2014 Volvo Ocean Race's fourth team

We look at the US-Turkish Team Alvimedica

Maybe it is the global economy slowly emerging from recession or the change to a one design yacht and the cost savings that represents – either way the 2014-5 Volvo Ocean Race could have as many as nine entries (limited possibly by how many VO65s Green Marine can churn out in time). This would represent the biggest line-up for the fully crewed round the world race since the 1990s.

The latest campaign to announce is Team Alvimedica, spearheaded by the young American duo of Charlie Enright and Mark Towill and backed by an ambitious Turkish medical equipment company bearing the team’s name.

Enright and Towill come from opposite sides of the US empire, 29-year-old Enright the stalwart New Englander, heralding from Bristol, Rhode Island, while Towill, 25, is from Kaneohe in Hawaii. Both have strong dinghy sailing backgrounds, Enright having been a keen team racer at college which even saw him in the UK competing on the BUSA team racing circuit.

By coincidence both Enright and Towill attended Brown University in Providence, RI, albeit at different times, but their union was truly forged when they were selected to crew Morning Light, the former Pegasus TP52 entered in the 2007 Transpac, a campaign that was famously documented in a film produced by Roy Disney shortly before his death in 2009.

The Morning Light campaign was run along similar lines as the Artemis Offshore Academy in that its crew was chosen following a rigorous selection process, only with the ultimate aim of the Transpac rather than the Solitaire du Figaro. From 538 applications, 30 sailors were picked, including Enright and Towill, who were subsequently groomed by the Morning Light coaches, venerable figures, all with strong Volvo Ocean Race backgrounds such as Mike Sanderson, Stan Honey and ‘Big’ Mike Howard.

Since Morning Light, Enright, grandson of Pearson Yachts/Bristol Yacht Company founder Clint Pearson, left college and stepped straight into a job at North Sails working on the wardrobes for one designs and yachts. He has also been central to some key campaigns on the East Coast. In particular with the United States Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) Sailing Foundation, he sailed their Dubois 90 maxi Genuine Risk to victory in the 2010 Newport-Bermuda’s Open Division ahead of keen competition from Alex Jackson’s Juan K 100 Speedboat and il mostro, the VO70 skippered by Enright’s North Sails boss Ken Read.

Enright, and Towill since he graduated, have also both been central to the All American Offshore Team (AAOT), an extension of the USMMA Sailing Foundation and supported by the Oakcliff Sailing Center (the US equivalent of the BKA, based on Long Island Sound, where none other than former Volvo Ocean Race skipper Dawn Riley is Executive Director). In 2011 the AAOT acquired the use of the STP65 Vanquish, previously Moneypenny which original owner Jim Swartz had gifted to the USMMA. This they entered in a four race program that year, including the Transatlantic Race and the Rolex Fastnet Race, in which the youth crew finished an impressive third overall behind Rán 2 and ICAP Leopard.

In addition to launching straight into the All American Offshore Team program after leaving university in 2011, Towill was also part of William Douglas’ Goombay Smash crew that year, winner of the Melges 32 Worlds (Enright has also sailed in the 32 fleet on Ed Tillinghast’s Dark n’ Stormy). More recently both he and Enright sailed on the USMMA’s entry, the IRC52 Icefire (the 2007 generation TP52 Bribon), finishing second in the 2013 Pineapple Cup. Towell has also crewed on Chris Bake’s perennial RC44 winner, Team Aqua.

The seeds for the Volvo Ocean Race campaign were sown during the Morning Light program, and the duo were invited to some stopovers during the last round the world race, where they had a fortuitous meeting with executives from Alvimedica, including CEO Cem Bozkurt (centre stage below), with whom they have since been in lengthy discussion prior to an agreement being finally reached recently.

Based in Catalca, Istanbul, Alvimedica was set up in 2007, funded by Turkish businessmen and scientists living in Denmark and Sweden. Its first investment was purchasing the Turkish medical device company Nemed, a manufacturer of coronary stents and PTCA catheters. It subsequently acquired an American manufacturer of diagnostic and guiding catheters called In-Vivo. It has developed the drug-eluting stent, Coracto, while its current projects include renal and cranial intravascular stents and bioabsorbable stents, which are completely absorbed into the body. Last autumn the company merged with Italian company CID ('Carbostent and Implantable Devices'), further enhancing Alvimedica’s cardiovascular and endovascular product line.

Alvimedica is now keen on expanding its business internationally, especially into the US – hence the tie-up with the young American’s Volvo Ocean Race campaign.

There are parallels between Alvimedica and the All American Offshore Team, as Charlie Enright observes: “Alvimedica started in 2007, which is when we first got together.”

Although they are backed by a Turkish company, Enright and Towill are keen to point out that Team Alvimedica is neither a Turkish nor an American campaign. “Alvamedica is a Turkish company, but with an international foot print. We are an international team. They are motivated to be backing the young team of the race.”

They are now recruiting for the rest of their crew, although one imagines that more members of the All American Offshore Team may make their way on board. However Enright points out that they only want the best people for the job, so they are not restricting themselves to US or indeed Turkish sailors. They are looking for talented drivers and sailors, but their crew must cover all the required technical skills – sailmaker, navigator, electricians, hydraulic expert, boat builder, medic, etc etc - needed to get a VO65 around the lengthy race course in one piece.

Interestingly with Enright and Towill on board, they immediately fulfil the ‘Under 30’ rule for the race crew (there must be two under 30-year-olds on board), Enright just squeaking in - you have to have been born after 1 Oct 1984 and his 30th birthday is on 9 October. However while Team Alvimedica is lining up to the ‘young team’ in the next Volvo Ocean Race, Enright says they are not restricting themselves to sailors in their 20s, however they will be "mainly under 30". Successful applicants will then go through a selection process before training begins for the final race crew in earnest.

To date Enright and Towill are the only confirmed crew, Enright as skipper, Towill as crew and the team’s General Manager. However they have brought in the highly experienced figure of Bill Erkelens (left in the photo above) to the campaign. In the dim distant past, Erkelens ran Larry Ellison’s highly successful maxi Sayonara before moving on to the Oracle boss’ successive AC campaigns as general manager, while his wife Melinda took on in the ‘lively’ role as the team’s General Council (aka lawyer). For last year’s AC, the Erkelenses were lured away from Oracle by Paul Cayard to work for Artemis Racing.

For Team Alvimedica, the campaign is all going to fire up quickly. They are due to take possession of VO65 hull no4, which is the next of the one designs to be launched following Dongfeng, Team SCA and Team Brunel. This is due out of Green Marine in late March-early April.

Unlike the SCA and Brunel campaigns, which have both set up shop in Lanzarote, Team Alvimedica doesn’t seem to have a base (according to Enright and Towill) and will spend the period in the build-up to the Volvo Ocean Race flitting between Europe and the USA (probably at Oakcliff, on the north side of Long Island, or in Newport, RI). However they are scheduled to return to the UK in August to compete at Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week and in the RORC Seven Star Round Britain Race.