Will Oxley

But

But at the same time, we were working hard to try to bring up their levels of sailing experience.

And so we broke the boat into different parts and tried to decide what areas of the boat that different people might be good at.

And so they then had, if you like, a job description and we worked up a standard operating procedure for how to go through a particular process, be it putting the sail up or taking it down.

And so...

we then would continually repeat those things.

And many of them were like, well, we want to get onto the really exciting racing bit.

And it's like, well, no, we just need to cover off all of these things because everyone needs to do it exactly the same way.

Because if we're bashing up wind in 50 knots in the Southern Ocean and you decide to do it in a different way than the person next to you, then that can cause an accident.

And so...

We built up a process and we ended up with an extremely competent crew that achieved great success in the race.

It was, there were certainly times when it was stressful and we came around, I do remember coming around Cape Horn and the seas were building and we ended up very quickly under a storm jib, which is the same type of sail that we had in the 1998 Hobart, a little strip of orange.

And we were going upwind in big waves in 50 knots of wind.

And I was thinking, wow, New Zealand is a long way away.

But this time we were in a 72-foot steel yacht.

Steel?

Purpose built.

Yeah, purpose built and able to withstand the rigours of the Southern Ocean.

Yeah, it's positioned itself as a benchmark for me.

Whenever I'm feeling like this is not much fun, I think, well, it can't be as hard as that.