Building the rocket

Assa Abloy build-manager Jason Carrington describes the creation of perhaps the finest boat in the 2001/02 Volvo Race

BACKGROUND

Some two years ago I was approached by Magnus Olsson to join the Assa Abloy Volvo Ocean Race project. I first met Magnus at Green Marine in 1992 when he was looking after the build of Intrum Justitia for the 1993-94 Whitbread Race. At the time I was serving the last year of my apprenticeship as a yacht and boatbuilder, but as a keen sailor I was also desperate to do the race. Knowing my intentions, Bill Green made sure I was involved with the Intrum project so I had plenty of opportunity to pester Magnus for a ride! I did manage to get on the Intrum team for the build-up to the 1993 race, but subsequently took an offer to actually race with Lawrie Smith's ill-fated Fortuna project. Then four years later I briefly joined Magnus again, this time on the (winning) EF team as one of the first crew members; but again I jumped ship to Smith's British Silk Cut project. Patriotic? Perhaps...

However, my experience with these different build programmes had convinced me that there were still big gains to be made by putting more emphasis on boatbuilding in a typical round-the-world campaign. Fortunately Magnus had not given up on me, and when he secured funding from Assa Abloy he asked me to run his build programme. I knew it was an opportunity not to be missed; and this time I stayed put! Choosing Green Marine was easy - they are...

To read the remainder of this article please go to the December 2002 edition of Seahorse, available at selected newsstands or by calling: + 44 (0) 1590 671899 or by email at: info@seahorse.co.uk

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