Following an incredible battle in the Virtual Volvo Ocean race, the top five finishers completed their journey to Boston within a couple of miles of each others with Pride of Amsterdham taking the gun. What's even more impressive is with the second and third place as well, it is a 100% Dutch podium!! We are conducting a series of interviews with some virtual skippers as they are stepping out of their boat in Boston. Today, we have been discussing via email with Pride of Amsterdam, skippered by Jan Kees who finished in first place
Sebastien Destremau: Hello Jan Kees and welcome to the virtual interview’s room. Sailing against 200 000 competitors must be overwhelming. You just completed leg six of the grueling race around the world. How is the boat? And the skipper? When did you start playing with us and what were your results in the previous legs?
The boat is in remarkable good condition even after running aground near the coast of Brazil and as such is a tribute to the high quality of Dutch yacht designing and construction. The skipper is of course thrilled and enjoying Bostonian hospitality (including a pint of Sam Adams and a nice game of golf) right now. I started playing the game immediately from the start on in Spain, as I thought it was an excellent initiative, making the VOR experience even more realistic then just following the race on the site. A truly good example of the experience economy! My results have been steadily improving, ranging from 28 to 520 (unfortunately the 520spot was in the mandatory grueling long Rio leg), as experience is growing every day.
SD: From a race point of view - How do you feel about this leg? Are you happy with the way you have sailed? Have you made some errors and what would they be? What was the toughest moment for you during this leg?
Yes I am pretty happy with the way I sailed this leg as I managed to limit the number of mistakes, which I believe is the key to winning a leg. I just was a bit unfortunate running aground near the coast of Brazil in the beginning of this leg, but so were many thousands of others. The first part of the race in the trade winds was a bit boring, just a matter of choosing the right lanes and wind angles. However the second was from a strategic point of view clearly the more interesting one. Firstly I decided to follow a more easterly direction, giving up a lot of places compared to the more westerly group, which experienced better wind-angles. However by staying closer to the rhumb-line and by counting on the fact that the westerly boats sooner or later had to go north, using a much tighter windangle, I made up for the lost places. The next critical point was when to gyb east; luckily my timing turned out to be at the right moment looking back on it. The last 48 hours turned out to be the most critical of the leg, dealing with a high pressure rig near Boston. At that moment I was in a fight with Powerof7, trailing him by a few miles. As he made a slight misjudgement (I hope he agrees) I could pass him. Slightly alarming was a group just following a northerly trail, but counting on the fact they would have a tighter wind angle into Boston, this didn’t turn out to be my biggest worry. The main one clearly was to fend off my fellow leaders, particularly Powerof7, which is a formidable competitor (hats off!). Looking at hindsight my lead was just enough to slowly close the door, but I can tell you it was pretty close towards the finish!
SD: How many hours a days are you spending on the game? Are you using outside sources of weather forecasts and which ones?
It really depends! If weather situations are unstable and choices hence critical I spend far too many hours on it. However when reaching long distances or when being for example in the trade winds, luckily I can limit the number of hours spend. I have to say that the game is highly addictive though.
Surely I use outside sources besides the weather forecasts on the site. Like many of us I use Ugrib for wind forecasts, I use the Vrtool (could not have won without it) and the strategic analyses of Mark Chisnell (excellent pieces and fun to read). That’s basically it I would say. However it is fun to see, how you build up knowledge during the game; starting in Spain with just the info provided by the site, expanding your knowledge during the legs. Hope I will not end up into studying the old routes of the tea clippers and sunset wobbles (no offense Wouter VerbraakJ), although it must be fun……
SD: A little bit about you now: Your Age? Where do you live? What is your Profession? How’s the family/entourage feels about your involvement in this race?
My age is 48 and I am a happy single at the moment, where are all those womenJ Surprise, surprise, I am living in a very nice part of Amsterdam at one of the canals. Until one and a half year ago (I have to emphasize this was before the credit crisis) I was a member of the European management team of an international investment bank, heading up a team of investment analysts and still analyzing some stocks myself. As I no longer considered it as fun, I decided to follow my heart and passion, sports! So I am now doing a Master in International Sports Management at the Cruyff Institute for Sport Studies and will graduate in June. After that I will try to enter the sports business. In fact one of my assignments was writing a fictive bidbook for an international sports event; I choose to make one on Amsterdam hosting a stopover of the Volvo Ocean race. As far as family involvement, my cousin is also participating in the race on golden boat. Furthermore I have a very loving computer literate mother, who is sometimes helping me out when I am away, following my orders. So part of the credits go to her, thx mom.
SD: Anything else you would like to add to wrap up this interview? An anecdote about what you might have experienced throughout this journey maybe? The relationship you might have with a player(s)?
Firstly I want to say that this is a truly unbelievable interactive platform which is being build up, where friends are made. Of course there are always some problems with new games, but for a change lets applaud all the support staff and moderators, such as Bigamist, who sometimes are getting a lot of dirt, but are irreplaceable; I think it is important to always treat each other with respect and dignity. In the end the game makers, support staff and moderators deliver a great experience to all of us. Secondly I want to apologize to all those people who send me a congrats message, for not answering all of them. It is just unbelievable how many mails you get once you win a leg. So a big token of appreciation to all of you guys and gals, thanks! Special thanks to guys like Kielekiele I and Ned202, who are always showing great support, but there are many more who I have great e-mail conversations with in a competitive and nice spirit.
