sustained period of time over ten seconds in slow motion
to get the shot.”
Nonetheless, a crew member on one boat told me that
another team had deliberately flown their drone
alongside them, held steady in a position they described
as ‘definitely not arty’, but offered a good view of their
trim and stack.
With Turn the Tide on Plastic, Scallywag and AkzoNobel
often racing within just a few lengths there was plenty of
opportunity for the OBRs to get great footage of multiple
boats, but also for ‘drone wars’; using the drones for both
psychological and knowledge gains.
“At one point [Scallywag’s] drone comes over and
everyone waves, and then you look at their boat and
there’s suddenly loads of activity,” recalls Caffari. “They’re
moving their stack around, basically they’re now copying.
I was like, is that allowed?
“The potential there is a real grey area. I think the OBRs
probably need to be policed in that area so we all know
what’s allowed and what’s not, and so they don’t get
bullied by the skippers or crews,” says Caffari.Caffari adds that when the boats are so close,
the OBR setting up a shot could also give away the
fact that they were preparing for a manoeuvre.
“If you put your drone up [the other boats are]
obviously going to know we’re going to do
something – there’s a lot of stuff like that you
wouldn’t normally consider.”Taste and decency
The most divisive occasion of when onboard
footage had a major impact on the competition
was the Scallywag video.
A 90-second skit was filmed by the OBR,
featuring skipper David Witt and navigator Steve
Hayles as ‘presenters’, and crew Annemieke Bes as
the special guest ‘Dr Cloggs’. It involved Hannibal
Lecter references, and Witt miming how to apply
ointment to alleviate a scrotum rash.
The video was posted on Volvo Ocean Race
social media feed with the caption: ‘Even the
editors aren’t touching this one’, and generated a
storm of debate about whether it was
appropriate, offensive, or amounted to sexual
harassment of Bes, the sole female sailor on board- a debate heightened by the fact it coincided
with the Harvey Weinstein scandal in the news.
A complaint was made by a third party outside of the
race, which led to both Witt, Hayles and a Volvo Ocean Race
employee being investigated, and on arrival in Cape Town
both Witt and Hayles were charged with bringing the sport
into disrepute under Rule 69.
All charges were dismissed by the International Jury at a
hearing in Cape Town, but not before navigator Hayles had
announced he was leaving the team, and tens of
thousands of dollars had been spent in legal fees.
“It was very thorough, which I think it needed to be,”
Witt told me from Cape Town after the hearing, “because I
think it was going to set a bit of a precedent in the sport if
it went the other way.”
The hearing unanimously found they did not bring the
sport into disrepute.
“In the end the facts showed basically there was no
offence at all in the video, towards anybody,” says Witt.
The conclusions also state that if the video were
considered offensive, he and Hayles ‘would not have
committed misconduct as they are not fully responsible for
all stages of the video publication, in particular content
approval is the responsibility of the [organising authority]’.
For Witt and his team, the video has had a big impact on
their preparation for the gruelling Leg 3 to Melbourne,
setting off with a replacement navigator. “I don’t think you
could have a worse build up, but we’re a strong group and
we’re just going to deal with it,” he commented.
Many of the female sailors in the race were angered that
the video, and the third party complaints that followed,
reopened the debate about mixed crews in the Volvo
Ocean Race. For all the crews, the Scallywag episode will
have raised the question of just how much of the raw,
unvarnished truth of life on board they are happy to
reveal. But the race needs a narrative and controversy has
always been as much a part of the event’s DNA as the
competition. That means heroes and villains will appear in
every story and sailors will have to be mindful that reality
TV-style coverage doesn’t show everybody in the most
flattering light.
VOLVO RACE
Top: OBRs must
tread a fine line
between being
part of the crew
and not getting
in the way or
impacting on
performancePedro Matrinez/Volvo Ocean Race
Konrad Frost/Volvo Ocean Race
34 February 2018