Volvo Ocean Race | Roaring Forties, chapter 2: Winning like gentlemen

In the second installment our 40-part history of the Volvo Ocean Race, we discover what life was like on board the winning boat. It was hard work and even terrifying at times, but the food...        

Sayula II won the first Whitbread Round the World race in 1973-74

Barry Pickthall/PPL

 

 1973-74: Portsmouth-Cape Town-Sydney-Rio de Janeiro-Portsmouth

2. Winning like gentlemen
Ramón Carlin, a Mexican businessman who had made his fortune selling washing machines, skippered Sayula II to victory in the first race, with his multinational crew surviving a nightmare capsize along the way.

The team comprised two Britons, a Dutchman, an Australian and six Mexicans, including Carlin, his wife and one of their sons.

Conditions were bad enough early in the race that Carlin's wife, Paquita, complained, "Why on earth did you bring me here," after she'd seen nothing but water for the first 44 days of the race. But for most of the race, the crew of Sayula II sailed hard and lived, apparently, like English gentlemen.

Butch Dalrymple-Smith, a watch captain during the campaign, wrote in 2010: "Racing around the world in a sailing boat is uncomfortable enough, so you might as well do it in the least disagreeable way possible. Our full-time cook served us steaks, chicken and hamburgers all the way round. The freezer was a godsend and when a group of journalists visited in Cape Town, they were amazed to find we still had 11 jars of caviar left after 45 days at sea.

"They could only guess what we started out with.

"And then there was drink. Not just the free beer from the sponsor (of which we consumed around 250 cans per leg), but we averaged six bottles of wine per day. Spirits also went down well. After each day's six-hour watch, those coming off the deck would be handed a rum tonic or a vodka or gin as they stepped down the companionway."

* Butch Dalrymple-Smith is pictured on the far right of the group photo at the Legends Reunion in 2011.

Source; Volvo Ocean Race