a-solitary-sea-rover: lies: I haven’t been obsessing publicly…
lies:
I haven’t been obsessing publicly over it, but the Volvo boats just had another non-scoring pre-race race (the “Prologue”, not to be confused with the previously completed “Leg 0”). This race was from Lisbon, Portugal to Alicante, Spain.* Basically it’s a preview of the upcoming Leg 1, except sailed in reverse.
There were light winds nearly the whole way, with just a bit of a breeze as they entered the Mediterranean through the Straits of Gibraltar. MAPFRE got an early lead and never gave it up, and at one point they and Brunel extended by going inside and picking up a land breeze while the other five boats stayed parked offshore. After that it was a match race between those two boats.
I love this video of them crossing the finish line. Things I love about it:
- How low-key they all are. This was a really slow, intense, difficult race, and they’re all exhausted. But it’s the good kind of exhausted. 🙂
- My unproblematic fave Sophie.
- Speaking of low-key: Check out how on-board reporter Jen Edney (the only woman among the OBRs) included a shot of Xabi talking about the race that just happens to include Támara Echegoyen in the background hiking up her foulies after (one assumes) peeing off the stern. It’s just a little thing. But the more I think about it the more cool I think it is. You want an example of real equality? This is what it looks like.
Ten days until the race proper starts. Closer…
¡Vamos MAPFRE!
* Technically they ended the race early, at Cabo de Gata, due to the light winds. Now they’re all motoring to Alicante.
I just noticed Xabi and Pablo have their first names on their shirts while the others have their last names.
I wondered if that was due to length of the names (i.e., not having room to stencil the whole last name). If you order all of them by length you get:
- Cuervas-Mons (12)
- Greenhalgh (10)
- Echegoyen (9)
- Fernández (9)
- McDonald (8)
- Altadill (8)
- Sinclair (8)
- Arrarte (7)
- Ciszek (6)
- Tuke (4)
- Vila (4)
So that doesn’t support my name-length theory very well. Maybe it’s just a personal preference thing, and speaks more to a low-key approach to leadership that Xabi and Pablo have? Rob is listed as the other watch captain, and his should have his first name under either theory, but I think his say “Greenhalgh.” So who knows?
I’m guessing it falls into the “not important enough to have a policy” category. And like having Sophie and Támara working the grinders and moving the stack (and casually peeing off the stern on-camera) alongside the rest of the crew, I just really like the casual vibe that comes across about what it’s like aboard their boat.
It’s easy to look relaxed when you’re winning, and it will be interesting to see if the mood on the boat changes when they face more adversity (like MAPFRE did on Leg 1 in the 2014/15 race). Whatever system they have for determining what is and isn’t important enough to worry about, though, it seems to be working so far. 🙂
Reposted from http://ift.tt/2ycYcdP.
Tags: closer..., vor, volvo ocean race, ¡vamos mapfre!.
