The Team

 

Our People

"Ocean going yacht racing is a hazardous activity. Anyone intending to participate in or become involved with the race either as a participant, team member or otherwise does so at their own risk and such individuals should recognise that they may suffer death, injury and/or loss or damage as a result of such involvement."

It's not the most appealing passage of text to have appeared in an employment contract or a situations vacant advertisement, but this is a clause which the crew of Carbon Challenge sailing team must sign up to.

In addition to the contractual obligations, crew members must accept estrangement from their families, extremely few changes of clothes and a commitment to eating freeze-dried food for the best part of nine months as part of the job. 

One of the pleasurable aspects is the exposure to the most dramatic contrasts in environments, scenery and cultures offered by any sporting event anywhere. 

Tom Weaver is Carbon Challenge's Campaign Director and is charged with assembling a team of people for both sailing and support team duty to ensure Carbon Challenge makes it safely through the planned campaign in the Volvo Ocean Race. 

Extraordinarily well networked through the performance sailing world, he has already begun assembling a team that anticipates the confirmed entry of Carbon Challenge into the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 with the following qualities: 

Very talented individuals who are passionate about the Ocean and our environment with a competitive nature and team spirit. Motivated to make a difference.

Crew

In putting together a crew of sailors to sail the boat through its campaign, Weaver needs to be wary of certain opportunities and limitations set out in the rules of the Volvo Ocean Race, contained in the Notice of Race.

All competitors in the race must select one non-sailing member as part of its crew who is on-board to supply the watching world with media content from on board.  This involves operation of a barrage of high-tech equipment installed on board by the race organisers.

For Carbon Challenge, the filling of this role is a critical recruitment.  This person will have the additional duty to use the events of the race to illustrate the Race against Global Warming at the same time as providing insights into the boat's sailing progress.

In addition, Weaver needs to consider the balance of the crew, not only with a view to achieving the right team dynamic, but also to achieving an advantage or avoiding a penalty under the rules.

One such consideration requires at least two crew members to be under 30, unless all crew members are over 50.  An all-male crew can have a maximum 11 crew on board.  In contrast an all female crew may have up to 14 on board.

While the opportunity exists to substitute crew for tactical advantage, Weaver can't select "big game" sailors to sail in-port races without also ensuring such crewpersons take part in an ocean-going leg of the race immediately before or after the leg.  Additionally, any decisions about calling up part time sailors for critical race phases need to be taken with an eye to not disrupting the camaraderie on board.

Shore Team

As a contingency, among this unit there needs to be a couple of team members who are capable of joining the crew on-board if required.

Additionally, vital support and consultancy is needed in the areas of logistics, design and crew nutrition/fitness. 

A further key position to fill at Carbon Challenge is that of the Controller who needs to coordinate the activities the different groups servicing the sailing team, both to record as well as to reduce the CO₂ emissions created by the sailing campaign. Only by capturing this data and understanding the process behind its creation can Carbon Challenge win its race.

For certain, assembling a team to successfully campaign in the Volvo Ocean Race is a complex matrix. 

Please keep an eye on these pages and the sailing team log book over the coming weeks for news of our campaign taking shape.