My involvement with Team Sanya for the 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race went public today, so it is a good time to get going with some blogging again. I hope to be able to keep updating, but any minute I can use to get us and myself better prepared for the race I’ll use for that, so I may be a bit on/off on the blogging consistency.
I have been in Hamble, England with the team for 10 days now, and the feeling so far is really good. Of course we haven’t sailed the boat yet, and I haven’t sailed with most of the guys before, so the main impressions are still to come. Have to say though, that it would really surprise me if we don’t keep the good stuff going.
After the last Volvo finished a bit more than two years ago, I have been sort of half time sailing. I had a good break, caught up on the social side, got back in good physical shape again and did quite a bit of analysis work on weather and performance. One upside of being a navigator, is that for some projects one can work from everywhere these days, as long as the laptop is functioning. Then of course I have slowly gotten more and more into sailing again. Did a bit of sailing with Groupama the winter after the Volvo finish, then a maxi project in the Mediterranean with amongst others Bouwe Bekking and Jens Dolmer last summer, and a race on “Saudade”, the 148-foot Wally, this year. One month ago I did my first proper offshore race since the Volvo, Transatlantic Race 2011, which we won. I could go on and brag about how we did that, but the joy from that went away when one of the crew became seriously ill a couple of days after the race. But good know that I am still on decent form..
I came out of the last Volvo with a sort of crushed knee and right leg, and used road cycling a lot to recover from that. I had done some racing in 2007, and really enjoy the sport, with the fitness and tactical perspectives. It just rolled on, and last winter I cycled almost full-time to see what level I could get to, and did some elite races of the Norwegian road cycling circuit this spring before the sailing season kicked in.
After the Volvo, and particularly after the training with Groupama, I realized that to enjoy the sailing I needed to be more hungry than I was, and planned to sit this Volvo out and rather work on the weather with a team as well as doing some work on my own project. However when Mike S contacted me I gave it a serious think as I was already getting quite into full time sailing again, and after the Transatlantic Race I was convinced, so I am going 110% for it now.
There are some aspects to this project that are quite different from last time around (when I was a part of Ericsson’s two-boat campaign). Obviously Mike Sanderson puts weight to it, he is one of the most respected skippers around. I have done pretty much all of my sailing “on my own” in the navigation area, particularly E3 in the last VOR where Magnus Olsson, the final skipper, was part of the watch system and as such didn’t work with me in the nav station. I know that Mike is quite different there, and will get involved, which should keep developing my skills further. I actually really like to work with others, so it will be nice to have someone to play ideas with, or to get critique from. The rumor is also that Mike doesn’t sleep much, which would be good news for me! Fighting sleep deprivation is one challenge for navigators, and given that we will be alternating to use the same bunk, this can open up the opportunity to get a bit more sleep than last time. In my dreams...
Not to say that he is the only one onboard, but I will get back to that another time. For now, all the guys both on the sailing team and the shore team are really switched on, and want to make this a successful campaign.
I knew that this would turn into the longest blog post ever, so will try to start rounding it off..
Further, we are going to be sailing with a boat that sailed around before, and maybe didn't shine as much as some other boats in that race. I didn’t like this initially, but now that has turned more into a challenge of developing ourselves, the sails and the boat into challenging the other boats when opportunities arrive, and show what we are capable of doing with the starting package we are given.
But at the moment, the boat is not the real handicapping factor for us, as it is only 80 days or so until the start of the race, and we have never sailed together before. So we just have to get sailing, be super-efficient and try to be clever around the sails to get it right with little testing time. One thing is for sure, one are never going to be bored in this campaign! We will be learning every day.
I’ll be back with more soon, now 6 hours till the rig goes in, so better get some sleep. Thanks for reading this far!! And now that I am official, I can start posting on twitter again. www.twitter.com/akselmagdahl
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