I must have had 50-60 people knocking on my door wanting to join the Ericsson Racing Team. They’ve included an incredible number of America’s Cup sailors. Most of them started their emails with ‘this should stay between you and me’, but if there’s an opportunity to sail in the Volvo Ocean Race I’d like to take it’.

There have been an awful lot of offshore sailors too. It’s flattering I suppose, but I think the attraction is the boats. These new Volvo 70s are extraordinarily exciting. People want to get involved.

We are in the forefront of a new type of boat, a big leap in terms of performance over the old Volvo 60s.

There are some aspects that are new to this race: the canting keel systems, the daggerboards, the composite rigging.

I am excited by the Volvo 70. There are going to new little tricks and techniques to learn. That said, I think I’d still be doing the race if it involved Volvo 60s like Assa Abloy or Silk Cut.

I have sailed other boats which are faster, most notably the 110ft catamaran Club Med. Maybe it’s why I’m not overawed by the power and performance of the Volvo 70. I don’t feel threatened by them.

Equally I think all these contacts I’ve had from America’s Cup sailors is because they want a more exciting boat that their slow boats which only race close to shore.

So I’ve chosen Ericsson’s team carefully. You have to. We’ve already spent five months together and that’s before this eight month race has got underway.

I’m starting this race with a group of people I want to finish the race with. This has been my premise from the outset. Compatibility and experience count for a lot.

There were certain realities to face. With a very short run-up to the race, and with a wholly new class of boat I was determined that I was not going to fill a boat up with people who have not gone around the world before.

So between us we’ve done 25 Whitbread or Volvo races and a total of 30 round the world races. Guillermo (Altadill), who is one of helmsmen, has been around six times already.

Yes, there were a lot of people I would have loved to have given a shot and I would have expected them to cope incredibly well with it but you just can’t tell. You don’t have time to find out if they get seriously seasick or all moody after five days sailing.

Everyone selected is for a primary sailing role and then a non-performance related secondary role which has earned them a slot on the boat. Jason (Carrington) lived and breathed the construction of Ericsson. ‘Dingo’ (David Rolfe) is very, very good sailmaker. Tommy (Braidwood) is totally involved in the mechanics and was our shore crew on Silk Cut so I know he can deal with issues that most of use wouldn’t even know where to start from. Our medics, Magnus Woxen and Richard Mason, have all done the race before. And so on.

For all of us to win the In-Port race last Saturday was a nice way to get things underway. If we’d done badly, I wouldn’t have viewed it as a disadvantage at this stage. The 3.5pts we won are a small percentage of the total of 112 available for the entire race.

Our crew has kept the win in perspective. We don’t have illusions about a light air regatta on one day in Sanxenxo as defining the shape the race. I’m happy we won but it is only the first small step.

Ultimately, who does well in this race will be the team who learns the most on the first three legs. By that I mean it will be the team that develops the intricate performance details of their boat, their sails and their approach to racing the fleet will do well in the long term. There’s only a little development left to be done, but it is the most decisive and important part. It will be what separates one boat from another.

Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)