Ocean crews braced for a real battering

AS the six boats of the Volvo Ocean Race prepare to start the first of 10 legs in this 39,000-mile competition, the crews are bracing themselves for an immediate battering from gales reminiscent of the 2005 race, with widespread damage across the fleet and one boat forced to retire.

Today’s fleet should, in theory at least, prove more resilient and all six will deliver a spectacular start in the ideal reaching conditions forecast for the 1pm (Irish time) start. The event will be broadcast live on television and streamed on the internet.

As five of the six are third generation boats, the designs have been refined to such a level that predicting a winner is a fierce task.

In theory, the best prepared boat might win this 6,500 mile stage to Cape Town. Cork boat-builder Killian Bushe has built the last three race winners and was instantly retained to build the French Groupama 4 entry that is skippered by Franck Cammas, with Kerryman Damian Foxall sailing as watch-leader.

But past experience by a team is also a factor and the French haven’t competed in this race since 1994.

That opens up the field to the likes of Ken Read’s Puma team from the United States that placed second three years ago or Ian Walker’s fully-funded Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing that emerged from Ireland’s Green Dragon project last time.

Legendary race-winner turned project manager Grant Dalton has entered a joint Spanish/New Zealand flagged entry skippered by Chris Nicholson with an almost exclusively Kiwi crew that has plenty of past experience and talent on board.

And Spain’s own Telefonica entry, led by Iker Martinez, is regarded as the strongest homeside challenge from this Alicante-based race for the third time of trying for a race win.

Last but not least — though self-declared as a non-contender for the overall win — is past race-winner Mike Sanderson on Team Sanya, the Chinese entry part-sponsored by Discover Ireland.com as part of the build-up to the finish in Galway at the start of July next year.

His goal is to build a team for the next race and also to interfere with the race leaders and possibly gain some podium places along the way.