Gurra Krantz talks to madforsailing

The skipper of Volvo Ocean Team SEB tells Bob Fisher about his designs on being first around the world...

'Gurra' Krantz was standing in front of his freshly launched Volvo Ocean 60, SEB, a boat that no-one will miss on account of its bright green hull and equally bright green sails, and was looking remarkably relaxed when Bob Fisher caught up with him at Sune Carlsson's Boatyard in Saltsjobaden, where she was built.
There are some obvious differences from the previous generation of these boats. How is this boat different from Swedish Match?
Most of the things are different as we are facing a different course, different weather patterns, a few rule changes, and all those have been taken into consideration. The hull is different, the foils are different, the rig is obviously different with carbon fibre and we opted also for a very different deck layout with two hatches and a double pit area to enable us to run the boat more efficiently in the close-up racing - it's almost round-the-buoys racing.

You say the hull is different - how does it differ?
Swedish Match was probably the fattest in the fleet last time and we have opted for a narrower boat, although we still have to see how narrow we are compared with the others. But we are on the narrow side compared to last time and we have to see if you need a fat boat for the Code Zero sails; or do you want a stiffer boat for downwind - it depends on what you believe in terms of the weather patterns.

You will generate a lot of power from the flared topsides.
Yes; most boats are sailing at a heeled angle and we have to see how she performs when she is heeled, the power she picks up when heeled. I think this 'V' shaped hull is the way to go for us. I pray to God that we are right.

When you went into this with your designer, who came up with this shape? Was it from you or was it from Bruce?
Normally you get from the designer, in this case the Bruce Farr office, a menu, and out of that menu you pick what you believe in, in relation to the weather pattern and the way you want to sail your boat, what you believe in terms of VPPs, the strong and weak sides, and he designs what you are after. Of course he has his own input which is very invaluable. It is very hard to talk against what he believes is fast because he has all the proofs. We wanted a narrower boat than last time, we wanted a 'V' shaped boat, we knew we wanted the boat to be slippery when heeled. And that's how he designed the boat and not so much focused on good handling in critical conditions - I think it may be tough for us in the Southern Ocean. It will be easier speed-wise on the shorter legs, which carry a lot of points in relation to their length.

You have had two seasons with these training boats, so you will have done a great deal of sail testing.
We had two boats in Portugal for the winter and we had the worst winter for 50 years, but we had a lot of spare time down there, so in the end we achieved what we wanted to. We have completed all the research, with some wind tunnel testing and we believe that we are heading in the right direction, at least for us and what we have chosen. There are a lot of good people out there and we will have to keep on fighting all the way. It's a long way round the world.

A couple of questions about the race itself - how do you think the Volvo organisation is squaring up compared to the Whitbread? There were seven of those.
It is tough on such a big organisation as Volvo to step into a whole new area of sporting events. They have been successful in tennis, show jumping, golf, and so sailing is a new 'toy' for them and they will have a long learning period. They have had a few tough decisions to make. The fact that all the syndicates are investing a great deal in this race as well as Volvo, makes it a very different type of playing field to that which Volvo is used. No one goes to a golf tournament and pay US$15 million to play, rather the good ones take that money away with them. It is a different ball game altogether, so if they make this a good event from a media point of view and a sports event for the competitors, they will have a good success rate for the future, however they change this race - we won't be sailing these boats 20 years from now - and Volvo has expressed a 15-20 year commitment to this race. Somewhere along the line we will see quite a dramatic change and it is a case of Volvo picking up that change early enough and positioning themselves for the future.

You say the race has changed this time, but most of the course is the same, surely?
There is a different leg into Brazil, there is a different leg from Sydney to Auckland, via Hobart, if that happens and it is still not 100 per cent. We have Miami, not a big dramatic change, but there is a big change in the end - La Rochelle-Gothenburg-Kiel. That's a huge change because you are basically sailing in a narrow channel down the west coast of Sweden and the east coast of Denmark and that could be the deciding part of the whole race, whether you pick the current right or get the extra land breeze at night, because at that time of the year it can be anything.