PLYMOUTH IN THE SUNSHINEMay06
- By Mark Turner in Uncategorized,
After a bank holiday weekend start to The Artemis Transat pre-race week, bustling with thousands of spectators, Tuesday morning has begun with great sunshine on the docks in Sutton Harbour. Four years ago, at the last edition of the event, we also had sunshine - but over in Mountbatten, not a great deal of people! So its nice to have really managed to evolve this race for the 2008 edition..have a look at the following link for the race programme - we are so lucky to have inside OC a top quality editor in Jocelyn Bleriot…
So if you are in the SW of England, don’t miss Plymouth this week!
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Been away, sorry!Apr11
- By Mark Turner in Sustainability, Sailing stuff,
Nothing worse than a blog that isn’t updated eh…mmm…well no excuses, just been manic times at OC Group. The finish of the Barcelona World Race was excellent, and looking back, think we can not be unhappy about the final sporting and media results of this inaugural event. The next edition is going to be December 2010, and I think will be a real winner - for all kinds of ocean sailors. Meanwhile, we’ve got the same IMOCA fleet lined up, alongside some hot Class 40’s, for The Artemis Transat, 11 May Plymouth - going to be a big race I think. At the same time OC Events is in final preps for the iShares Cup 2008, first event kicks off in Lugano end of May, a day after The Transat prizegiving in Boston in fact! Bad planning…and on the Offshore Challenges Sailing Team side, our IMOCA 60 “BT’ skippered by Seb Josse is sailing now, and will be launched officially in London on 29 April, and Nick Moloney’s is getting training in the Extreme 40 “BT”. Ellen is very busy on all fronts, with BT, and with our other partners such as E.ON, and a big focus on the Eco-Island project - sustainability project in our home territory of the Isle of Wight. Everyone is working hard on all these projects…time for action!
Surprised, no? Disappointed, of course! But the match race goes on…Dec21
- By Mark Turner in Sailing stuff,
Well it was always going to be a tough one - no-one ever raced these IMOCA 60’s so far , so long, so hard. The longest leg ever for non-solo racing, before the Barcelona World Race was a TJV at 4000 miles. The pace had been furious on these boats, at full power for 12,000 miles - no radical weather, but fully loaded, fully pressed, 24 hours a day in two-up/crewed mode. I was just saying how amazed I was that we still had all the fleet in the race still going in to the Southern Ocean - my pre-race forecast was to lose at least a couple before then (I think I told James Boyd, at best half the fleet will finish!). Then of course, and the superstitious ones out there will laugh, it all went a bit downhill for a week. First PRB, the Delta Dore, then in a cruel twist of fate, Veolia on her way back up the leaderboard after an engine problem pitstop in the most remote pit lane of the world in the beautiful but wild Kerguelen Islands. PRB the best prepared boat in the fleet - who would have guessed. Of course, in France at least (not much anywhere else though), the discussion is now of catastrophe…’IMOCA fleet loses its head’ is Le Figaro title - although to be fair to Martin C the article is quite well balanced. In reality, everyone knows that where the IMOCA boats are in the cycle of evolution and development, pushed on by extraordinary levels of competition, it was clear the new boats are close to their limits. Finding the balance between performance and reliability is the age old game of ocean racing - the seas, the winds, the distance around the planet has not changed - but the margin for error is smaller than ever for those that want to win. The timing for the inaugural Barcelona World Race of course meant the risks of early retirements was even bigger, and with a good, but relatively small (once you lose 4) fleet, we were going to feel the pain a bit more if we lost some. Each boat though has its own technical failure, easy to say ‘oh the Lorima masts’ - but of course that isn’t the full story at all, and its ignorant to make sweeping statements on these points. But, no doubting it, this is a tough game now to build a boat to win, you have to go close to that performance limit. No amount of qualification could have prepared these boats for what 12,000 (to the Southern Ocean alone), or 25,000 miles non-stop would produce. Its going to be a very worthy winner of the Barcelona World Race for sure…and right now, with a great match race going on between Hugo Boss and Paprec Virbac 2, who knows what will happen as we approach the start of the second half of the race…
