SailJuice Blog

Ken Read sounds mighty proud of the boys he has lined up as the team to sail Puma Racing, the only American entry in the Volvo Ocean Race. “It’s been a long time coming,” said Read in a conference call from Newport, Rhode Island, this afternoon. “It’s been an overwhelming process to choose this team. The human element is crucial to the final outcome. We didn’t take it lightly.

“With the America’s Cup in flux right now, there is a lot of really good sailors looking for work. What I thought was going to be a difficult process became overwhelming, we had resumés from 400 sailors crazy enough to want to do this race. With that group of resumés, you could have put 10 world class crews together and not miss much.”

Read has been using George David’s 90-footer Rambler for crew training and elimination of the list of 400.

The Puma skipper describes his final line-up as “very international, six different nationalities on board. Experience played a part [in their selection]. If there were two individuals who were close in terms of their resumés, then I leaned towards experience, particularly Volvo Ocean Race experience.”

The Team

Read roll-called his team mates in alphabetical order:

Andrew Cape, navigator: Capey, I think he’s lost track the number of times he’s sailed around the world. Navigator of movistar in the last race and then Ericsson. Great guy, great navigator, great choice.

Rick Deppe: for this race we’re a crew of 10 plus one, the extra person is a media specialist who will send photos and video off the boat every day. A few years ago Rick eased his way out of the professional sailing world and into the video world, he’s worked for Disney Channel and Discovery Channel. An obvious choice for this job.

Justin Ferris, trimmer/driver: the best sailor I’ve sailed with that the world hasn’t heard about yet. Justin did the last race on the Disney entry. Big, strong, tough, a great all-rounder that you need on a Volvo programme.

Sidney Gavignet: he was on board ABN 1, which won the last Volvo Race, started the Barcelona Race, the boat he was on lost its mast, but great attitude. When Sidney sailed with us this summer, we knew he had this innate sense of ‘fast’. He’s a good guy and he can make a boat go fast.

Jerry Kirby, bowman: he’s been doing this a long time, he’s won America’s Cups as a bowman, he’s as experienced in offshore sailing as anyone I know. Jerry was a clear candidate because he’s the toughest guy I know. In a tough spot, Jerry’s the guy you want standing next to you. He’s got a major building business in Newport, and I had to convince him to take a year out to do this.

Jonathan McKee is a guy who back in the day was clearly the fastest sailor I’d ever sailed against in the university ranks. He’s won an Olympic gold medal in the Flying Dutchman, bronze in the 49er, done America’s Cups, and done distance racing. He’s another one of these fast guys just born with the talent.

Michael Mueller, bowman and trimmer. Mickey Mueller is a great reason why the new rule – having two under-30s on board – is a great rule to be brought in by Volvo. In ABN 2 in the last race, that boat brought a ton of energy into the last race. Mickey probably wouldn’t have had a shot at this race without this rule, because of his lack of experience, but he came highly recommended from the German America’s Cup team. He’s a big strong young guy who’s going to be of real value.

Chris Nicholson, watch captain. Chris Nicholson was the first guy we hired. To call him a watch captain is a huge understatement. One of the big links we had to make was between the sailing team and the design team. He’s an electrician by trade, he’s won 49er world championships, he’s been round the world. He’s been very influential in all the systems in how this boat works. I keep on saying our designers Botin & Carkeek should now be called Botin & Carkeek & Nicholson.

Rob Salthouse, trimmer/driver. Salty comes to us straight from Team New Zealand. He’s been round the world on Tyco. He’s one of these tough, solid Kiwis who can do anything on the boat. He’s in charge of our food and nutrition programme. He’s first in the gym in the morning, he has that proactive attitude to get us through 37,000 miles.

Casey Smith, bowman. He’s an Australian who I sailed with on the Pegasus TP52 programme. He was a clear choice for the under-30 option. He’ll be the boat captain, and brings that under-30 energy that this race wanted - and will get - because of this rule.

Read summed up his crew selection thus:

“Sailing skill was the first element. Chemistry was the second thing. I didn’t want to go sailing around the world with someone I didn’t like. Sounds silly, but it’s important. Then the experience factor. When we had two choices to make, we went with experience. You’ll find in this list a lot of people who are successful sailing around the world.”

Read didn’t rule out possible replacements to the team, but only due to some unforeseen circumstance such as injury to main crew. “These boats are clearly people breakers. Reference back to our Rambler experience. We have a bunch of guys who are saying, ‘Let me in coach!’ These guys are literally a phone call away. They know who they are and they understand that if a particular skill-set goes down on board, then we will be calling them. There is a certain amount you are allowed to rotate crew from leg to leg.”

However, Read sounds like he’ll be sticking as much as possible to the original gang of 10 (or 11 if you count media man Rick Deppe). “We’ve talked about chemistry and winning is the best way to promote chemistry. Winning cures a lot of ailments.”

QUESTION: Who do you think will win the Volvo Ocean Race? And why?