"I don't think we're out there to prove anything," said skipper Sam Davies yesterday after the first training runs with the brand new VO65 in the Solent. "It's just a race for us and we're on the same level (with the men, ed.)," Davies continued. The team, which will soon set up its training base in Lanzarote to prepare for the race starting on 4 October 2014, currently includes Abby Ehler, Stacey Jackson, Annie Lush, Liz Wardley, Carolijn Brouwer and Sophie Ciszek in addition to Davies.
This means that SCA has only nominated seven female sailors, while the full quota for an all-female team is eleven sailors, plus one reporter who is not allowed to carry out any sailing functions. Insiders rumour that the selection is difficult because there are currently still too few women with sufficient offshore experience on such extreme boats. In comparison, all-male teams sail with eight sailors (plus a reporter), while mixed-gender teams are allowed to have nine sailors and a reporter on board. Furthermore, the rules require two sailors on each boat, who must be under 30 years old.
Davies, who finished fourth in the 2008/09 Vendée Globe and has the most experience in her team, knows that the training camp in Lanzarote will be crucial: "The learning curve will be very steep for us," says the Englishwoman, who is also the mother of a son. "All the boats are identical, which means the sailors will make the difference. So every hour counts in the preparation."
Anyone who worries about the safety of the sailors when watching the video footage, because they are in constant flushing on these boats even in medium winds, is informed by Volvo's head of organisation Knut Frostad as follows:
"Protecting the crew has never been more important than on the new Volvo Ocean 65." He mentions the higher cabin superstructure with overhanging canopy, which is reminiscent of the Imoca 60, and the two companionway hatches, which are also new and improve safety. None of this makes these boats any less wet, but the higher superstructure breaks the force of the overcoming water, to which the sailors were previously mostly defenceless.
"The fact that the Volvo Ocean Race is crewed means that these boats are not sailed from the inside (like the Imoca 60, ed.) and steered by autopilots." This is vital for single-handed sailors, but not on the VO 65s, which "have to be steered and trimmed manually to maximise performance".
