Conrad Colman: ‘It’s about teamwork, not talent’

There are so many things that go into winning a Volvo Ocean Race - a fast boat, tactics, luck, the quality of sailors – but it really all comes down to one thing.

The dynamics on board a boat can make or break a campaign. If people don’t get along or egos get in the way, an otherwise rock star team will have little chance of winning.

There have been some pretty dramatic developments over the last week, particularly around the appointment of Kiwi Brad Jackson as AkzoNobel skipper, and rival teams are now more wary of what that team will achieve in the race than they were before.

I’m more well known for sailing solo around the world when I can only argue with myself (it happens more often than you might think) but I have been in plenty of harmonious teams and just as many dysfunctional ones.

Mapfre seem to have got it together this time and it’s one reason why they go into this year’s race as one of the favourites.

They badly underperformed in the last Volvo Ocean Race when Iker Martinez was skipper. They weren’t even on the podium, even though they had a number of rock stars on board.

But that was the problem. They were overloaded with

talent and couldn’t get out of each other’s way. That came down to personality.

This time around they are being led by the cool head of Xabi Fernandez. He was the crew, not the helm, when he was part of the 2004 Olympic 49er gold medalwinning team and is happy to let specialists do what they have been brought on to do.

That means he won’t always be on the helm because he sees himself as a team leader and overall strategists and the dynamic is clearly working well.

Mapfre will start alongside Dongfeng as favourites with Team Brunel, AkzoNobel and Vestas 11th Hour Racing not too far behind.

The teams that are strong are generally the ones who are coming back for another crack. It takes a while to understand how to win the Volvo Ocean Race and that means getting things right on and off the water.

There are plenty of fresh faces this time around, and the new rules around under-30 sailors and women have helped in this regard.

It’s a great move by the organisers because, speaking from experience, the Volvo Ocean Race is a difficult beast to crack. Instead of holding try-outs, skippers naturally pick those who they have sailed with before so it was hard to get new blood into the race. It means this time there is a lot of nervous energy around Alicante. Just walking around the dock, there are plenty of wideeyed individuals who hope they can just make it through the race.

The first leg is a bit of a warmup, given they’re heading around the corner to Lisbon, and the real racing will start on the second leg to Cape Town.

It’s been a shorter preparation than normal, and Brunel entered as late as June, but now the sailors just need to get out on the water.

Let’s just hope they have got the team dynamics right.