24 year-old Willy Altadill from Barcelona will sail his second Volvo Ocean Race. He is one of the two MAPFRE crew members under the age of 30, as established by the rules of the round-the-world race.
At the age of 22, Barcelona-born Willy Altadill, son of the well-known Catalan round-the-world race sailor Guillermo Altadill, made his debut in the Volvo Ocean Race, and with the MAPFRE team. Now 24, he has once again won the trust of Basque skipper Xabi Fernández to be part of the Spanish team’s crew for the 2017-18 edition of the round-the-world race, which will start in Alicante in October.
“My job on board will be to help the watch captains ensure the boat is sailing as fast as possible; I will be one of the trimmers,” explained the Catalan sailor.
In the last edition of the race he joined the team in the fourth leg from Sanya (China) to Auckland (New Zealand), and what better a debut than the well-earned victory for the team following over 6000 miles of competition between the Sea of China and the Pacific Ocean, north to south up to New Zealand. Willy is already training with the team in Sanxenxo (Pontevedra), where the MAPFRE team is based.
As the Catalan sailor explained,
“The aim in these months leading up to the race is to push the boat as hard as possible, trying to “break” things, you might say, so that we don’t break them in the race, and we can fine tune the electronics so that all the numbers for the boat are correct, and we can squeeze the very best out of it. We have started preparing early this time, and since the beginning everything has been a little bit more on form; we have more time to try out the boat and sails, to get the utmost out of the boat, so we are ready when the race begins.”
Xabi Fernández, MAPFRE’s skipper highlighted,
“Willy is young and strong, and good at everything. He sails well, and is a really hard worker as well as a very good trimmer. I am sure he will give his all as he did in the last edition of the race, once again with MAPFRE. Since he was very little he has really experienced offshore racing and the Volvo Ocean Race alongside his father, Guillermo Altadill and you can tell. Since the last Volvo Ocean Race he has been continuously sailing big boats, and he will undoubtedly keep growing in this race”.
The first Under-30 in MAPFRE
As specified by the rules of the Volvo Ocean Race, every one of the boats participating in the race must have two crew members on their team who are under the age of 30. For two consecutive editions, Willy will be one of the Under-30 crew members with MAPFRE.
“The Volvo Ocean Race has a rule stating that all the teams must include crew members who are under the age of 30. In the last edition of the race I was one of them, and this year too. I might have another chance in the future again to be an under-30 crew member,” explained the Catalan sailor, and added, “For me personally it is a rule which has enabled me to sail with people with a lot of experience, and learn a great deal from them, as I did in the last race. And now it has meant that I am with the boat knowing exactly how everything works, and can keep evolving”.
