Tatjana Pokorny
· 21.04.2018
"Sunday will be strange for me, because it's the first time in twelve years that I'm setting off without him." That's what David Witt said at the press conference before the start of today's eighth leg in memory of John Fisher. In moving words, the Australian skipper of the Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag team described how he and his team have experienced the last few weeks and what is driving the team now. John Fisher, who went overboard in a storm in the Southern Ocean on 26 March and remained missing, was a person who always put others first.
David Witt continued: "We have an ethos amongst us 'Scallywags' that we try to follow. We never give up and we look after each other. We don't have to be the best, but we do it together. Probably the most important quality in our team is loyalty. But that all describes John Fisher in particular." David Witt expressed his thanks for the encouragement he has received in recent weeks: "The support we have received within the Volvo family has been unrivalled. It takes special people to do this race. Whether you are the skipper or a crew member. I think the character of the people competing in this race has been exemplified by the way we have been supported by the other competitors over the past week. When the boat arrived at the dock (on Thursday after being ferried from Chile, ed.), it was very moving. It was not a PR show, but a reflection of the characters in this race. I'm sure John would have been very proud of it. The best thing we can do in his memory is to carry on doing our job on Sunday. If he was behind me now, he would tell me: 'Pull yourself together, don't be so soft and get on with it'!"
On the responsibility of a skipper in the Volvo Ocean Race, Witt said: "The word responsibility is an understatement. I lost a crew member and my best friend. This is something that will stay with me for the rest of my life." Witt described the unfortunate course of events during the fatal accident with an image: "It's like buying a Swiss cheese and suddenly all the holes line up. A lot of things have to go wrong at the same time... What we do involves risks. We have to deal with them. Unfortunately, the worst-case scenario has materialised this time."
The other skippers also commented on the fatal accident at the press conference before the eighth leg on Sunday takes them from Itajaí over 5700 nautical miles to the American port of Newport. Team Brunel's skipper Bouwe Bekking said: "As a skipper you have this feeling of very special responsibility. The whole leg was like this: when I woke up, I thought about John. When I went on deck, I thought of John. It's very deep-seated."
Bekking said of the recent sharp rise in his team's performance curve with outstanding individual players such as Olympic champion and America's Cup winner Peter Burling: "I can certainly see that it is not helpful to get off to such a late start (with a campaign, ed.). You can have the best sailor in the world, the best sailors in the world in the team, all winners, but it takes a long time to reach the top level everywhere. But we are looking ahead. There are still quite a few points on the table. We are looking up!" Team Brunel was the last campaign to enter the current 13th edition of the Volvo Ocean Race.
Charles Caudrelier, skipper of the Dongfeng Race Team, which is leading after seven stages, said: "Of course the pressure has increased. We have never been in such a good position. But Mapfre and us are only separated by one point. And I have seen that the level of the entire fleet has equalised. Every point is hard to earn. It will be tough right to the end. We still have four tough stages ahead of us, one of which is double points. This is far from over. And I know that."
Vestas skipper Charlie Enright, whose team suffered their second major setback with the mast failure near the Falkland Islands after the fatal crash with a Chinese fishing boat off Hong Kong, said: "These last three legs have put us in a very frustrating situation. It's particularly frustrating because: When we sail, we do it very well. We just didn't have the opportunity to sail enough."
Click here for the Results and interim results, here for Live transmission which starts today (Sunday) shortly before 7 pm.