The shore team

Imagining all the different scenarios and anticipating all the different problems, from lifting in and out to upkeep, repairs, replacement and dismantling, such is the mission of the shore crew which will also circumnavigate the globe as it will play a role at every stopover. To achieve this the shore team, led by the Australian Ben Wright, initially began its work on Groupama 70, when it was necessary to optimise the previous winner of the Volvo Ocean Race. This involves improving parts, testing innovations, checking reliability, as well as dissecting the rule texts to best exploit the class measurement on the new Groupama 4. Indeed, everything is extremely complicated on a VO-70: plumbing for the aft ballast, electrics, electronics, computers, sails, rigging, deck hardware and even a galley and WC!

As a result, ten specialists from the Orma multihull, America's Cup Class and Imoca monohull circuits, make up the shore team: a massive amount of preparation work has enabled the transfer from the various workshops to be managed as sometimes the stopovers only last around ten days... Each person has a precise role with a decision to be made about the duplicate or triplicate elements at the base in Lorient, to establish which spare parts are carried aboard and stowed in the workshop containers: mechanics, hydraulics, electronics, deck hardware...

The five new prototypes built for this eleventh edition of the Volvo Ocean Race may in fact evolve from stage to stage in order to optimise or integrate a new, more high performance element. Furthermore, the VO-70s may encounter some particularly harsh weather conditions, which cause wear on gear which is fully exploited, even prompting breakage.