Scallywag revealed little, including the fact that their Leg 3
navigator Antonio Fontes had broken his arm. It was, Witt
says, a deliberate policy.
“The last thing I needed was to put the team in any more
controversy, so I tried to take a bit of a step back. We get a
lot of people follow us on Facebook, and they were all
saying: ‘This is crap, this is boring. Where are you?’
“So, we decided we’ll be what we wanna be. From the
outset, we always wanted to be 100 per cent open and
transparent and honest. We decided in Melbourne, bugger
it.” It was time to be themselves again.
So who is the real David Witt? Forty-six years of age, he
started sailing aged eight with a typical Australian
progression from Flying Ants to Cherubs, before moving
into the 18ft skiffs. Witt was a huge force to be reckoned
with in the 18s, and was still racing the class competitively
last season. Contemporaries say he was unrivalled in his
ability to keep the overpowered skiffs on their feet in big
breezes downwind.
He was known as a big personality in the class, but says
that although he has always spoken his mind, “I didn’t
really get in too much trouble. But I think if half the 18ft
skiff fleet were in the Volvo Race they’d all be in trouble
too. It’s a completely different culture.”
He trialled for the 2000 Olympics in the 49er, but lost
out in selection to Chris Nicholson, now watch leader on
AzkoNobel. So Witt decided to
focus on offshore sailing and
rugby, his other big passion.
In 1997 he sailed a leg of the
Whitbread Round the World
Race on Innovation Kvaerner,
skippered by Knut Frostad.
That was his only experience
of the Whitbread/Volvo until
this edition, although he tried
several times to put together an entry.
A learning experience
The experience influenced how he races today. “That
taught me I either wanted to have my own team or a team
with the right sort of vibe. I didn’t really like the set-up, so
that bit turned me off – but the race excited me for sure.”
A stalwart of the Australian big boat scene, Witt raced
around 20 Sydney Hobarts and ran Syd Fischer’s
Ragamuffins for many years, including 100ft and 90ft
maxis and a TP52.
“I definitely took two things from Syd,” he quips: “Never
pay full price for anything, and never give up.”
Sailing with people who are talented sailors, but mates,
was another big part of the Ragamuffin ethos that has
carried into the Volvo campaign. “You need to enjoy it.
This [Volvo] race has massive highs and lows emotionally,
and if you can’t enjoy the moment there’s no point.
“The team I sailed on with Knut, you almost weren’t
allowed to enjoy it. This was back in the Nineties but the
view back then was if you were laughing and joking, you
weren’t being professional enough and I think that’s a
massive misconception.
“I think a lot of teams are like that now. Part of the
reason why we’ve stood out a bit from the crowd is
because we are so different.”
Some of the Scallywag difference is down to its backer, the
man Witt calls ‘SH’. SH is Lee Seng Huang, executive
chairman of Sun Hung Kai & Co, who bought up the
Ragamuffin campaign – skipper, boat
and crew – in 2016 despite having little
experience of the maxi scene. Things
escalated quickly, with the Volvo
entry announced in May last year.
Sun Hung Kai & Co is a massive
investment group that manages
around $15 billion worth of funds. But
the relationship is very much
between Huang and Witt – this is not
a campaign run through boardroom
meetings. “He knows me well and he
knows what the team ethos is,” says
Witt, “They’re our friends, and he
knows everything that goes on. Good
and bad.”
Sun Hung Kai’s loyalty was rewarded handsomely when
Witt and Scallywag delivered a fairytale victory into Hong
Kong in Leg 4. With Libby Greenhalgh at the nav station
for Leg 4, some race commentators had a field day – the
skipper who refused to take female sailors sees his team’s
fortunes reversed after recruiting a woman?Team effort
Witt says there were other factors at play. “There were two
massive changes in the team. One is we’re not running
around worrying about what other people think, about our
performance or anything. We used to sail around trying to
make sure we didn’t come last. As soon as you do that, you
come last. So, now we just do what we think is right.”
The second change was how they made strategy
decisions, with Witt crediting old friend and now crew
mate, Grant Wharington, as having a big input into Leg 4.volvo ocean race
‘We’ve stood out a bit
from the crowd because
we are so different’
As a sailor, Witt’s
strengths include
helming in big
breezes downwind,
and close-quarters
racing