Emergency in The Volvo Ocean Race

Ed Gorman questions the liberal rules surrounding outside assistance.

The need for SEB to replace her broken headboard car in order to remain competitive in the Volvo Ocean Race can be in no doubt. The legality of the move does however seem questionable. The Volvo Ocean Race Rules modify the normal Racing Rules to allow for replacements in an 'emergency'. So how can a broken fitting on a mainsail constitute an emergency? The boat was in no danger, no one was about to be killed or injured, there was no sudden pressure of time to get something done. There was simply a broken racing fitting which was hampering SEB's performance.

Having trashed their original headboard car during the first big blow of the race, the luckless SEB crew organised a replacement which, through an amazing feat of logistics, was whisked out to the tiny island of Puerto Santo, 20 miles northeast of Madeira where Krantz anchored for a few minutes Sunday, before continuing on his way.

This 're-supply' of SEB, a sequence of events which is shortly to be repeated by Knut Frostad's Djuice when it stops at Fernando de Noronha off the Brazilian coast for a replacement for its own headboard car, underlines that an 'emergency' in the Volvo Ocean Race is a heavily qualified term which cynics may feel is influenced by commercial considerations like ensuring your fleet is all racing and in as close proximity as possible.

Michael Woods, the director of race operations for the Volvo, who is also a member of the race committee which permitted this to happen, is unapologetic and points out that the race rules of the Volvo are there "to keep people in the event, not to get rid of them."

Woods told madforsailing that SEB was allowed to take a replacement part on board without being considered to have violated rules banning outside assistance, "on the basis that this was an emergency and the rules allow boats to replace defective gear in an emergency."

In the last race crews were up and down the mast continually "stropping-off" spinnaker halyards, something which has been specifically banned for safety reasons this time round, a rule change facilitated by the requirement to fit halyard locks. Woods and his fellow committee members accepted that with the mainsail on SEB lashed to the rig, a crew-member would have to go up every time the sail was reefed or a reef was shaken out, thus placing that crew member in unnecessary danger. And that constitutes an emergency, Woods argues.

"It's certainly fairly fundamental," he said, "because it does require you to climb up the rig which is putting people in a very vulnerable position - you only have to read the stories of when it first happened and the crew beaten black and blue going up the mast to appreciate that. The rules have planned to not have people continually going up the rig."

Woods acknowledged that the whole issue could be seen as a marginal one and it is quite possible rival skippers may feel that SEB should have been required to race on and cope in a seamanlike manner with the damage and ultimately pay the penalty in terms of performance. "If people dislike it, they can protest and it can go to the international jury," he said.

So far however, there appears not to have been a squeak from the other boats, perhaps a reflection of the fact that they feel they might get themselves into an "emergency" or two before the race is over and need to take advantage of the same liberal rules environment themselves.

There is an interesting coda to the story in the form of Notice to Competitors No 4 which was issued by the race committee over the weekend, just as SEB were sorting out their problems. This said that teams are not allowed to receive advice on rules issues while racing but, in the event of damage to equipment, they can put questions in writing to the race committee who, in turn, could give advice which would not constitute outside assistance.

Clearly the dilemma facing the crews on both SEB and djuice required clarification. As one rules advisor from another syndicate put it: "What one can say with reasonable certainty is that the race committee would not have issued a notice like that suddenly, out of the blue, on a Saturday afternoon or whatever. I'm sure it must have been prompted by something."