Abu Dhabi team start as favourites for Volvo Ocean Race

When the brand new Volvo Ocean Race yachts slip out of the bay of Alicante this afternoon, Ian Walker will breath a sigh of relief as the nightmare start he and his Abu Dhabi backed team endured this time three years ago will finally be a distant memory.

It was on the opening night of the 39,000-mile race in 2011 that the mast on the 70-foot Azzam snapped as the breeze freshened even before the leaders had reached the Straits of Gibraltar.

Light airs Walker need have no worries this time round, at least not for the opening night as light airs are dominating the Mediterranean region so it could be Monday at least before the fleet reaches the Atlantic.

This edition of the round the world race marks the third attempt for the double Olympic medallist who only started offshore racing in 2007 when he skippered Ireland’s Green Dragon entry in this race.

If his debut campaign with the Irish entry proved problematic due to funding and design issues, the last race wasn’t much better despite resources available from his Emirati backers.

Walker’s mast issues on the opening night only heralded worse to come with hull delamination issues leading to withdrawal from an entire leg later in the race. At various stages, the whole fleet was beset with technical issues of some kind that might have been life-threatening were it not for the experience of the crews. But the reputation of the race was called into question and a high-level response was called for.

The solution was announced even before the race ended in Galway and it was ground-breaking: after decades of individual design teams working at enormous expense, the race would be sailed in one-design boats, thus switching emphasis from technical advantage to crew proficiency.

With an early start to preparations for this race and a crew with deep experience – including Cork sailor Justin Slattery a former race winner on his sixth circumnavigation – the Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing team are widely tipped as favourites.

But what of the new boats that are crucial both to the race and the safety of the crews? “We have spent the last six months trying very hard to break it without success,” Walker said yesterday. “Now we’ll have to make sure we don’t.” Burning issue But he side-stepped the burning issue that is quietly spoken of around the team bases; these new 65-footers are slower than their 70-foot predecessors. It is thought that while the new boats are faster sailing dead downwind, they are around two to three knots slower in reaching conditions according to some race sources.

Moreover, the new boats will be slower upwind perhaps by as much as 10 per cent. And with much of the race-course expected to be sailed in upwind conditions, there is expectation that the stop-over port schedule will come under pressure.

The new boats are built more strongly so a repeat of the fleet breaking up two years ago should be avoided. But with lighter keel bulbs and the overall smaller size, delivering the same performance as the 70s was always a tall order.

“In many ways it’s a bit irrelevant because the 70s had their own problems, these boats are fast off the wind.” he said, citing the 550-mile day recorded by Bouwe Bekking Team Brunel in this year’s Round Britain and Ireland Race in August.

He also played down expectations of a new 24-hour distance record to beat Brazilian Olympian Torben Grael’s time on Ericsson 4 six years ago. “To beat 600 miles in 24 hours means averaging 25 knots so that means you have to be doing 30 most of the time,” said Walker. “It [Grael’s time] was a very special run in perfect conditions so I don’t know – 600 will really take a special run and we didn’t get close to it in the last race.”

A more significant change has also been achieved with the re-modelling of the race and that is the cost. From the heady pre-financial crisis of teams reportedly spending tens of millions on research and development, along with crews and shore teams numbering 40 or 50, something had to give.

Now the new-look event is expected to offer a fully competitive boat and team with all costs covered for €10-12 million and the seven-boat fleet this time will be reused, with new-builds in the following edition.

The next three and half weeks will be the first full test for the new fleet as it heads into the Atlantic for the 6,500-mile stage to Cape Town.