[Closed] Volvo Ocean Race anyone?

My mate does the control centre tracking software for this. Lucky b*

Below the 40th latitude there is no law, below the 50th there is no God.

Very brave men and women when they hit the Southern Oceans.

I follow it but only because I used to design the boats...they take some right abuse

I just find it amazing - a mix of one of the toughest races on earth, incredible nature and technology....:)

Ooh I coon't do that. I get seasick on the Woolwich Ferry. 🙁

I really don't know how and even why people do things like that. Good luck to them though.

As for the soloists, they're just not right, are they? 😐

I love sailing, by there no way I'd go round with those mentalists. Love a play in one of those boats for a couple of days though!
Solo? Elfins not wrong!

I'm playing. Bucklevision 1 and 2 FWIW

Thats not sailing, its an endurance event that happends to be on yachts.

I loved Robin Knox-Johnson's book of his win of the first round the world non stop race.

Basically took a heavy boat, filled it up with fags & booze and a bit of food & set off. I think he limited himself to half a bottle of spirits a day.
He also used to swim to keep himself in shape; middle of the ocean nobody about, hang a warp over the side, jump off the bow & swim until tired then grab the warp and climb back on....mental!

A great book is the first solo round the world trip - not non stop and not a race - but an excellant account anyway. Joshua Slocum. Sailing alone around the world.?? Builds the boat himself from a tree! Outstanding read.

& Joshua Slocum's book is free on Kindle 🙂

Southern Ocean surviving is tough, let alone racing in it.
I did a trip to South Georgia and back (just) in a home made steel ketch. We sailed through a storm which resulted in the lowest ever pressure being recorded on S.G. 36 hour sewing parties. All men on deck etc.

I know what it is to look friends in the face, and without saying anything communicate that "we are closer to death than living".I kid you not.

One to tell the grandkids about but I still have the nightmares!
Would I do it again? Absolutley.

I wonder, as I do with F1, where does all the money come to fund this elitist sport? How do they make any money from it?

ohnohesback - agreed & what do volvo get back from it other than the odd corporate days - but is it any different from the costs in football etc, just the money is spent on the kit not the people as much

IIRC the boats aren't that expensive, well, not as expensive as I imagined anyway, seem to remmber reading £1.6million to send kingfisher 1 arround the world. And then of course you can sell the boat afterwards and re-coup a chunk of that.

Volvo, and all the other individual boat sponsors actual seem to get a good deal out of it. No point Volvo sponsoring a 2nd division football club for similar money, how many 2nd disvision football supourters buy new volvo's. Whereas sailings a pretty rich sport (well, on a par with MTB as a minimum say £500 for a dingy or £3-4k for a dayboat/triler sailer) and people will buy big cars (volvo's) to tow them. The rest of the sponsors are generaly selling expensive stuff like financial products or electronics, or ocasionaly actualy stuff to do with boats!

Maybe I'm just mad, but there's soemthing quite theraputic about beeting to windward getting batered by waves whilst wrapped up warm in several layers of waterproofs.

Lols where does all the money com from.

Dont you realise that there is loads of money in the world, its just all being held by the top 1% of people.

And its those people who finance these kinds of things.

Why are we all in trouble, cause the rich have stolen all the money, and we let them!!

Can we get back to the feat of amazing human endurance? 🙂

I've watched it since being a kid and the old Whitbread event with maxi's. Poor turnout a sign of the times. Southern ocean legs are spectacles but to a fellow tactician I love the doldrums. When is it safe to make the turn south? Will there be a weather gate?

Will dig out some old videos of steinlager etc from back in the day. They captured my enthusiasm as a kid more so than the machines of today.

[img] http://www.kospictures.com/ImageThumbs/A001-0021/3/A001-0021_The_maxi_ketch_Steinlager_II_skippered_by_Peter_Blake_racing_in_the_Whitbread_Round_the_World_Race_n.jp g" target="_blank">http://www.kospictures.com/ImageThumbs/A001-0021/3/A001-0021_The_maxi_ketch_Steinlager_II_skippered_by_Peter_Blake_racing_in_the_Whitbread_Round_the_World_Race_n.jp g"/> [/img]

One sailor I'm in awe of:
[img] [/img]
Always have been, been lucky to sail against him once (SORC, Key West in Melges24's, we were shite BTW hahaha)
Always admired this guy for his relentless British Spirit, Nick Bubb Mini Transat hero.
[img] ?w=450&h=337[/img]
And John Kosecki
[img] [/img]

I'm a fan of the Whitbread 60's me, the Volvo 70's are amazing, but the 60's were pigs to sail well.

Cayards a legend, much more likeable than coutts.

I've got a copy of Drum on VHS somewhere but no way to play it 🙁 remember passing her years ago on the Clyde and it was like seeing a failed rock star. Reduced rig and embossed in Arnold Clark livery. Full of corporate monkeys. I was emotional at the thought of this once great machine designed to sail the worlds toughest test pottering around the Clyde. Those Whitbread Maxi's had souls.

Think we've spoken before about melges 24s BB respect for getting to key west we could never afford to take ours anywhere exciting. Once I have more cash and kids grown up I'll have something similar again. Nothing has really came through to replace them as an international small grand prix type class as yet.

[url= http://http://www.thedailysail.com/offshore/10/56002/whitbreadvolvo-boats-where-are-they-now ]Cool link[/url]. There was an epic pic kicking around of Tokio 93-94 with a guy out on the pole over the water.

I've got a copy of Drum on VHS somewhere but no way to play it remember passing her years ago on the Clyde and it was like seeing a failed rock star. Reduced rig and embossed in Arnold Clark livery. Full of corporate monkeys. I was emotional at the thought of this once great machine designed to sail the worlds toughest test pottering around the Clyde. Those Whitbread Maxi's had souls.

It was owned by a member of Duran Duran aparently so the rockstar analogy is quite accurate! Unfortunately it's now litteraly on the rocks after breaking it's morring in a gale earlier this year.

Lols where does all the money com from.

Dont you realise that there is loads of money in the world, its just all being held by the top 1% of people.

And its those people who finance these kinds of things.

Why are we all in trouble, cause the rich have stolen all the money, and we let them!!

Get back under your rock!

If you earn more than the bottom 5% of Ammericans (no ones made the stats for the UK AFAIK) you're already passed the poorest 2 billion in the world. So if you've not married your sister and living in a trailer park you're doing well. Bear in mind USA unemployment is well over 5% you have to be at the bottom of the unemployed pile to even fall into the bottom third of the worlds poulation to be having rants like that.

I retract all the above if you really have given all your possessions away and realy do live under a rock.