Puma announce their crew

Volvo Ocean Race skipper Ken Read talks about his new appointments

Ken Read, skipper of Puma Ocean Racing, officially announced his crew and management for the upcoming Volvo Ocean Race 2008-2009, as the team gathered for official training in Newport, Rhode Island and prepared for the christening of its new boat on May 12 in Boston Harbour. Among the crew, Puma Ocean Racing represents six countries and has 21 past Volvo Ocean Race participations to its credit.

The sailing team members are: Andrew Cape, Navigator; Rick Deppe, Media Specialist; Justin Ferris, Trimmer/Driver; Sidney Gavignet, Watch Captain; Jerry Kirby, Bowman; Jonathan McKee, Trimmer/Driver; Michael Mueller, Bowman/Trimmer; Chris Nicholson, Watch Captain; Rob Salthouse, Trimmer/Driver and Casey Smith, Bowman.

On the shore-team key management includes: Kimo Worthington, General Manager, and Neil Cox, Shore Team Manager.

Cumulatively, the management and sailing team for Puma Ocean Racing includes five Volvo Ocean Race/Whitbread Race wins, 20 America’s Cups including five wins, along with four Olympic Games entries and two medals.

"It was almost an overwhelming process to try and choose a team," skipper Ken Read told us yesterday. "Obviously the human element of this sport and of this race is crucial to the final outcome. So we did not take this lightly whatsoever. Combined with the fact that the AC is in such a state of flux there just happen to be an awful lot of sailors in the marketplace quite frankly just looking for work. So in what I thought was going to be a fairly difficult process of choosing a crew became literally overwhelming - I have got over 400 resumes to date of people crazy enough to want to do this race. I have said publicly many times that with that group of resumes you could easily have put ten world class crews together and not miss much. What we have done is to go through the resumes and talked to poeple and this last summer used George David’s 90 footer Rambler as a good part of our crew training and elimination of our list of 400 and came up with what we think is our best starting ten. We are really excited about the group we have put together. The group is very international. There are six different nationalities on board and experience has played a very key part of what we chose in the end. It is fair to say that if there were two resumes or two individual that were very close, at the end of the day I’ve leaned towards flat out ocean racing and specifcially VOR experience."

According to Read of his new crew he has now sailed with all of them either on Rambler or the team's existing VO70 Avanti (ex- ABN AMRO Two) and has previously raced with all but one.

So the team's advantages and disadvantages versus the competition? "Clearly our biggest disadvantage would be on paper just against the two other two boat teams. Historically two boat racing programs, that have two brand new boats that have two bites of the apple so to speak and two A-boat sailing teams, just have a jump on one boat teams. Now with Avanti here as our training platform and as our trail horse, we call ourselves a one and a half boat team. So we think we have a great trial horse, and we think we have a way to measure our boat, versus the performance of last race’s top boats. But that said two brand new boats would certainly be an advantage out of the box over a one boat programe.

"As to our advantages - we are sailor-driven which is very important. Plus we are very comfortable with our surroundings here. I think we can get more out of Newport this summer than hopefully other teams can get out of their training bases. We are very secure here and we have a great schedule.

"From a management standpoint, having people like Kimo Worthington involved as the General Manager of the whole operation here, it gives us the ability not to mistakes that a new team may have made. So again we have surrounded ourselves with veterans even on the management level who hopefully won’t allow us to make mistakes that have been made in the past and move on into progressive keeping getting better without making too many steps backwards."

We were interested to find out if Read is taking more of a Cup approach to crew selection with a larger sailing squad than he has announced today which he will be able to rotate crew in and out of.

"These boats are clearly people breakers," he admits. "Mainly again I’ll reference back to our Rambler experience this past year: We have a bench on Rambler that is sitting there essentially saying ‘let me in coach’. We have a bunch of guys who we are very comfortable with that we have had a lot of sailing time with that we don’t feel like we have to re-try out and who are literally a phone call away. They all know who they are. We’ll keep it in house. At the same time they understand that if a person goes down, or if a particularly skill set goes down on our boat due to illness or problems then we have a solid deep bench we can choose from."

So you are allowed to rotate crew? "You are. I believe there is a certain amount you can rotate from leg to in port to the next leg. One thing, like with any sport, it is easy to talk about chemistry but winning is the best way to promote great chemistry. You’ll find in the last last race that the teams who had wonderful expectations that fell short had a lot of crew rotations. A team like ABN AMRO One who went out and dominated the race - I don’t know if they rotated a single person around the world. It is pretty amazing how winning cured a number of ailments."

On Monday the new Puma VO70 will be launched in Boston.

Biogs:

Ken Read, 46 (Newport, RI, United States)
Skipper
Read has racked up nearly 50 World, National and North American championships, helmed two America’s Cup campaigns (2000 & 2003) and been named twice the Rolex Yachtsman of the Year. Now he is preparing for the ultimate challenge as Skipper of Puma Ocean Racing. After a full test program completed last summer on both Avanti, the Puma Ocean Racing training boat, as well as the 90ft Rambler, where he smashed records race after race, Read and his Newport-based crew are gearing up to be the fastest team to make it around the globe.

Andrew Cape, 43 (Lymington, Hampshire, Great Britain)
Navigator
Australian by birth, but living in England, 'Capey' was the navigator aboard movistar in the 2005-2006 Volvo Ocean Race, and finished the race aboard Ericsson following the abandonment of movistar during the Transatlantic leg. He brings with him America’s Cup experience from his work with Alinghi in 2003. This is Capey’s fourth Whitbread/Volvo Ocean Race having sailed previously on Tokio in 1993-94, Toshiba in 1997-98. Capey recently finished second in the Barcelona World Race aboard Hugo Boss.

