With the last training weekend and the delivery completed the MBA Fastnet Team is now looking forward to their first race which will be the Channel Race at the end of July.

The last training weekend was very intense for the MBA Fastnet team. It started with match racing against each other on two J109s though the IJsselmeer and the Waddenzee. The races covered typical conditions of offshore sailing, demanding skill, courage, and endurance. After 22 hours of non-stop match racing through a day and a rainy night with little or no sleep, the first part of the training ended in Hoorn.

From there the train took the team to Vlissingen, where the Volvo 60 was waiting for another night sail on the North Sea to Den Helder. In nice reaching / downwind conditions the team went through drills of spinnaker hoists, gybes and drops all through the night.

The delivery of the Volvo60 turned out to be quite the opposite: a lot of time on land to relax and only 48 hours on the water – at least for most of the team. Two strong low pressure system forced the team to wait in the harbour for days. Unfortunately, the main was damaged after tacking against strong winds along the Portuguese coast. From here on it was motor sailing with jib and trysail to Porto. Given the continued bad weather forecast most of the team had to fly back home from Porto as there was no chance to get the boat to the UK on time to be back at work on Monday.

Even though everyone knows that sailing depends on the wind the MBA Fastnet team didn’t quite expect 9 days not to be enough to bring the Volvo60 from South Portugal to the UK. Team Heiner and three of the MBA crew continued to fight strong winds all the way up to the Netherlands.

For more details and pictures see also on our MBA Fastnet Challenge Facebook page!

 

Kellogg-WHU, the executive MBA global network with campuses in Chicago, Duesseldorf, Hong Kong, Miami, Tel Aviv and Toronto as well as a ZOA (Sail for Water) Business Ambassador have come on board as the first two sponsors for the MBA Fastnet Challenge 2013!

Support from the ZOA Business Ambassador is generously split between the Sail for Water charity, and the MBA Fastnet Challenge 2013 campaign.

While each team member fully finances their own participation, without the additional financial support of Kellogg-WHU and the ZOA Business Ambassador the campaign lead by Team Heiner on the Volvo 60 would have not be possible!

Huge thanks to Kellogg-WHU and the ZOA (Sail for Water) Business Ambassador!

The MBA Fastnet Challenge 2013 crew have undertaken two training weekends now at Team Heiner HQ in Lelystad, The Netherlands.

During these weekends they were all put through their paces – and various crew positions – on both Max Fun 35’s and J109’s. There was a definite focus on improving boat handling skills and efficiency of actions, but particularly as crew of the same team, not just as a bunch of individuals who happen to be on the same boat.

Needless to say the physical schedule was demanding, and the learning curve was steep. Yet as one crew member summarised “Pushing one’s boundaries started on day one for each crew member: not to train was simply no question – regardless illness/flue or tough work schedules.”

Just as important, however, were activities undertaken off the water. While the crew have raced together or against each other in various races in “bits and pieces”, they hadn’t been part of the same crew before – which is an entirely different way of “getting to know you”! After meeting Roy Heiner and the crew of Team Heiner, the professionals who will be guiding them through this journey, the crew were able to spend time understanding realistic team goals and expectations.

Time was also spent on land to aid in better understanding the theory of sailing, teamwork, and particularly communications on board a professional racing yacht – down to dry-runs of precise boat-handling manoeuvres while on land!

After two weekends in the winter months in predictably cold weather, strong winds, and giving their all to learn and grow as individuals and as a team, Roy Heiner gave the crew some welcome news – they were ready to train next on “Team Heiner One”, the Volvo 60 the team will be using for their Fastnet campaign!

Team Heiner have been hard at work at their team base in Portimao, Portugal, preparing the Volvo 60 Team Heiner One for the upcoming MBA Fastnet Campaign 2013!

Below you can see a “before and after” shot, while on the right you can see Team Heiner crew hard at work.

Stay tuned for upcoming features on the crew and an in-depth look at Team Heiner One.