By Kathleen May

Four years have pasted since the last Whitbread Around the World Race was run and Volvo took over. On September 23, 2001 the Volvo Ocean Race will start from South Hampton England. Volvo has wasted no time in making the race their own, one big difference is the race will not finish in South Hampton England as the Whitbread did, instead the finish will be in Kiel Germany. This year for the first time the fleet will not only stopover in Sydney Australia the Volvo 6o's will participate in the Sydney to Hobart Race sponsored by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia. There will be no rest for the weary; they will have a short stop over of less then twenty-four hours and start the next leg of the race for Auckland New Zealand.

Much has remained the same as it did four years ago. The race still consists of nine legs and while some of the stopovers are new others remain the same. Cape Town, Sydney, Rio de Janeiro, Miami and Baltimore will provide a familiar port to the crewmembers that raced in the last Whitbread. No doubt the cities will do there utmost to make the sailors their shore crews and families welcome. Friendships will be rekindled with memories; new friends and memories will be made. Everyone on each team probably has list of what to see and do while in port in between getting the boats ready for the next leg.

The race started under sunny skies with a steady wind out of the north. This gave the competitors a change to show their colors and gain that extra bit of speed that could be the difference between winning and loosing by putting up their spinnakers making for a spectacular start. While tropical storm Allison cooperated during the start she was to make her presence known during the run down the Chesapeake Bay. Sail changes were fast and furious as each yacht tried to stay one step ahead of the wind shifts. She would continue to plaque the sailors throughout the race. With wind gusts of up to sixty knots that were measured on board Donnybrook (which shredded her main sail) there was never a dull moment in the race.

For the first time the fleet of Volvo Ocean 60's will be visiting Kiel Germany a city that has both the navy and shipbuilding as the mainstay of their economy. Kiel has a rich sailing tradition as well hosting the Olympic games sailing regattas in both the 1936 and 1972 games. During the golden age of yacht racing from 1800 to 1910 Kaiser Wilhelm after visiting his cousin Edward (later to become Edward VII king of England) at Cowes week was inspired to start his own event for yacht racing Kiel Week. Over the years it has grown to become one of the largest yacht and tall ship racing events in Europe. Sydney Australia is a city with a rich maritime history with one of the greatest natural harbors in the world with over 100 miles of shoreline it's famous Harbor Bridge and Opera House as a backdrop make it is the perfect site for a stopover. The Sydney to Hobart yacht race is an annual event drawing a large international contingent as well as yachtsmen from Australia. The city of Sydney is well versed in making visitors welcome and have had plenty of practice over the past few years. They were the final stopover in their country for the last Whitbread. Their millennium celebration fireworks display was spectacular lighting up the whole of the harbor. Next came the Olympics again the city rose to the occasion give the athletes and a worldwide audience an unforgettable experience. Rio de Janeiro will be the only stop in South America. The city might well be in the mist of Carnival if depending on when Lent starts. No matter if they arrive before during or after Carnival there is sure to be a party. Brazilians are excellent hosts when half of the boats did not arrive in time to partake of Carnival during the last Whitbread the solution was simple, have Carnival over again. With it's awesome mountain views and temperate climate it has become a favorite stopover among the teams. Once again yacht designer Bruce Farr will have a homecoming of sorts for the boats he has designed for the race, as Baltimore Maryland is a stopover. Baltimore has wasted no time in planning another outstanding stopover. The city worked hard to get their first one four years ago and show no signs of taking this one for granted. They know that for the last Whitbread the racing syndicates said that it was the best-organized stopover up till that time and the interest was high. Spectators and Volvo Ocean Racing crews can look forward to another big bash on the Chesapeake Bay.

There will be many familiar faces aboard all nine of the V60's. Grant Dalton, Roger Nilson, Juan Villa, John Kostecki, Mark Rudiger, Roy Heiner and Knut Fostad just to name a few. All have competed in at least one Whitbread before. Each has one goal in mind win the race. With all but one of the boats designed by Bruce Farr it should be an exciting race. The past four years have not been wasted by syndicates in this year's race Illbruck has hit the ground running they hired former Chessie Racing skipper John Kostecki bought the W60's from EF Language and Education put together a team and have spent the majority of the last four years in training. Each have assembled a first rate crew that will not only help them get around the world safely but get them to the podium preferably in first place.

In the last Whitbread it was the sailors tacticians and navigators that made the difference. Could the same be true for this race? Only time will tell. The boats are faster then ever and they are equipped with the very latest state of the art electronics for weather forecasting, navigation and other instruments to inform the crew how well or just how badly they are doing in that all important boat speed department. With all the new navigation software, computers that are more powerful than those used four years ago and Internet sites to use for weather forecasting navigators may suffer from information overload. The questions for each navigator will be how much information is too much? And how do you sort it all out to make use of it? To combat this problem some off the boats have an assistant navigator aboard to help out the navigator. This is the first time that this has been tried in either a Whitbread or Volvo Ocean Race. The jury will most likely remain out on this tactic until the end of the race. If the V60's which have two navigators do well with podium placements or if one wins the race, you can be sure when the race is run again four years from next June the standard will be; two navigators on board each boat.

For Internet spectators there will be two websites that will give you up to the minute information on your favorite team. The Volvo Ocean Race Homepage at www. volvooceanrace.org and the Virtual Spectator at www.vitualspectator.com.

The four years of designing, training and waiting are over the time has come to load the sails, food and other equipment on the Volvo Ocean 60's and proceed to the starting line. Now on your marks get ready set go.