Photos: L Oskar Kihlborg R Paul Todd | outsideimages

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Thu, 24 Aug 2006 10:00:00 UTC

When we started the Volvo Ocean Race, back in 2005, few believed that, after eight months, we would have the kind of success we achieved, writes Brazilian first-time Volvo Ocean Race skipper, and multiple Olympic medal winner, Torben Grael.

It was the first Brazilian boat to compete in this race and we recovered from almost everything to finish third overall. It was a true adventure around the world and it ended with all our goals fulfilled.

Brasil 1 will always be remembered as a pioneer project in Brazil. Just to have put together such a campaign, overcoming all the difficulties, is already a big achievement. It wasn’t easy to find the funds for such an audacious project inside our country, but the team’s directors, Alan Adler and Enio Ribeiro, never gave up. We built our boat in Brazil and entered in the competition with half the crew not having experience in this kind of offshore racing. But we were competitive from day one and the final result shows it. We were third overall, won a leg and showed our own point of view to this new world which Brazilians are entering.

Making the right decisons

This means that we really got the majority of our decisions right. For me, the biggest strength of this team was the partnership that everybody showed during the race. The morale onboard was always high and this made a difference. Of course we couldn’t get everything right. Our preparation time wasn’t the best, but lots of other teams also got to the start line far from being completely prepared.

Even so, we got into an amazing learning curve. We finished with eight podium positions, four of them in a row to close the race. This means that the crew as a whole evolved as we got used to each other and to the boat. I will always remember the victory into Rotterdam and the fight we put into it.

Particularly for me, it was a big human adventure. The Torben Grael that finished the Volvo Ocean Race is surely wiser. I’m older, my face has a lot of new wrinkles and I can say that I learned a lot about human behaviour. Everything that happened to us made me grow as a person and I’m really grateful to have had such a great crew to help me in this learning process.

As sailors, this was a dream come true. Brasil 1 was the fastest boat I’ve ever sailed, by far. These boats are capable of some amazing things and can put you into some tricky situations. I’ll never forget rounding Cape Horn, for example.

When we arrived in Göteborg, everybody asked me “What now?” Well, I’ve got another America’s Cup campaign going on and Marcelo Ferreira and I are trying once more to qualify for the Olympic Games in 2008. But I can’t lie: if I had to retire right now, I would have accomplished everything that I always dreamed of.

Torben Grael

Part 1 : From the Cockpit: Grant Wharington

Part 2 : From the Cockpit: Neal McDonald

Part 3 : From the Cockpit: Seb Josse

Part 5 : From the Cockpit: Paul Cayard

Part 6 : From the Cockpit: Mike Sanderson

Part 7 : From the Cockpit: Bouwe Bekking

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