On board the monster

Alistair Skinner reports from the water on the Volvo Ocean Race's in port race in Qingdao

So – a weekend of lows and highs, no wind, no water and no visability. All of these could be fired at the Volvo Ocean Race Qingdao stopover at some point in the proceedings, but when it started to rain on Sunday evening we felt sure there was a change in the weather, perhaps only a temporary one, but if only it would last long enough to get the in-port races off on the Monday.

To summarise, on Saturday the wind was there but so was the fog - the fog aplenty, with visibility under 100m at times. On Sunday morning an early start was planned and the boats prepared to head to the race course. In the lead was Green Dragon, but she came to an abrupt stop just short of the harbour entrance. Ericsson just behind her smartly went astern and returned to the pontoon.

Apparently dredging operations elsewhere in the bay had set up a bar across the harbour and as luck would have it by the time the water had come back in sufficient quantity the early breeze had evaporated.

So crews, media and it has to be said thousands of Chinese spectators had a frustrating wait over the two days with nothing to show for it. The pro-am race had to be cancelled and the in-port postponed until the Monday

We woke on the Monday morning with grey skies and rain still spitting down, so at least the visibility wasn’t be a problem. The boats had been taken to the water early before the tide so the tide wouldn’t be a challenge - or at least only on the race course - and the wet flags in the street appeared to have enough ‘flutter’ to them to make racing a possibility.

The day was to be extra special for me as I had been invited by Volvo to sail on Il Mostro, the Puma Team boat and was ‘well up for it’ as I think the term goes.

After being ferried out by RIB to The Monster in full Puma gear I was told to stand here, don’t put my fingers there and the guys started to prepare the boat for racing. Firstly the main came down after a short sail as the batten tension in the top 2 or 3 wasn’t quite right. The thing that has always struck me before is that on these ‘top of the sport’ boats how little appears to be said on videos. Well that’s real life.

The call to do something is made and it happens, no individual commands, the team appears almost ant-like as they seem to work as one man to tack, hoist, gybe or Kiwi.

Unfortunately Ken Read had an atypical day with his starts. They weren’t sparkling and no one beat him up like he did himself. Frankly though, race two looked very excellent until Ericsson 4 unexpectedly tacked below us and pushed Puma’s Monster over the line early - it was one of those times where seconds mattered. Then at the end of the day Ken gave me the helm for a photo-op.

Like the syndicate head of a local America’s Cup team, the photo was taken with the main on the boom, but we were still moving and if you watch Volvo’s movie of the race you can see a certain reporter trying very hard not to get in the way. Being 18th man on an AC boat couldn’t be any better than that and it just remains for me to thank the Puma Team – and Ken Read in particular for their hospitality for the day, but I still love my quarter tonner.

Roll on 2012