Andi Robertson
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The Ocean Race is seeking to raise the game in its move to include the IMOCA 60 as a crewed class, but has it taken the right approach?
t still seems hard to visualise what The Ocean Race is going to look like and how it will finally unfold. One esteemed commentator recently described it as in its death throes - I sincerely hope it’s not. But clearly it is not getting the traction within the IMOCA fleet that they hoped for. Yes, there may be a couple of boats and teams still to appear last minute, but I don’t see more than four or five IMOCAs on the start line. It now seems that, rather than complement the Vendée Globe, the massive success of that solo non-stop race round the world actually leaves a very small space for a crewed race. For major sponsors, you could argue that the Vendée Globe represents better value and a more engaging proposition at this present time for a smaller budget. My benchmark was always that Alex Thomson’s team in Boss colours were instrumental in supporting the move to IMOCA, but the race became too expensive and too long for them. If it was not for them, who is it for? Clearly Boris Herrmann - who leads Team Malizia - has done his sums and sees it as a viable proposition for his new boat, which will launch this spring. He finished fifth in the last Vendée Globe. He created a German audience of over five million regular fans and after Cape Horn was featuring on national terrestrial broadcasting every day. Long before he was finished it became obvious he could monetise the new following very swiftly to massively expand his programme to build new, and now plans to do the Route du Rhum, The Ocean Race and the next Vendée Globe. “A study by the Melt Water Institute estimated the advertising value of media return at 420 million euros. We must certainly take that with a pinch of salt, but it shows the importance of the media impact which broke the ice in Germany, we did not expect that at all!” Herrmann said recently. “It’s fabulous to see how the Vendée Globe has allowed young and international teams like ours to achieve such success and we really had a very strong dynamic that pushed sponsors to come and meet with us and now to take part in the adventure. We were even able to choose our partners, today we have eight united under the slogan ‘A Race We Must Win’. This dynamic led us to tell ourselves that we would perhaps
IMAGE SAILING ENERGY/THE OCEAN RACE
‘AI makes pilot systems more efficient than the human helm in many conditions... the performance gap between solo and crewed must be converging’
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APRIL 2022 Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting
ABOVE The crewed, foiling IMOCA 60 is one of two fleets racing in next year’s The Ocean Race; the other is the VO65
ANDI ROBERTSON An offshore sailing expert, few people can match Andi’s insight into the big boat world, both in the UK and globally
only have the opportunity once in our life to build a new boat, which is why the choice was made very quickly.” By most conventions, having already built a boat for the race and with the most comprehensive training and prep programme already in place, 11th Hour Racing then should be the stand-out favourites. They will do two Transatlantics this season, to and from their home in Newport, and you can add in the two they did last year between the Transat Jacques Vabre. By comparison, new boats like Team Malizia which will do the Route du Rhum will be sailed conservatively as they have no room at all for breakdowns. I do hope The Ocean Race does prosper, but right now it needs to evolve to something above and beyond just another opportunity for the top pro sailors doing their job. It has always been the case that the crewed boats could be pushed harder. As routing software and meteo forecasting becomes more advanced, AI makes pilot systems more efficient than the human helm in many conditions, the performance gap between solo and crewed must be converging all the time. It will be interesting to see what unfolds. Sadly this is my last column for Yachts & Yachting. Thanks to all who have collaborated over the 30 years I have had pleasure of contributing.
