On top of his game

TheDailySail talks to Mean Machine's and Team New Zealand's Ray Davies

Ray Davies has etched out an impressive professional sailing career and has stepped into the limelight this year winning big one design events such as Key West and SORC in the Farr 40s and the recent Mumm Europeans as tactician on Peter de Ridder's Mean Machines, beating some of the best, and most well known, tacticians in the process.

Davies, aged 32, from Auckland is unusual in the current professional tactician world having never campaigned hard in the Olympic Classes. Instead he has risen through the ranks from NZ Match Racing Champion and New Zealand Keelboat Champion (twice), into two round the world races on Merit Cup and then illbruck Challenge with a short stint with America One in between. He is now signed up with Team New Zealand for the 2007 America’s Cup.

Early promise for Davies showed when he twice competed at the Youth Worlds, first in Barcelona and then in Montreal but he then concentrated on his electrical apprenticeship, setting up a company in Auckland before getting his big break on Grant Dalton's Merit Cup in the 1996/97 Whitbread Round the World Race (as it was then).


A slightly more 'rounded' Davies during his illbruck days

Dalton seems to have played an important part in his career, and demonstrated the additional skills required to make it in the professional sailing world. “Grant has got a lot of great attributes,” says Davies. “He’s very well organised and very disciplined and that’s what I learnt from the Merit Cup days. To have a clear plan and goals and work to that. I also started to learn about big teams and campaigns and projects and the requirements needed to keep a team together for such a long time.”

Following the conclusion of the Volvo, Davies was signed up by America One for the 1999-2000 America’s Cup. Coming in at a late stage after sponsorship money had appeared, Davies joined the weather team and spent most of his time in a helicopter over the race course relaying information back to the boat.

“It was very interesting” says Davies of life in the air. “It took a number of days to get used to the different vantage point, and how long it takes gusts to move, but then you got the hang of it. In fact it was only one in ten times you would be able to give some useful advice, but the team would come through with a race winning move.”

For Davies this unique perspective was not on it’s own beneficial to his sailing, but more of how money can be spent on the sport in the pursuit of excellence: “It just proves there’s always another learning curve and always another step to go to perfection,” he says.

After American One he was snapped up for John Kosteki’s illbruck Challenge and was involved in the campaign for two and half years, coming on as a helmsman. For Davies (who has now hung up his offshore wellies) his overriding memory of the Volvo was of the ‘magic days’ which came along every month: “Those days with 25 to 35 knots, the perfect angle, you’ve got your masthead spinnaker up and you're surfing on some incredible waves that you never get anywhere else other than the open ocean. The perfect wind angle, there’s no bottom mark to turn around and you just keep sending it. The rest of it’s not very enjoyable but you forget about those moments!”

Davies admits that it will be difficult for him to find another team quite like illbruck and has made the switch what he calls “the feet and inches game” of match racing and the America’s Cup.

Davies' inshore credentials come mainly from his involvement with Peter de Ridder’s Mean Machine campaign. These he first started in 1999 with success coming swiftly with a victory in the Admiral’s Cup. After a short break de Ridder got himself a Farr 40. “The Farr 40 seemed the obvious choice to take his own personal sailing up a notch and take on the handlebars himself,” says Davies of de Ridder's choice. “Since that decision the team has just gone from strength to strength.

“Our main goal with Mean Machine has always to be consistent and keep out of trouble and minimise the shockers. Luckily we’ve managed to stick to that. It’s easier to say it, but it’s another thing actually pulling it off. I am sure most teams say ‘'let's not have any bad races’, but we actually go quite extreme into having conservative races. We would give up the favoured end of the line just to start to weather of the bunch, knowing we’re giving away 10-15 boats but ensuring we have clean air and options.

“Around the race track our goal at the top mark is to be in the top ten. If we’re there we are really happy and then just work on one boat at a time from there. We really try to play a percentage game - just chipping away - and we know that top ten through the whole regatta you are going to be in the top three no matter what, and if you have a bit of good fortune then you can win it.”

Now part of Team New Zealand Davies has been sailing on the Swedish Match Tour as tactician to Kelvin Harrup. With Dean Barker tied up with his Olympic Finn campaign it seems that this has provided an opportunity for Davies to really get involved with the nuances of the match racing game and return to the sailing that stood him out in Auckland.

“I think the Swedish Match Tour is very important,” says Davies, “just to check in and see what the top guys are doing: Making sure you’re looking out for any rule scenarios that people are working on. Also to compete under the intense competition and the intense pressure of those regattas, rather than just doing your own in-house sailing.”

On his future position with TNZ, Davies says that his role is within the afterguard and it will depend on how that evolves and the personalities that make up the crew. And what about Team New Zealand actually getting to Valencia? Davies: “Team New Zealand are still working on the finances but it’s looking extremely positive. All the feedback from Team New Zealand is very good and we hope to announce something very soon. The Team is different from last time, it’s going to be a stronger team and we looking forward to that.” And what about Ben Ainsle? Davies: “I can’t comment on that right now.”

Having done two Volvo Ocean Races, Davies is enthusiastic about the next installment. “I think it’s extremely exciting they have gone with the Volvo 70s. Those boats on paper look completely amazing. Those guys are going to have some of the best sailing they will ever have in their life - unless another boat comes along and it’s better and faster again!


Davies, bottom right, with the winning illbruck crew

“I think they will be breaking the 40 knot barrier. We got up to 36 a couple of times on illbruck so I am sure they will beat that. They are going to have a blast and I am going to be very envious when I see those boats on the start line.”

With his previous experience on illbruck he considers that the design of the boat will be critical to the success of campaigns and that even with the best team of sailors in the world the emphasis must be developing and testing the boat before anyone else. In that respect Davies sees the advantage very much with the syndicates already up and running.

Davies also thinks that Volvo have got it right for the sponsors. “I think the Volvo is more appealing this time than last time as far as sponsors go. They [VOR Management] have done a very good job of that and Volvo are aware that the success of this race depends on the sponsors. Having the inshore races is a huge boost for the sponsors as they can get some of the corporate members to the venues and get to see what it’s really about rather than the boats just turning up in the middle of the night and no one really getting to see them.

“Teams and sponsors got a huge return from the Volvo Race last time and I think that will go up 20 or 30% again this time. It’s very exciting and it’s the way yachting has to go: it has to be sponsor friendly.”

Davies will this week tackle the ‘handlebars’ himself, helming the Team New Zealand entry at Match Race Germany. “It will be a new role for me as I haven’t done match race helming for a long time. America’s Cup teams always get invites to these events, so I have said 'yes' to this opportunity and I am looking forward to it and mixing it up with the big names on the Match Racing circuit.”

With his quiet determination and professional, focused approach to his career, it shouldn’t be long before ‘the big names’ include his.