New Dutch challenge

Peter de Ridder announces his Mean Machine campaign for the Volvo Ocean Race

While the prospects of Ericsson, ABN AMRO and movistar all making return visits to the next Volvo Ocean Race in 2008, a surprise announcement made yesterday at the TP52 regatta in Ibiza was that of Dutchman Peter de Ridder's Mean Machine team.

De Ridder's Mutua Madrilena TP 52 is current leader of the Breitling MedCup TP 52 circuit going into the final regatta in Ibiza and according to de Ridder's skipper Ray Davies, entering the Volvo Ocean Race will allow the team to up their game further.

"Over the last eight years I’ve been sailing with Mean Machine, every year we keep stepping it up to another level and after the TP 52 circuit we were going ‘what is the next level’," Davies confides. "And we really wanted to keep the team together and the problems we’ve had in the past with myself and Dirk for example is we get commissioned to go and do America’s Cup or Volvo and suddenly the team disperses and it is pretty difficult for Peter to keep his troops together. So we started talking about it a couple of months ago. The Volvo race is the perfect stepping stone to the next level."

Having interviewed de Ridder recently he openly admits he is not an offshore sailor and has not the slightest interest in sailing offshore. But aside from being an exercise in keeping his TP 52 crew together, the Volvo Ocean Race also represents the opportunity for de Ridder to demonstrate his business acumen. Now based in Monaco De Ridder has been a highly successful venture capitalist, but is in the process of winding down his business activity. The Volvo Ocean Race is not something that will personally benefit his business interests but it will allow him to apply his board room skills to a Grand Prix racing team.

"If I am on the boat it will only be for the in port racing," de Ridder admits. "I am not an offshore type of guy, I never was, not physically nor mentally. For me it is a challenge to get the team together, to the get the boat together, to get the project going and put lots of effort into the preparation and add some business-like attitude to the preparation because I think that is what you need."

While de Ridder is effectively CEO of the Mean Machine Volvo Ocean Race challenge, his skipper will be Ray Davies while Dirk de Ridder (no relation) will be watch captain. At present the team are talking to designers - Farr, Juan K and Rolf Vrolijk - and a decision has yet to be made over who they will go with. Alinghi's Principle Designer Vrolijk has yet to design a Volvo Open 70 but is clearly de Ridder's preference as they have a long history together and Vrolijk most recently has designed his series leading Mean Machine/Mutua Madrilena TP 52. Again the builder hasn't been finalised but is likely to be Cooksons in New Zealand.

It should be pointed out that while de Ridder is himself a man of considerable means he is not bank rolling the project. Instead he is putting up the seed money to get the ball rolling and hopes to raise a war chest of 20 million Euros through sponsorship. As Davies puts it: "To win the race you have to have a minimum of 20 million Euros. We’ll start with that and the more we get the better the team will be: potentially two boats if we had more than that."

At present the same sports marketing company in Spain that set up de Ridder's present TP 52 sponsorship with Spanish financial company Mutua Madrilena are seeking sponsorship for the Volvo project, A Spanish sponsor might work particularly well as they plan to race the TP 52 alongside the Volvo program and this could offer some continuity sponsors of a Volvo project alone might not benefit from. It is likely they will set up a sponsor structure whereby a title sponsor stumped up 75% of the budget and secondary sponsors, such as a host port, come up with the rest.

De Ridder says they are also looking in Holland. The Dutch market is particularly ripe at the moment following the success of Team ABN AMRO in the last Volvo Ocean Race. "I saw it was a big success in Holland and ABN AMRO did a terrific job first by winning the race and secondly how they did it fairly professionally and third how they did the whole internal PR and business to business marketing," says de Ridder. Holland of course has a strong tradition in the fully crewed round the world race after Conny van Rietschoten's Flyers won the second and third races. "As Conny said '80% of your win comes from your preparation and not when youre racing'." quotes de Ridder, a sentiment that clearly appeals to the way the Mean Machine team functions.

De Ridder points out that the Volvo money hunting is not an open ended affair. Once they have finalised the designer he will fund design development, but the cut-off date to find the money is around May 2007.

While fund raising is the next step for the team, they are currently in negotiation with Volvo to purchase the Pirates of the Caribbean VO70. Dirk de Ridder was part of Cayard's team during the last Volvo Ocean Race and knows the boat intimately. "We have a bit of work to do on that boat before we go sailing on it," says Davies. "It sounds like by the end of the last race they had it pretty well sorted. We’ve talked to a few of the guys from the Pirates team and they are happy you could take the boat offshore tomorrow."

While a core group from Mean Machine will concentrate on the Volvo project, the full might of the Mean Machine team won't focus on the Volvo Ocean Race until after the America's Cup concludes next year. Davies himself is part of the Emirates Team New Zealand afterguard and many others within the Mean Machine team, such as Jono Macbeth, Tom Dodson, Joe Allen, Tony Rey and Stu Bettany, are part of the Kiwi Cup challenge. While the VO70 crew hasn't been chosen yet there are some pretty likely characters who will be includes on this small list alone...

Despite more of a preference for inshore racing, De Ridder says he has no ultimate plans for a Mean Machine America's Cup team. "That is a step too far. You are talking about five times the budget you are talking about for the Volvo race. I think that is toys for the billionaires who are sailing around. I went down to see Team New Zealand doing some training in New Zealand. The first day the testing I thought ‘that’s interesting’, the second day I was falling asleep a bit..."

However his impressive active sailing program is likely to suffer and de Ridder says he is likely to can his Farr 40 program next year. His result at the recent World Championship in Newport disappointed him and he is aware that it was due to a lack of practise at the venue and in the boats due to his TP 52 commitments. "The depth of the fleet is pretty big at the moment. In terms of our preparation was concerned we were struggling for speed during the pre-"orlds. We sorted that out and during the Worlds we had to look over the course how to sail, what the pattern is, etc. Normally we prepare, go there a couple of times before to sail and see how the breeze is doing and the tide but we found that out when we were racing there so I think after the third day we knew how it was working."

Moving pictures....

To see video of Glenn Bourke's unveiling and Peter de Ridder's opening speech - click here (NB this file is 17MB in size and therefore ONLY suitable for downloading via a broadband connection).

In this clip skipper Ray Davies gives his opinion about what entering the Volvo Ocean Race means for the Mean Machine team. (7MB file)

This final clip shows Peter de Ridder answering some questions about the new project. (9MB file)

NB: These clips are formatted to play in Windows Media Player and are BIG - therefore only suitable for those with broadband connections. Mac users can now view WMV files by downloading a suitable add on to Quicktime - we for example use Flip4Mac which works a treat. The only noticable difference is that while the clip will play out while downloading on a PC, on a Mac it must download first.