Volvo Ocean Race

Optimist National champion for three years in a row before going on to the P-Class and later joining the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron’s Youth Training Programme from 2002-06. Underlined his reputation as a sailor of great potential by winning the 2009 World Match Racing Tour and following that up with the 2010 New Zealand Sailor of the Year award. Making his debut in the Volvo Ocean Race.

A mechanical engineer who goes by the nickname Animal, McLean helped Emirates Team New Zealand win the Louis Vuitton Cup in 2007 and had his first Volvo Ocean Race experience on board Green Dragon in 2008-09.

Wislang started sailing when he was 10 and came through as a sailmaker. He appeared in the Volvo Ocean Race in 2005-06 with Movistar, in the in-port races, and last time out on Telefónica Blue. Wislang had an eventful Leg 1 of the 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race, diving to the bottom of the boat’s keel to remove a fishing net.

With a background in TV commercials and advertising he has been increasingly involved in sailing television work. This is his first Volvo Ocean Race and he started it with a bang, winning the Inmarsat MCM award for his work on Leg 1 from Alicante to Cape Town..

Known as Salty and a sailmaker by trade, he made his Volvo Ocean Race debut back in 2001-02 with Tyco and returned in the last race to help PUMA to second place. In a career stretching over 25 years he has appeared in four America’s Cups, five Admiral’s Cups and eight Sydney Hobart races.

Chuny’s Volvo Ocean Race experience stretches back to 1993-94 with Galicia ‘93 Pescanova and the affable Spaniard also had stints with Assa Abloy, Brasil 1 and Delta Lloyd. An industrial engineer, he sailed Star class for Spain at the 2004 Olympics (alongside Pablo Arrarte, competing in this race for Telefónica) and has also competed in two America’s Cups.

Bannatyne has been a professional yachtsman for more than 15 years and has broken the 24-hour monohull world speed record on five occasions. The 2009 New Zealand Sailor of the Year holds a unique record in the Volvo Ocean Race, having won it three times in three different classes of boat: NZ Endeavour (maxi ketch) in 1993-94, Illbruck Challenge (Volvo Ocean 60) in 2001-02 and Ericsson 4 in 2008-09 (Volvo Open 70).

Rae, nicknamed Trae, has Volvo Ocean Race experience spanning four decades and is back after a gap of 13 years. The 50-year-old Kiwi has won this race twice, on Steinlager 2 in 1989-90 under Peter Blake and NZ Endeavour in 1993-94 with Grant Dalton. His first appearance was even earlier, again with Blake in 1985-86 on Lion New Zealand, and his most recent run-out was with Innovation Kvaerner in 1997-98.

A respected marine biologist who has spent 18 years working on the Great Barrier Reef, Oxley writes a popular blog on the race for the Independent newspaper in Britain. He made his debut in the race with ING Real Estate/Brunel in 2005-06 and was part of the PUMA shore team last time out, providing tactical and weather advice.

Pammenter, helped set a new Round Britain and Ireland record in 2010, had to have his mouth stitched up in Leg 1,  suffering cuts to his face and a broken tooth after being slammed into the rigging by a wave. The economics graduate was also in the wars in his first appearance in the race in 2008-09, having to be evacuated from Telefónica Black with an injured foot shortly after the fleet left Rio de Janeiro.