“IF I was living in Ireland, I wouldn’t go sailing at all!” – the words of the world’s most successful Olympic sailor, Brazilian Torben Grael, after his first week in the west of Ireland during the Volvo Ocean Race stopover.
Grael, skipper of the race’s leading yacht Ericsson 4, is one of seven competing for extra Volvo Ocean race points at today’s in-port racing from 1pm in Galway Bay. However, with the brisk Atlantic air getting to him all week, he is in awe of regular Irish sailors.
Grael (48) received an ecstatic welcome in Galway docks on arrival early on Sunday morning, completing a tough 2,500-mile transatlantic leg in the 37,000 mile race.
Since then, he and his wife Andrea have visited Connemara and the Cliffs of Moher.
"Sailing really is much more pleasurable in warm conditions, as in Brazil," he tells The Irish Times.
The five-times Olympic medallist also holds six world titles. He won his first world championship gold medal at the age of 18.
Born in São Paulo, Brazil, he was only five when he took to water with his grandfather in the 6metre Aileen, which had been used by the silver-medal winning Danish Olympic team in 1912.
His Danish mother, Ingrid, who died shortly before this Volvo race start in Alicante last year, encouraged him and his brother, Lars, to continues in dinghies as children on the bay of Guanabara.
His father, Dickson Grael, was an army parachutist – “he sailed in three dimensions,” Grael quips.
His brother Lars, also an Olympic medallist, lost his leg in a propeller accident in 1998 but has recovered to continue in the sport.
“I think my parents encouraged me to sail as much as to study, they did not ask me to stop at any stage because of studies and this allowed me to progress to the stage where I could become a professional,” he says. “I was also not very good at football!”
Nicknamed “Turbine” for his achievements at Olympic level, he was skipper of Brasil 1 in the 2005- 2006 Volvo ocean race, coming third overall.
The longer new route on this race has been very challenging, he says, with a very difficult upwind approach into Qingdao in China and a highly arduous leg from China to Rio de Janeiro.
“The stopovers are also shorter, from four weeks to two, so it means that you are thinking all the time about not damaging the boat because you don’t have much time in port to fix it.”.
Like most of the crews, he was overwhelmed by his welcome into Galway. “We set our spinnaker inside the Aran islands, we saw the bonfires . . . after the podium, I went and had a pint of Guinness!”
He will continue sailing the Star class back at home after the race, and “isn’t sure” about another Olympic campaign due to its demands on family life.
He cautions that he hasn’t won this Volvo race yet, in spite of his overall lead. Nor will he rule out competing in the event again. “Never say never,” he smiles.
