Stu Bannatyne: How to prepare for a nine month race

Stu Bannatyne checks the gear before leg one of the Volvo Ocean Race - a 6,500 mile slog from Alicante to Cape Town.

Hi all

Welcome to my first blog for nzherald.co.nz.

Over the next nine months I'm hoping that this blog will give you an insight into the trials and tribulation, lows and highs and thrills and spills that make up the amazing experience that is the Volvo Ocean Race.

As I write this we are less than three days away from the start of Leg One of the race - a 6,500 mile slog from Alicante to Cape Town. This is always an interesting time in the race. All the preparation that can be done has been done, the teams are ready to go and frankly most of just want to get out of here and go racing. In other words it's time to get going.

There's a real air of calm around the Camper base at the moment. The guys are quietly going about the final preparations and getting themselves organised. There is no last minute panic and over the next day or so most of us will be taking it relatively easy and spending time with our families.

I'm often asked what it is like to leave behind loved ones on the dock when we motor out of the race village and into twenty plus days of at times dangerous and torrid conditions. The reality is it never gets easy. But for my family this is routine and they're used to it. For my kids Anna, Lucy, Felicity and Angus they've never known anything else and for them it's just a case of 'Dad is heading off to work again for a few weeks - see you at the other end". That aside no matter how many times I do this race it is still incredibly hard saying those final farewells.

People approach this race in different ways - some get nervous and tense others relax and almost zone out. For me I just have a sense of anticipation. I'm looking forward hugely to seeing how we stack up against the other teams and if all the hard work we have done will pay dividends.

The reality is that we should know early within Leg One if we have a fast boat or not. Looking at the forecast we are likely to have fast reaching conditions for the first 24 hours, and if you have a fast boat in those conditions then you're in good shape for the around the world race.

Why do I keep coming back to the Volvo - what madness motivates me to do this for a job? First and foremost it's a fantastic sail. I've been in love with sailing since I was very young and ocean racing is hard to beat. The attraction of blasting off downwind for a day or two in good conditions and having no bottom mark to worry about is a pretty nice feeling.

Then there's the challenge of the whole project, the technical side of putting a Volvo project together and being involved from day one in the design, the development of the boat, the sails and basically everything that goes into a campaign. It's a way of life to me and I love it.

The Volvo Ocean Race is at the pinnacle of sailing as a sport. The boats are some of the fastest monohulls in the world in the toughest competition around. Why wouldn't I want to be involved?

I hope you enjoy this blog - the next nine months are going to be blast and I can't wait to bring Camper home in March next year with the Auckland stopover.

Talk soon.

Stu