It had been quiet around Mark Turner recently. The CEO of the Volvo Ocean Race, who stands for so many innovations, had rarely appeared in public. There were hardly any interviews either. As of today, it is officially known why this was the case: the Briton is leaving the boat and wants to hand over the helm of the most famous team race around the world to other hands as soon as possible.
A press release from the organisers regarding the timetable for future editions contained this news, and it was a profoundly revealing one. The message of the release under the headline "Volvo reconsiders schedule for future editions" sounded quite harmless at first. But hidden in the statement was the upset of the day for the international sailing world: "As a consequence of the review of the race schedule, acting CEO Mark Turner has decided to step down from his current position."
In an intensive effort to signal continuity and reliability shortly before the start of the race in Alicante (14 October: harbour race, 22 October: start of stage 1), the race owners are already looking for a successor. In the farewell song for Turner, both sides thank each other for the good co-operation, which is now obviously ending with disagreement about the course for the future. Turner had not only brought the women back into the race with a multi-layered and tactically and strategically interesting rule, but also announced new boats for the upcoming editions of the round-the-world ocean marathon, presented a new concept and shortened the event cycle.
The 14th edition of the classic was already scheduled to take place in 2019/2020. In view of the many innovations and the upcoming work as part of the Super 60 concept, this seemed very ambitious from the outset. And has now apparently been cancelled by the race owners AB Volvo and Volvo Cars. There is still no new date for the event. However, the aim is to organise it later than 2019/2020.
All sides assured on Tuesday that the upcoming 13th edition of the race should not be affected by the changing of the guard on the Ocean Race Bridge. This is not entirely believable. Turner's successor - if he can be found quickly - will not be taking over an easy legacy.
