ALICANTE, Spain // Most of the officials involved in the Volvo Ocean Race understand that yachting remains an esoteric subject for millions of potential fans, so comparisons to Formula One are often made to help illustrate the nuances of the sport.
It is the same for the sport’s danger-defying mentality.
There have been five deaths over the 40 years of Volvo racing history.
The race lasts nine months and spans nearly 40,000 nautical miles, yet the danger and the hardships involved seemingly would cause the heartiest souls to think twice about the risks involved.
But just as F1 racers will inevitably climb back in their cars after last weekend's horrific crash involving Jules Bianchi, the VOR sailors will don their waterproof gear and head to sea on Saturday for a 24-day voyage to Cape Town.
“Sure, you think about the risks,” said Simon Fisher, the navigator of the Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing yacht, Azzam. “But you can’t wrap yourself in cotton wool.”
If anybody in this year’s race had reason to both think and blink, it is Fisher. He was in the middle of the two scariest VOR episodes of the past decade, and he has an 11-month-old son.
Fisher, 36, was aboard the ABN Amro II during the VOR’s 2006 leg across the Atlantic when the crew received news that a storm was bearing down.
In keeping with the protocols, the crew went below deck to dress in weather-appropriate safety gear, including tethers, one man at a time.
Hans Horrevoets, who at 32 was the oldest sailor on the crew, was last to go down.
Before he reached the hatch, a wave swept him overboard. The Dutch sailor was the only man onboard with a wife and child.
This week, as the sun shone off the Mediterranean Sea a metre away, Fisher shook his head at the randomness of it all.
“Maybe 20 more seconds, everything would have been fine,” Fisher said.
The crew hit the man-overboard button, which sends an electronic signal to mark the area where the sailor was lost, and began taking down sails and turning around.
No large yacht is equipped to execute U-turns quickly. It took about 40 minutes to find Horrevoets among the high swells.
He was not breathing.
Using the boat’s link to doctors in London, the crew attempted to resuscitate the Dutchman.
“We kept it up until the people at the hospital told us to stop,” Fisher said.
Two days later, just as the shock was beginning to subside, the boat received orders from race officials to find and follow the yacht Movistar, which was taking on water because of a critical keel issue.
The issue worsened and Movistar’s 10-man crew was transferred to the ABN Amro II.
The Movistar was never seen again, and ABN Amro II continued towards the UK with 19 men and Horrevoets’s remains on board.
Still, the incidents did little to dissuade the sailors involved from signing on for future races.
The skipper of the Movistar, Dutchman Bouwe Bekking, is piloting the Team Brunel boat in this year’s race.
“Sure, you think about the risks,” Fisher said, pausing and collecting his thoughts.
“You’re aware of the risks, and then you do everything you can to avoid the risks.”
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