Volvo Ocean Race: The difficult gait of Simeon Tienpont

He's back: AkzoNobel skipper Simeon Tienpont, who was sacked last week, led his team in the opening parade in Alicante a few hours before the start of the first leg, contrary to other announcements published at the same time on the homepage of the Dutch Volvo Ocean Race team. While the AkzoNobel homepage still showed his successor Brad Jackson as skipper, Tienpont's appearance demonstrated his victory at the hearing before the Dutch arbitration tribunal and his determination not to give up the project he had initiated.

However, the 35-year-old Dutchman was not accompanied by the entire crew at the parade. And those who were there did not look very happy. This was reported live from Alicante on Sunday by YACHT Sports Director Lars Bolle. Not to be seen in the parade pictures: Tienpont's successor Brad Jackson (New Zealand), who had taken over responsibility as skipper in the past few days, given interviews and represented the team at the press conference with all the skippers. Also missing were Jules Salter (Great Britain), watch leader Joca Signorini (Brazil) and newcomer Rome Kirby (USA). According to various media reports, they may have decided against further participation under the leadership of Simeon Tienpont.

Everything points to the fact that Tienpont will complete the first leg with only a hull crew, substitutes from the Shore crew and without these four experienced top performers with a total of eight instead of the possible nine competitors. The two sailors Martine Grael and Emily Nagel, foreship man Brad Farrand, helmsman and sail trimmer Luke Malloy and the Danish boat captain, helmsman and trimmer Nicolai Sehsted will apparently be joining them from the core crew and thus alongside their original skipper. Plus some as yet unknown reserve team members. The first leg will show whether the team can achieve a respectable result under these sad circumstances. It will probably not be the last twist in this inglorious and dramatic story for the team.

Meanwhile, Team Brunel's skipper and record participant Bouwe Bekking, whose team will start the first leg from Alicante to Lisbon with nine men and women, like most, gave a good preview of the first leg. The live broadcast of the start today at 2 pm will be shown on the Homepage of the Volvo Ocean Race shown.