Team Alvimedica recruits heavyweight coaches

Former winner skipper steps in

Team Alvimedica’s young guns, challenging for the Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15. are already making up the experience gap by employing former race winner Paul Cayard to ensure they are as competitive as possible coming the start in October.

Skipper Charlie Enright and Mark Towill launched their rookie campaign for offshore racing’s most prestigious crown back in January this year and over recent weeks have been training out of Lisbon on their new one-design Volvo Ocean 65.

The Alvimedica sailors will be tapping the experience of five leading Volvo Ocean Race heroes to improve their chances of success. The team will be revealing the identities of four of these later but have certainly kicked off the scheme in style with one of the biggest names in the event’s history.

“We decided to take our courage in our hands and ask the best in the business – in our eyes – to help us out and give us the benefit of his huge knowledge,” said Enright. “We approached the legendary Paul Cayard, who won the Race back in 1997-98, and is one of the biggest names ever to compete. What he doesn’t know about the Volvo Ocean Race and sailing – both offshore and in-port – isn’t worth knowing.”

Cayard, 54, commented: “These guys remind me of me in so many ways when I started out. Sure, they’re green at this level but my goodness, they’re open to learning everything they can and we had a blast in the five days we spent together in Cascais (near Lisbon, Portugal) earlier this month.

“These boys have already shown guts galore in simply getting this campaign off the ground and they’ll need more sailing around the world. They need to think out of the box like this. We won on EF Language by being innovative and flexible in keeping changing tactics and Team Alvimedica are taking the same route."

Anna Malm Bernsten, the Campaign Director for Team Alvimedica added: “We wanted to find a crew full of sailors who reflect what we stand for as a company – young, agile, courageous, innovative, – but at the same time collaborative and caring.

“This story encapsulates all those qualities. Cayard can be a frightening guy when he’s yelling instructions to our young lads but wow, his heart is made of gold. Not many people with his experience would be willing to drop everything for five days to help out our boys like this."