32 November 2017
It’s Simeon Tienpont’s first time as
skipper, although the Dutchman has
competed twice before, as part of
ABN Amro 2 over a decade ago, and
for part of the race with the ill-fated
Team Vestas Wind in the last edition.
AkzoNobel has the services of British
navigator Jules Salter and seven-
time veteran and three-time winner
Brad Jackson. The 2016
Olympic Champion
in the 49erFX dinghy,
Martine Grael is one of
the talented first-timers
on board.Dongfeng Race Team was one of the
surprise packages of the previous race
as the French veterans headed by
skipper Charles Caudrelier and
navigator Pascal Bidégorry vied for the
overall lead with a crew including some
Chinese sailors who had never raced
offshore before. Three of those
Chinese – ‘Black’, ‘Horace’ and ‘Wolf’- are back alongside
Caudrelier and
Bidégorry, with Stu
Bannatyne, Carolijn
Brouwer and Marie Riou
from France.
Xabi Fernandez has been waiting
for a long time. The two-time 49er
Olympic medallist has become one of
the most valued team players in the
Volvo Ocean Race and now leads a
strong squad that includes Briton Rob
Greenhalgh and Joan Vila. Kiwi Blair
Tuke, an offshore virgin, is trying for a
triple never before achieved in sailing:
he has an Olympic Gold
and an America’s Cup
win behind him. Could
this make him the most
complete sailor the
world has seen?Ian Walker’s Form Guide
There are three distinct
divisions in the fleet. For
a potential winner, I’d pick
Dongfeng or Mapfre as
they are the best trained
and bring experience from
the last race; they also
performed well on Leg Zero.
Of the two, Mapfre probably
has the stronger personnel.
Behind them you
have Brunel, with some
good people and a lot
of experience in Bouwe
Bekking and Capey
[navigator, Andrew Cape]
but they haven’t done
much training. Then
there’s AkzoNobel which
seem to have been pretty
disorganised for the past
year. That said, they have
Jules Salter navigating, and
[three-time winner] Brad
Jackson, so they’ll compete.
Then you have Vestas, who
are under-resourced and
under-trained, but they have
good sailors like SiFi [Simon
Fisher, Walker’s race-winning
navigator from Abu Dhabi
Ocean Racing], Phil Harmer,
Nick Dana, Charlie Enright.
Then you have Turn the Tide
on Plastic and Scallywag,
who are both very late, with
little experience. These new
teams may struggle.
If you list the teams in
order of how much training
they have done, you won’t
be far wrong. That logic has
been borne out in Leg Zero.
The real question is: can the
teams that are behind learn
quickly enough to close the
gap in time to affect the
overall race result? If you
look at the last race, Abu
Dhabi and Dongfeng were
ahead and Mapfre improved
and caught up, but not quite
soon enough.Team AkzoNobel Dongfeng Race Team Mapfre
The route
Alicante-Lisbon 22 October
Lisbon-Cape Town 5 November
Cape Town-Melbourne 10 December
Melbourne-Hong Kong 2 January 2018
Hong Kong-Auckland 7 February
Auckland-Itajai 18 March
Itajai-Newport, RI 22 April
Newport-Cardiff 20 May
Cardiff-Gothenburg 10 June
Gothenburg-The Hague 21 JuneVOLVO OCEAN RACE