Head girl

James Boyd caught up with one of the Volvo RYA Keelboat program's latest signings - Lisa McDonald

Following a highly stressful year in the Volvo Ocean Race leading Amer Sports Too into battle, Lisa McDonald has been letting her hair down. She and husband Neal, the Beckhams of the sailing world, have spent the last six months going from regatta to regatta, just enjoying their sailing possibly as a tonic for the rigours of the round the world race.

"We’ve done everything from the Archipelago Raid, which we thought was a great idea after a few beers at the finish in Kiel. It was pretty full on but a fantastic event and doing all the really sociable events through the European circuit," says Lisa.

Most recently she and Neal returned from having sailed the Rolex Sydney-Hobart. "It was great compared to previous races, conditions were quite sociable!" she commented on this year's run south down the Tasman. "We had spinnakers up all the way. On Canon Leopard Mike Slade had put together a fantastic crew. We had a great chef who fed us very well all the way down. And we were lucky that conditions were such that we could enjoy it."

For this year the anglicised American plans to take part in more regattas. She equally would like to try her hand at some short-handed, ideally double handed racing, but mainly she and the rest of the fully crewed ocean racing community are waiting for February's announcement about the future of the Volvo Ocean Race. For Lisa, the 2005/6 VOR is absolutely where she sees her future.

"I want to do the race again as skipper. but equally I’d be quite happy to crew with a good team as well," she says. "I really enjoy the race. Should someone be interested in an all-female team or sponsorship of one I would be more than happy to put together the best group of female sailors around the planet."

"But I have to say in doing so, I think it would be better next time to be a little more prepared and have a little more time to prepare the yacht and crew for the race," she says, the master of understatement. "Last time was fantastic but we were really under the gun. It was border line too late to put it together. We couldn’t have done it last year without Grant Dalton and our sponsors who already had an infrastructure set up. I would be keen on doing a female team provided that there was provision from an earlier start."

Lisa still feels that a girls team has yet to go head to head with the boys in this respect. All of the female teams since Tracy Edwards' Maiden have been underfunded and late. Never have they had the opportunity to run a well resourced illbruck or a Tyco-type program.

"I still stick to my guns that as far as the playing field is concerned there have been four female teams take part in the history of the Whitbread/VOR and never has one of them had a boat built or designed for them or tailored to their particular size and needs," she says. "And it might seem like a small little thing, but out there for long periods of time small little things do make a big difference in the outcome."

So what would she change? "The winch engineering, the gearing and being able to build sails, test them and cut them so that we can handle them - we can’t handle the big sails that the guys can handle. We were lucky that we had Katie Pettibone on board who does have vast experience in that and could take a stab in the dark about what we needed without really knowing where to start. The size of the winch pedestals and the height of the wheels – all of those things taking into account a four to six hour watch a day are big differences in the long run."

She says the type of development she'd like to see is what they went through with America3 in 1995. "We built a whole mock-up deck mould before we built the boats and all the heights of things were different and organised differently. That went off to the Italians and we saw them a couple of years later and it was “Jeez, it’s a great boat but I’ve got back ache leaning over those bloody pedestals!” It might only be 100mm here or there but it makes a big difference."

In terms of what boat she would like to see for the next Volvo Ocean Race, Lisa says she really doesn't mind provided it is fast and competitive. Mono or multi - she doesn't care. "I think they’re both great fun. I guess I’m just a sailing fool – I like sailing," she admits.

"From a female’s point of view, the Volvo 60s became a bit of a handful. Moving 1.5-2 tonnes of wet gear from one side to the other - we’re not as big as the guys and we can’t move it as many times or as quickly as they can. And that’s just a fact and we can’t really change that except restrict the number of sails or how they’re built - that and the code 0s – and with having that movable weight it’ll never be a level playing field if it’s just down to 12 girls and 12 guys on each boat moving the gear from one side to the other to see who wins! That’s what it’s like – that’s a tacking duel!" she laughs.

At present Lisa says she is not actively looking for sponsorship, but is keeping her ear to the ground about what is happening in the VOR and is maintaining her contacts. Andy Hindley and VOR CEO Glenn Bourke, the main architects of the changes are well aware of the stacking issues and it seems highly probable that the new Volvo Ocean xyz will have restrictions on the number of sails reducing the weight of gear to be moved between tacks. This should hopefully level the playing field - potentially good news for another women's campaign.

Would another women's campaign be a good thing in the Volvo Ocean Race or have they now become a thing of the past? Even Tracy Edwards' Maiden2 now sails with a mixed crew. What are the chances of seeing a mixed crew in the Volvo Ocean Race? Email your thoughts to feedback@thedailysail.com or click here to communicate via a text box.