Oceanracing 2001 - Volvo Ocean Race 2001/2002

Volvo Ocean Race 2001/2002

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Tagesberichte

Auckland, New Zealand, January 22nd 2002
French sailor joins Team SEB
For leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race which starts this Sunday in Auckland, Team SEB, currently in sixth position overall, has hired French solo and trimaran sailor Pascal Bidegorry, aged 34.
"Pascal with his extensive ocean racing knowledge and experience is the person we have been looking for. He fits in well as helmsman in our team, says skipper Gurra Krantz.
Bidegorry, a professional sailor since 1993, has so far specialized on solo and trimaran sailing. During the year 2000 he won the well known French solo race "The Figaro", with a course from France to Ireland, via Spain and England.
During 2001, he has been on the winner's stand several times sailing on the French trimaran "Groupama" where he met Team SEB's navigator Marcel van Triest. On Groupama he won the French Grand Prix du Cap d'Agde and also the ORMA 60 foot multihull Championship.
"I am looking forward to competing across the Southern Ocean and it is very motivating doing it with Team SEB", Pascal Bidegorry said at a press meeting in Auckland today.
More crew changes throughout the fleet are expected later in the week when the final crew lists for the 6,700 nautical mile leg to Rio de Janeiro are announced.

Auckland, New Zealand, January 22nd 2002
Paul Cayard on the dockside, Auckland:
Q: What’s the index reason you are doing this leg?
A: “I think the index reason is that there is some awesome sailing to be done outside the America’s Cup and Olympic classes sailing and the best part of it is down around this leg, around Cape Horn. I’ve done it once, and you could say that that should be sufficient, but it is still exhilarating and it will be fun to see a lot of things, the nature, the sea life, Cape Horn.
The other side is to sail with Grant really. I’ve only competed against Grant in the last one, but he’s the king of offshore round the world racing really. So I will be interested to see how he runs the boat and how things go.
It worked out well as unfortunately Dee Smith got injured and they needed a hand and I am on the board of directors of Nautor’s Swan, which is, in a way, the parent of this whole challenge. All things added up just right.”
Q: This is the leg that you did very well in last time. Is it a nice coincidence?
A: “Of course I have great memories of that last time, but I don’t necessarily have allusions of repeating that performance. It would be pretty hard to do, but I would much prefer to do this leg than leg two.”
Q: What about pre-planning?
A: “This game is all about gathering the information about the weather and making a routing plan that optimizes this boat’s potential to get down the track. Tactically you converge with the other opponents when you can take advantage of that, so you might gybe or tack when it suits you to take a gain on the other boats. The tactical game is based on the weather mostly, and Roger Nilson (navigator), I understand from Grant, has been doing a great job with all that, and that will continue to be his job, and my job is just to get the information from Roger and try to work with the routing programmes we have, to figure out where we should go.”
Q: How possible is it that you might do leg five?
A: Dee has done a great job and he is coming back and I’m sailing a Star race that I really want to sail at the same time, so it’s pretty unlikely.
Q: In all your recent sailing campaigns, you have been the skipper or the ‘head honcho’ in your syndicate. How easy is it going to be for you to take orders from the man sitting next to you?
A: “Grant has got a great track record here and it’s really his programme. Part of the reason why I’m doing it, is that I am interested in how he does it. I think there is mutual respect for each other and I think we are in the right roles onboard to best use our skills, so I don’t think it will be too hard to take orders at all.
Q: There has been talk of you joining the Volvo fleet since Cape Town. Is it a bit of a surprise that you have ended up with Nautor or were there other offers?
A: “It certainly isn’t a surprise that it has ended up as Nautor. I have had relationship with this team from the inception really. The very first meetings we had I was at. It just worked out well for me now. Cape Town was just too soon for me. I felt bad for Grant in Sydney with his broken ribs but I really wanted to be with my family, but it worked out now.”
Q: Where does it leave your commitments with Oracle Racing?
A: “I have a good understanding with the management of Oracle Racing, the guys who run the show here and basically they allowed me to go and take part in this. I can seek permission to go and participate in other legs and other events.”
Q: There is a huge amount of publicity here in New Zealand about the future of the Volvo Ocean Race; you may have seen some of it when you got here. Do you have any views on which way it should go or which way it shouldn’t go?
A: “That’s a tough question. I honestly haven’t been involved enough to make a fair comment of that. I have noticed the same things that everyone else has noticed, but I haven’t been inside enough to make a responsible comment on that. So maybe, after living it for three or four weeks here I will be better able to give some input to that. I think it is something we all hold near and dear.
“It is a fantastic event, it is a fantastic concept, and sailing around the world is great. Maybe some of the changes that have gone on have taken away a little bit of the round-the-world concept of this race. So in other words, maybe some fewer stops, making the whole thing get over a little quicker, but keeping the adventure aspect of it, which is so attractive. Even non-sailing public can understand sailing around the world. So if you keep that part going, it’s probably the most important part of the race.”