Head to head

Roger Nilson gives his views on the dangerous conflict between The Race Tour and the Volvo Ocean Race

"Volvo are concerned about safety and I can understand that - my father worked for Volvo for 35 years and I know the company very well. The first project we did in Sweden with The Card, is was very close that the boat was going to be named Volvo, but I think what Volvo are doing is keeping the hand brake on at the same time as putting their foot on the accelerator and in this world I don't think you can do that. If you want to be involved in this sport, you have to have the vision and the guts to take some risks like Bruno is doing. This is my feeling having sailed both on the big multihulls and the Volvo boats."

Interestingly Nilson also says that it is the group's feeling that if Volvo do not want to go down the big multihull route they should stick with the existing Volvo Ocean 60. "It is beyond this group's understandng why they are going to a 70 footer. That was another consensus with the possible reservation of Grant, that they should keep the old boats. And some of them are owners and so you have a subjective reason, but many of them are not owners. Why create something new - 5ft, what is the difference, that is nothing and it means nothing to the media? Neal [McDonald] said to Volvo months ago that number one if you want to go spectacle you have to go to a big multihull, and if you don't then stay with the boat you've got. Finished."

Remarkably Nilson says that Volvo have said that at some point in the future they will have to change to multihulls, but at present they want to wait. But wait for what? "Why then introduce another class in between when you're going to go to multihulls anyway."

There are other issues in the G-class' favour: they already exist and they have a longer shelf life, which in TheDailySail's opinion should more than make up for their increased cost. As mentioned in yesterday's article the G-class boats have The Race non-stop around the world in addition to a new program of records counting towards a championship points series.

"Years ago we said this to Whitbread and then to Volvo," says Nilson of a prospect program of events for the boats outside the Whitbread/Volvo Ocean Race. "Last time I was in a discussion like that was with Grant in 1999 when he was sailing the Merit boats and there were eight Grand Mistral boats flying around the Solent and there were five Whitbread 60s sitting on the hard and three racing."

Nilson says that he and his group are not against Volvo at all, but are simply trying to "create a state of the art best fully crewed round the world race." He adds "the definition of the success of an event like this as I see it that the people that are involved and the sponsors that are involved are rushing back to do the next one. I don't know about the sponsors, but I do know about this group - the five people that were involved last time are not rushing back at all."

Further reading: See our interview with Kevin Shoebridge and Neal McDonald on this topic, plus our designers poll about a new boat for the Volvo Ocean Race - part1 , part 2 , part 3 .

Can Volvo be persuaded to go for a big cat? Are Nilson and his group right to push them in this direction? How could a merge happen? Email your thoughts to feedback@thedailysail.com (via Outlook) or go to our Contact Us page to use a message box...