What has been refreshing has been how positive the skippers, and their sponsors, have been about the race even when retiring early. It seems the format works well. After 5 years of planning to get this first edition on the road, that is of course very welcome news… Bilou for example - <<<What do you think about the format of the Barcelona World Race? <It’s great, I love racing double-handed, I’ve always have. This race is really good, we’re able to really enjoy the boats, but there are some areas we could work on to improve life on board. There are tough moments and very pleasant ones. We have made the most of the boat’s potential, more than it’s possible to do singlehanded: double handed, it’s really a treat!>>>>
So, on we go - another 12,000 miles to go - and I’m sure not short of more drama…
Finally something great on STUFFDec21
- By Mark Turner in Sustainability,
Check this out, well worth watching, very well done…
If we could deal with the problem first, maybe climate change would be a secondary issue…
In to the south…Dec06
- By Mark Turner in Sailing stuff,
Amazing how suddenly its all different. Cold, low visibility, thundering surfing speeds, tension, fear, isolation - its not just the sailor’s that feel it. Knowing what its like in the Southern Ocean, as the Barcelona World Race fleet head in to the Roaring Forties, adds to the tension on a personal front as well. As a race organiser its a bit like sharing 10% of all the emotion of each boat, but multiplied by the number of boat - end result with 9 boats just about the same as the 100% intensity of managing one boat project/skipper as they battle around the planet. Its hard to imagine that this traverse of the Southern Ocean won’t be without any drama, its not a part of the planet that allows you past without paying some dues. It remains a truly awesome place, untouched by humans, pure, nature, rough, unpredictable, its why every sailor says ‘never again’ at some point, and then usually does go back once more. I remember Hari Hakimo(spelling??), skipper of the Finish entrant in the Whitbread in 1989 saying “Never again, you should not come here, there is no reason to be here, its a crazy place” or something similar! And at the time, I was in agreement. But actually I think I’d like to go back there again one day…
Napkins!!!Nov15
- By Mark Turner in Sustainability,
Just how often do you get given the single paper napkin that you need in a cafe or takeaway…how stupid is that we get given handfulls every time, I’ve had between 3 and 10 this week each time I’ve bought something. Its the same everywhere! What a waste!!!
They are off…Nov14
- By Mark Turner in Sailing stuff,
An exhausting few weeks for the team…both OC Events and our Spanish partners at the FNO in Barcelona. But what a great result! Fantastic pre-race week in a great village setup, and a simply awesome start day with levels of pontoon emotion like a Vendée, and a full-on scary start day out on the water…stunning images, great way to set off, and for a first edition something really special. Now we are in the daily process of improving all our systems for real, website, images, animations, etc…the list is endless…its nice to have 3 months ahead though of continual improvement -thats great with a rtw race, unlike the short, sharp transatlantics… Great to be in Barcelona, sunny most days, but working English times to start the day, and Spanish ones to finish, the days are a bit long…
Creating a new event…Nov02
- By Mark Turner in Sailing stuff,
Don’t ever think creating a new event is easy…man, what a fight for more than 3 years now to get to the startline of the Barcelona World Race. One day I’ll write a book about all these crazy projects of the last 10 years of OC. Today the official village of the event opened, with a visit from the Mayor. Sunshine, good crowds, an excellent smart setup for the VIP and Media centre…its a pretty cool setup. Am pretty sure we are all happier here this week in the sun, than in a grey northern french town! After 3 years of struggles though to get this new event established, its very rewarding for all the team of people from Barcelona and from OC Events to see a great line up of full on IMOCA 60s, and a set of skippers with 36 round the worlds between them, experience from Volvo to Vendee, America’s Cup to Olympics. Its got a long way to go, but its not a bad start to the very first Barcelona World Race. Just don’t ask me to create something that big and new again for a little while please…
Sailing number 3 in Europe?Oct28
- By Mark Turner in Sailing stuff,
Well, not a bad little article to kick off this blog…a report showing that Sailing in Europe, in sponsorship dollars terms, is only smaller than Football and F1. Not sure where this blog is going to go, but I’d like when there is a spare minute to just share some unofficial thoughts on the world we live and work in - whether its to do with sport of sailing, adventure, or how the hell we do all we do in a more sustainable way.
Not sure how good the actual report is as they seemed to have missed the point on some things (think about the IMOCA fleet, its got over 100 million Euros of deals signed on the boat project side on its own in 2006/7, so the event sponsorships are pretty small in comparison). Anyway check it out at
http://www.ibinews.com/ibinews/newsdesk/20070925162005ibinews.html