This
summer, more than 650 adventurers will take to the high seas on board our
matched fleet of twelve ocean-racing yachts. The teams will race 40,000 nautical
miles around the world, visiting six continents and will take almost a year to
complete.
The
logistics involved when organising such an event is a large-scale operation. As
we continue our look behind the scenes at Race HQ in Gosport, Hampshire, we
catch up with Race Operations & Logistics Manager, Rob Carter, who has the task of coordinating
some of the sizable logistical projects.
“It often puts other ‘office’ jobs into perspective,” reveals Rob, who joined
the race in 2007.
“The next edition
of the race will be my fifth but each one has its varying challenges. We’ll
head to different countries, ports and with every extreme sport there will be
challenging situations to manage,” continues Rob.
In Rob’s
remit as Race Operations & Logistics Manager, he covers race team travel and accommodation,
branding and Race Village creation, corporate event and Race Viewer development
and is one of the friendly faces to greet each team into port on completion of
each race.
He is also part of the team that runs a constant watch system while the yachts
are at sea, ensuring the fleet’s positions and progress is continuously
monitored. The teams are then updated with their rival’s positions every six
hours.
Another major part of Rob’s role is the ordering, management and distribution
of the skippers and crew member’s official Henri Lloyd kit.
“It’s certainly a task which takes a lot of organisation and lead time.
“Due to production times we put our order in around a year in advance; for
example the preliminary kit was ordered for the forthcoming race back in 2013
with a follow up order this year.
“We’ve
worked with Henri Lloyd since the 2005 race and have a great relationship.
Since the race has grown of course the amount of kit and orders have grown with
it,” continues Rob.
Crew
members will receive their Henri Lloyd Rio and Cyclone jackets when they next
visit the race’s Gosport Headquarters while the Ocean Smock and Hi-fi trousers
are distributed ahead of Level 4 training, which starts in June and sees crew
members look the part as they train with their team and skipper for the first time
before the start of their race adventure.