
It was a great feeling coming into Goteborg to the finish, even though we had a bad leg, to get the win done and dusted was a great feeling. In general the whole race was very memorable for me, mostly because ABN AMRO ONE was a great team to be around.
The low points came early on; after 18 months of hard training and preparation, we came resoundingly last in he first inshore race and we were thinking; ‘have we got it drastically wrong?’ Then, in the first twelve hours of the offshore, it seemed like we wouldn’t even finish the leg but we stood by our beliefs and took the rough with the smooth. We had confidence in what we had done and, in the end, all of the effort was rewarded.
Q: Do you think that the 2008-09 Volvo Ocean Race will be a closer race?
A: Not necessarily. I think that if a team puts together a good boat, a good team and brings all the other components together to build a successful campaign and produces a campaign better than the other teams, then they could win comfortably.
I think there will still be design differences between the boats, as teams will have their own ideas about how they want the boats to perform in different wind speeds and ideas about sail design will always differ. The new teams coming in are starting from scratch, so who knows they may take an alternative programme altogether.