Volvo Ocean Race 2014-2015 Entrants

corkob

corkob

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The Sovereigns
SCA - a Swedish hygiene paper and wood product company have just announced they are entering an all female team in the next Volvo Ocean Race. This will add a bit of glamour and gender rivalry to the next race. Great news.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
mr_ryano

mr_ryano

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Here's the full press release:

The Volvo Ocean Race will feature an all-female team for the first time since 2001-02 after global hygiene and forest company SCA announced they would enter a women’s crew for the next edition in 2014-15.

The team are the first to announce an entry for what will be the 12th edition of the race, starting from Alicante in the second half of 2014.

The all-female challengers are the first team to confirm an order for the new 65-foot one-design boat, details of which were announced by the race in June. The new high-performance boat is being built by a consortium of boatyards in the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland and Italy and will make it significantly cheaper for teams to mount a competitive campaign. The Volvo Ocean Race will ensure a minimum of eight boats are built, with the goal of getting between eight and 10 teams on the start line for the 12th edition of the race. The first of the boats will be finished in mid-2013.

The new design puts less of a premium on physical strength, and means all-female teams should be competitive in the race, which is one of sailing’s Big Three events along with the America's Cup and the Olympics.

"I'm very pleased to see a women's team back in the race," said Volvo Ocean Race CEO Knut Frostad. "The lack of women in the last few editions of the race has meant we haven't been representing half the population of the human race.

"I'm also delighted to welcome back Sweden, which has a rich history in the Volvo Ocean Race. This is extremely good news."

Under race rules, all-female teams will be able to race with two extra crewmembers.

Richard Brisius, who competed in two editions of sailing's toughest challenge, will manage the team for Atlant Ocean Racing, who have two previous Volvo Ocean Race victories behind them with EF Language in 1998 and Ericsson Racing Team in 2009.

“SCA’s investment in an all-female crew is unique,” said Brisius. “Competing for nine months in the world’s toughest offshore sailing race is a challenge that deserves respect. The new boat design enables an all-female crew, and our aim is to create a strong team that will have the best possible conditions to succeed."

Details on the selection process for the new team will be released in the near future, Brisius added.

SCA is a global hygiene and forest company that develops and produces personal care products, tissue, publication papers and solid-wood products. Sales are conducted in some 100 countries. SCA global brands include TENA and Tork. The company has approximately 37,000 employees and sales in 2011 amounted to SEK 106 billion (EUR 11.7 billion). More information atwww.sca.com.

“The Volvo Ocean Race will increase awareness of the SCA brand and create stronger links to product brands such as TENA, Tork, Lotus, Tempo, Saba and Libero,” said Kersti Strandqvist, Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications at SCA. “We also want to highlight how our products improve our consumers’ quality of life.”

The last time an all-female team competed in the race was in 2001-02, when Lisa Charles (now Lisa McDonald) skippered Amer Sports Too. The first all-female team to compete were Maiden, skippered by Tracy Edwards, back in 1989-90. The full list is as follows:

1989-90 Maiden/Tracy Edwards

1993-94 US Women’s Challenge/Nance Franck, later Heineken/Dawn Riley

1997-98 EF Education/Christine Guilou

2001-02 Amer Sports Too Lisa Charles (now McDonald)

The last woman sailor in the race was Adrienne Cahalan, who was navigator on Brasil 1 for a single leg in 2005-06.

The most recent edition of the Volvo Ocean Race featured the closest battle in the 39-year history of the event. Groupama sailing team of France, skippered by Franck Cammas, emerged as the winners from a pack of four teams challenging for victory right up until the final few days of racing.

 
Icedtea

Icedtea

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Was thinking about Skipper and reckon Sam Davies could be in with a shout, she could go straight in after the Vendée and with a new kid the slightly less risky aspect of the Volvo in comparison with the Vendée could appeal to her

 
L

lostmydetailsagain

Member
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So how is a boat with basically the same RM and not really much less sail area is going to be physically much less demanding? Do not get me wrong I think that Tena Lady jumps in and sponsors Atlant Ocean Racing to set up this female only team is great but having heard some of the stories of behind the scenes in the boat development just is worrying and I just hope sincerely the sponsor does not get burned in this case.

Furthermore I hope it won't be too long before we can ignore this "women only" story, it'd be nice to just regard them as one of the teams. And congrats to Richard Brisius for getting some starting money sorted.

 
corkob

corkob

Anarchist
763
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The Sovereigns
How about Ellen MacArthur for skipper......If she could be coaxed out of Retirement. Tough fast and experienced, she would have to be a favorite for any female team. Holds numerous world sailing records. She's even fast in a car.... Broke the Top Gear lap record as "star in a reasonably priced car". She would have immense kudos.

 
Moonduster

Moonduster

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It's relatively rare that the skills that make for a successful solo career translate that well into running a massive fully crewed media intensive affair. I question whether either Sam or Ellen would really be interested in entering the melee that is the Volvo ...

 
MR.CLEAN

MR.CLEAN

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With the crew reduced on the men-only boats, the advantage of the two extra bodies the girls will get could be substantial, especially on long legs.

I dig the woody look.

sca-volvo-ocean-race-media.jpg

 
MR.CLEAN

MR.CLEAN

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mr_ryano said:
Moonduster said:
It's relatively rare that the skills that make for a successful solo career translate that well into running a massive fully crewed media intensive affair. I question whether either Sam or Ellen would really be interested in entering the melee that is the Volvo ...
Click to expand...
Yeah, it really sucked for Cammas
Click to expand...
:p

Sam is running a pretty low budget Vendee - I imagine she'd love the chance to run a team and an opportunity to take on the challenge...for the right price! I'd imagine Ellen would never happen. Dee is a great person and a natural leader, and strong like bull. Need some serious muscles on these girls, but then again, there are some nice...um...frames on those Swedish sailor chicks.

 
J

Jason AUS

Super Anarchist
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MR.CLEAN said:
mr_ryano said:
Moonduster said:
It's relatively rare that the skills that make for a successful solo career translate that well into running a massive fully crewed media intensive affair. I question whether either Sam or Ellen would really be interested in entering the melee that is the Volvo ...
Click to expand...
Yeah, it really sucked for Cammas
Click to expand...
:p

Sam is running a pretty low budget Vendee - I imagine she'd love the chance to run a team and an opportunity to take on the challenge...for the right price! I'd imagine Ellen would never happen. Dee is a great person and a natural leader, and strong like bull. Need some serious muscles on these girls, but then again, there are some nice...um...frames on those Swedish sailor chicks.
Click to expand...
What about Liz Wardley? ex Amer Sports and the ultimate "pocket rocket." I'd argue that she is, in fact, harder than nails.

 
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