Quite often in this website we have been fairly critical of the Volvo Ocean Race organization but after reading their press release on the impressive response to their advertisement for onboard reporters, we definitely have to congratulate them or at least recognize their excellent marketing skills.
According to the press release sent a few days ago, the Volvo Ocean Race organization received in their headquarters in Alicante more than 1,500 applications from all over the world, coming from people from all walks of life. The number by itself is already impressive and it becomes even more so if one considers the number of available positions. Realistically, the numbers of entries is this edition of the round-the-world race will not exceed eight and even if, for a moment, we admit that even if the remotest currently potential team materializes there will be no more than ten boats on the starting line off Alicante. This translates into roughly 150-200 applicants for each, possibly, available spot.
While most of the applicants were from Spain, further interest has come from other countries already confirmed on the route for 2014-15, including the United States, Sweden, Brazil, United Arab Emirates, Portugal, New Zealand and China. This was to be expected and didn’t come as a surprise.
It isn’t a surprise either to have strong interest from the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, France or the United Kingdom. All these countries have a strong sailing tradition and have been closely connected with the race in the past. What I do find unexpected though is the interest from countries such as Greece, Venezuela, Turkey, Poland or the Czech Republic. They aren’t considered to be sailing powers and they hardly have any connection at all with the race.
In terms of professional experience, applicants include those with backgrounds as camera operators, directors, reporters, sports and news journalists.
These figures are truly staggering and I never thought there would be such strong interest for what is undoubtedly one of the toughest reporting jobs in sports. It goes without saying that a significant percentage of these applicants doesn’t stand the slightest chance of landing an onboard reporter job and most probably are fully aware of that but still decided to take a shot at it. I honestly don’t think that at this level of the sport any team or the organization will take the enormous risk of picking someone that could be a brilliant TV director but lacks the fundamental skills or knowledge of the sport.
Even if the final choice is among seasoned sailing journalists, the sheer interest and buzz this initiative created way beyond this narrow circle is remarkable. It is the first time ever that such a selection process is open to anyone in the media business and this is a very welcome novelty. This also shows the undeniable appeal of the race outside the sailing world and this competition can only expand it. I don’t know if it was Knut Forstad’s idea but it certainly was an excellent one!