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Luc Gellusseau
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| Born on 9/09/1953 |
 Head of the rope party
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When I joined the Groupama Team last year, my mission consisted of going to Boston, Galway and Stockholm to meet protagonists
from the Volvo Ocean Race: organisers, skippers, crew, designers and manufacturers.
I drew up a list of the existing boats
(inventory, price, appeal) and defined the contours of the framework for the next Volvo Ocean Race according to the financial,
technical and sports plan.
The Groupama Team then selected its training boat, Ericsson 4, now called Groupama 70, and
arranged its schedule.
We also struck up a very good relationship with the race organiser, notably to fully understand
the rules of the game.
We also got a handle on the media environment and the vast appeal of this race for the public,
especially in Galway and Stockholm.
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The particular features of the Volvo Ocean Race
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To continue to make this race the must of international crewed ocean racing, as has been the case for nearly 40 years
(1973-74), Knut Frostad has defined an attractive course and a competition format which inspires great sporting appeal. This
is not solely down to the difficulty and variety of the course, but also because finishing the race with two shorter `sprint'
type stages between Lisbon, Lorient and Galway, will have the same impact as the 7 long stages between Alicante and Lisbon.
20%
of the points that count towards the general ranking will come from inshore races contested during the stopovers. This means
that the crews will have to be very comprehensive.
To avoid inflated budgets, the organisation has made changes to the
regulations by limiting the number of sails, masts and training days, whilst shortening the duration of the stopovers...
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