Neal McDonald's Club Med Diary - 10/12/00

As Club Med continues its preparation for The Race, Neal McDonald brings us up to date

In my last diary I talked a little bit about the type of boat in which we are about to set out on The Race. Unfortunately, until you actually see these machines it is hard to get a feel for the sheer scale of them - so for those who have not seen them, I’m afraid you’ll just have to take it from me - they're big, fast and powerful!

I don't want to list each crew member and give their CV, but I would like to touch on the topic briefly. Grant Dalton is the boss - a tough Kiwi who is not uncomfortable about taking charge of a campaign of this scale and getting the best out of it. Having finished five round the world races, winning two and coming second in two, there's little doubt in my mind that he’s the right man for the job. Nothing phases him - we have broken some major pieces of equipment (and boat) and where many would put their head in their hands he has seen it all before - 'knuckle down and sort it out' is his philosophy.

He’s chosen a team of 12 guys to take around the world with him. The group is made up of a multi-national crew of mixed backgrounds. I’ve not counted up the total number of round the world races these guys have separately completed - but I guess it would be over twenty!
We have several crew who have been to the Olympics, several who have done America’s Cups and a group of French sailors who have been involved in top level multi-hull sailing in France for a long time. Put all this together with a fantastic and enthusiastic sponsor such as Club Med, and a cool state-of-the-art maxi-catamaran and you have a pretty exciting combination.

Since we joined the programme, we have all spent an immense amount of time thinking about how we make the boat go faster, how we prevent it breaking apart and how we get it around the world efficiently. A considerable amount of time has also been spent mending what we have broken or preventing things from breaking - but that’s all part of the game. There are no short cuts in a campaign that involves leading edge technology like we have here.

On board we are all too well aware of the million and one items that could spell disaster on a long distance non-stop race like The Race. Most of the decisions and issues that will determine how fast we can sail through the water at a given time have now been dealt with, so from here on a vast amount of time is spent checking and checking again. We are trying to leave no stones unturned and to cover all eventualities. Of course, there is a difficult compromise here, we can’t take spares for everything - otherwise we'd sink!

We are also aware that we will often have to 'throttle back' when conditions require it. You can’t take an F1 racing car on a rally course and hope it will not break up. Often we will have to slow down - particularly in bad sea states. This is a pretty foreign concept for a mono-hull sailor like myself, but it is a concept that I know could win or lose this race. We have done enough sailing in our boat to realise roughly where this fine line of going fast and surviving is - but I have no doubt it will be constantly updated, and constantly discussed throughout the race.

Now we are here in Barcelona, for me, it is suddenly coming home that in a few weeks time we are taking off in a truly incredible race. Up to now my mind has been on getting the boat ready - but from here we are just putting the final touches to a long and well thought-out campaign. Only now am I beginning to think about the competition and how they are going to approach the race. I simply can’t wait to see all the boats line up here in Barcelona ready for the start!

Our boat goes back in the water on Sunday, 10 December - shortly afterwards we are off to Monaco for The Race Prologue. Having seen the weather forecasts over the past few days, I can’t imagine that all those teams stuck north of Finisterre are going to have a window to get down here very easily - but we will have to wait and see.