Michael "Michi" Müller, 24 (Kiel, Germany)
Bow/Trimmer/Driver
Michael Müller (Michi) was the youngest member of Team Germany in the last edition of the America’s Cup in Valencia. Since Michi started sailing, he has competed in numerous World, European and National championships, while collecting thousands of offshore miles. Michi has an engineering background and brings an added element to the team with his understanding of technical systems.

Rob Salthouse, 41 (Auckland, New Zealand)
Trimmer/Driver
Rob Salthouse (Salty) has been sailing professionally for over 20 years. His passion for off-shore sailing has seen him compete in most of the world's off-shore classics more than once, and he is keen to add another to the list. Rob's last Volvo was on board Tyco in 2000-01. He has competed in three America's Cups and comes straight from Team New Zealand's recent challenge for the Cup in Valencia. Being a sailmaker by trade, Rob brings with him a wide knowledge and understanding of sails and trim to the team.

Casey Smith, 29 (Brisbane, Australia)
Bowman
Casey grew up on the Sunshine Coast of Australia, with state titles in 14ft skiffs.  He graduated quickly to big boats running several of Grant Warrington's Scandia Wild Thing maxis. He landed on the bow of Puma Ocean Racing after a stint with Pegasus Racing, training in the Olympic Star and Finn Class on the West Coast of the US.  Casey became a integral part of Rambler's winning 2007 season, as a bowman/trimmer and driver and showed fantastic versatility necessary on any Volvo racing team.  

Jerry Kirby, 51 (Newport, RI, United States)
Bowman
Kirby, a veteran offshore sailor and Read’s longtime friend and trusted bowman, sailed aboard second-place finisher Pirates of the Caribbean in the last Volvo Ocean Race.  That was his second around the world sailing adventure, after sailing with Chessie Racing in the 1997 Whitbread. Kirby has been a bowman on America’s Cup champions, Maxi World Champions and hundred of other premier rides. As a trained medic and mechanic, Kirby always brings more to the table than meets the eye. He is also known to be able to tell a pretty good story.

Jonathan McKee, 47 (Seattle, WA, United States) 
Trimmer/Driver
McKee’s sailing career is as expansive as his talent. He was most recently mainsheet trimmer with Luna Rossa in the latest America’s Cup, prior to that on OneWorld in the 2003 AC. In 2006 he was a Melges 24 World Champion and prior to that a 49er World Champ. He is a two-time Olympian with a Bronze Medal in 2000 in the 49er class and a Gold medal in the FD Class at the 1984 games. His career success started with the accomplishment of a three-time All American classification at Yale University.

Justin Ferris, 32 (KeriKeri, New Zealand)
Trimmer/Driver
Justin Ferris was the youngest member of the Pirates of the Caribbean crew in the 2005-2006 Volvo Ocean Race and is considered one of world’s best young sailors and sail makers. Justin will serve as the sail coordinator for the program, and will serve on board as a trimmer, driver and sail repair specialist. With offshore experience all over the globe, Ferris is a true 'all rounder' on board, with bow, trim and driving experience - a quality that Volvo 70s demand.    

Sidney Gavignet, 39 (Paris, France)
Watch Captain
Straight from a Volvo Ocean Race victory aboard ABN AMRO One in the 2005-2006 VOR, Sidney brings a host of knowledge and distance speed sailing experience to Puma Ocean Racing. Sidney first got to grips with sailing at 14 when he spent a year living aboard an old wooden fishing boat and over the last decade has collected a host of winner’s medals and records. A passionate sailor and competitor who has completed the race three times before, he says nothing is more important then “performance.”

Chris Nicholson, 37 (Belmont, NSW, Australia)
Watch Captain
Nicholson is a two-time Olympian for Australia in the 49er Class as well as being a certified electrician. With six World Championships under his belt, he would be a sought after sailor for any Volvo team. He has sailed the last two Volvo Ocean Races, with Amer Sports One and movistar, as watch captain) and is a sailor at the top of his game and ready to win. Nicholson will be vital on-board as a Watch Captain for Puma Ocean Racing and prior to the race is serving as the sailing-design coordinator for the program. 

Rick Deppe, 43 (Philadelphia, PA, United States)
Media Specialist
Deppe is a multi-talented offshore sailor, serving in the new position as on-board media representative. In an interesting twist for the upcoming Volvo Ocean Race, each team is required to have an '11th' crew member aboard to strictly photograph the adventure as it unfolds.  The English-born Deppe was the ideal candidate for the job. As a veteran bowman of two previous Volvo Ocean Races ( Fortuna and Chessie Racing) Deppe understands the rigors of the race. As a video photographer for other programs such as Discovery’s Deadliest Catch and Disney’s Morning Light, he has proven that he can deliver amazing on-board footage even in the harshest marine conditions imaginable.
 
Puma Ocean Racing Shore Team Management:

Kimo Worthington, 47 (United States)
General Manager
Kimo Worthington has a rare combination of management expertise onshore and leadership on the water. His professional sailing career includes competing in six America’s Cups, including a win with America3 in 1992, and more than 80,000 miles of ocean racing. In the 1997-98 Whitbread Round the World Race, Worthington was watch captain and sailing team manager for the winning EF Language team. In the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-2006 edition he served as General Manager for second place Pirates of the Caribbean.

Neil Cox, 38 (Australia)
Shore Team Manager
Neil Cox has the winning combination of both onshore and offshore skills. Cox was boat captain of the winning entry ABN AMRO One in the Volvo Ocean Race 2005-2006. He also participated with the inshore races on sister boat ABN AMRO Two. He participated in the America’s Cup 1995 with One Australia and was build manager and shore crew team member on Aloha Racing in 2000.  He is an accomplished sailor having served as boat captain for the maxZ86 Windquest and has competed in many offshore and inshore regattas around the world.