“I think the family vibe on board and team vibe is super important,” exclaims Sophie. “We just had a really tough day or so, it was a really tough night and getting out of Cape Town was pretty hard. We’re all pretty tired and you know we just have to band together and keep it going. That’s what we’re pretty good at, making sure everyone’s ok and we’re also pretty good at making sure that we concentrate at the right times and keep the boat moving. I think that’s probably the most important thing of the race.”
I couldn’t agree more with Sophie in the value of having a strong family vibe across a team especially in a race such as this. I think it is one of the keys to surviving the endurance of this race. The respect level and trust that this creates is what gets you through the toughest of times.
A strong family vibe is felt across MAPFRE from the sailors out at sea to the support and shore crew. It’s at the heart of MAPFRE and one of the reasons they are so strong as a crew. “I’m very happy with the whole crew and how things are working,” explains Xabi. “ I can sense a very good vibe on board with people with a lot of experience like Juan or Rob, Myself and Paton and the new guys coming as well young guys who are very good friends and the girls so I think the whole mix is working out very well.”
“I think Xabi chose a really good team, a friendly team and respecting, you know people who respect each other and naturally we have become more ready after all the training sessions. Since the beginning of the race we have become a tight group so we are already good friends. That is a good feeling when you are on deck and you can see how everyone respects each other and how we treat each other that I think it makes a big difference with the performance of the boat,” says Pablo ‘Patán’ Arrarte.
“I don’t really think that we’ve been fully tested yet,” explains Blair Tuke who is sailing into the Southern Ocean for the first time, “but when the going gets tough I think having that family vibe sort of knowing that you’re going to work hard for each other, trust each other definitely is going to help.”
For the crew that have sailed the Southern Ocean before they believe the strong vibe across the team will make it easier for the new crew knowing their team won’t leave them behind making them more comfortable and able to concentrate on their work and their job so the boat can go faster.
When asked who was the father figure on the team, Xabi replied, “I guess for age we would consider Juan the Father, he is the guy we ask all of the questions, I guess sometimes he gets sick of us making questions all the time but it’s part of his job so he’s happy.”
No wonder he has had to master the art of power naps!
