Emma and Miranda reveal all

Amer Sports Too's new recruits are eager and apprehensive about setting sail in the Volvo Ocean Race

Lisa's new girls - Emma Richards (left) and Miranda Merron

It's not an easy task, jumping onto a boat you've never sailed before, with a crew you don't know very well, and heading straight out into the Southern Ocean. It's high expectation all round for Miranda Merron and Emma Richards, the two new recruits onboard Nautor Challenges' Amer Sports Too in the Volvo Ocean Race.

Miranda Merron

"I have taken on a very big job I think. I have navigated for double handed races before and the odd trans Atlantic, but never for this many people on a team. The level of navigation and skill within the fleet is incredibly high and I couldn't possibly think that I could be anywhere close to that. I am also not that familiar with navigating within the southern hemisphere - my speciality is the north Atlantic - so I've got rather a lot to learn.

"It's very much like being back at school. Not only do I have to remember that systems go the other way round in the southern hemisphere which is not too difficult, but it's learning all the systems that these boats use and all the routing programmes that we use, some of which I am familiar with already, and some of which is totally new to me. I'm very looking forward to it; it's quite a challenge.

"When there are only two of you on board you take decisions together, one person will look at the weather maps and when there is a watch changeover, you look at them together and discuss situations. Another advantage is that we are quite often entitled to weather routing in those races, which helps us out a bit. But at the end of the day, there are only two of you. You are skipper and co-skipper and you are responsible for your own actions and you are not going to irritate anyone else if you make a mistake. When there are twelve or thirteen people onboard, it is quite a different matter.

"People have been very helpful so far. I know about half the crew and I have sailed with some of them before. In fact, Emma Westmacott, Emma Richards and I were on Royal & SunAlliance a few years ago.

"I know I am supposed to be under a lot of pressure, but I have been steadfastly refusing to look at the press reports or listen to a great deal of what's being said outside of our team. I am just trying to get on with the job and not worry about it too much. There is a limited amount of time now and I am doing my very best to get up to speed and see what we can do with the race. Navigating is not a totally solo job, it is a shared task and you are not the only decision maker. Hopefully between us we will be able to do something good with it.

"When I was a youngster, the Volvo was always a race I wanted to do and certainly wanted to do four years ago, eight years ago. In the interim I have got very involved with shorthanded sailing and my future lies in the Open 60 class and I had rather forgotten about it. I'd very much hoped to do it sometime but it just didn't seem to fit in with my programme. I had a big race in November from France to Brazil and then suddenly Lisa called up and asked me to come along and I was delighted.

"I had to sort out with my own sponsor and some other races that I was supposed to be involved with that clashed, to be able to come here and a few phone calls and it was done.

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