2004. Who is Torben Grael, between Luna Rossa and five Olympic medals

Welcome to the special section “GdV 5th Years.” We are introducing you, day by day, An article from the archives of the Journal of Sailing, starting in 1975. A word of advice, get in the habit of starting your day with the most exciting sailing stories-it will be like being on a boat even if you are ashore.

Talent is (almost) everything

Taken from the 2004 Journal of Sailing, Year 30, No. 10, November, pp. 68-71.

The man who sniffs the wind exists. His name is Torben Grael, he took Luna Rossa to the America’s Cup final, won five Olympics, and was on his way to the Volvo World Tour (which he later won). What more do you want? The Sailing Newspaper interviewed him.

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No doubt Torben Grael was born for sailing. But he is also a tireless organizer and an outstanding technician. Who is eager to amaze again, starting with the Volvo Ocean Race.

Who is Torben Grael? The ace of five Olympic medals, the last of which he won in August in Glyfada: the Star gold. But he is also the tactician of Luna Rossa and the skipper who dreams of taking Brazil to the top of the world with the Volvo Ocean Race. And still he is the sportsman who launched an extraordinary project to help children in his country discover all sides of sailing, not only competitive but also working. But what if Meco Lillia, the Italian who knows him best, and the craftsman who has been making him fast Stars to win since Grael was barely known to enthusiasts, is right? “Torben has sailing in his blood,” he says. But above all, he is a champion of life. Even at times when our boats were slightly less fast than others, he never blamed the yard but continuously tried to improve them. And meanwhile, he still won three Olympic medals before Athens.” . We met the master of the Star right in Musso, on the western shore of Lake Como (home of the Lillia shipyard), which makes you wonder how strange fate is. A sailor born in São Paulo, one of the largest metropolises, who might never have become a legend if he had not spent so many hours in this small town.

The Sailing Newspaper – First must-ask question: do you plan to continue with the Star together with your bowman, now as legendary as you are. Marcelo Ferreira?
Torben Grael – For now, yes, we want to qualify for the Beijing Olympics right away. Next year, in fact, I will be very busy organizing the Volvo Ocean Race. Fortunately, the World Championship in Argentina is at the beginning of 2005; we aim to get that out of the way right away.

GdV – Let’s try to explain in a few words why you won in Glyfada…
T.G. – It has been a process, the desire to always do things better. together. We also talk and discuss everything that is not working. Out of this discussion, great relationships have been born that lead to a winning understanding. Then there are the well-done trainings with important growth in performance. Of course, materials have been important: the outstanding Lillia boat, with modifications due to the many tests we have undergone. Then the Halsey sails and Harken equipment proved to be perfect. Finally, I can say that we sailed well during the Olympic days!

GdV – The programs for the winter?
T.G. – Right now I am very busy with the round-the-world race program. The construction of the boat has already been started and the molds are already being prepared. I have many meetings, meetings and also the definition of the crew ahead of me. I admit that I am quite tired: after the Olympic gold, we won the Brazilian Star championship and a Melges 24 regatta in Brazil. Then we presented the Volvo Ocean Race challenge, we went to Valencia to discuss with the Luna Rossa team, and I will come back again. By the end of the year I will go to America to see the VOR ’70 project and then I will go back to Brazil for a couple of regattas. So much for rest…

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GdV – At this point we can talk about the World Tour. A new adventure: what can you tell us about your crew?
T.G. – It will be mixed: not just Brazilian but Latin. I think it is easier to work with sailors who have my mentality, I think of friends in Spain and Italy who have experience in ocean racing. For me this aspect is very important (there is also talk of contacts with Stefano Rizzi, Ciccio Celon and Dede De Luca, ed.).

GdV – Ever thought of a solo world tour? Or a record attempt?
T.G. – I’ve always preferred sailing with boats where I wasn’t alone although, I remember with pleasure racing with the Finn and the Laser. But sailing with another person or many is more fun. Based on this reasoning, it is more fascinating to work in a team than to make the round-the-world race solo. The Volvo Ocean Race, a regatta par excellence in this sense, will give me a chance to make this desire a reality.

GdV – In short, it is an achievement.
T.G. – No, it’s just a stage in my sailing career. I have done six Olympics, two America’s Cups and many other competitions. The Volvo Ocean Race is a race I haven’t done yet, and being able to sail in the South Seas fascinates me. I know these areas a little bit but I have never been in extreme conditions-a situation that is very appealing to me. Once you get over the initial difficulties you can only continue, which you would hardly do in any other kind of regatta.

GdV – There is much anticipation and curiosity about your challenge to the Volvo Ocean Race.
T.G. – I expect a lot and hope to do it competitively. It is difficult being the first time the Brazilians are competing in such an important regatta. Also from an organizational point of view it is a good challenge, we work in a good group and hope to be able to complete the regatta with good results. The goal is to race competitively, because there is no point in starting without the conviction of being a protagonist.

GdV – He will still be Luna Rossa’s tactician, for the third consecutive time. Isn’t he getting a little tired of this role?
T.G. – I have thought about it, I admit. But my commitment to the World Tour partly takes that possibility away from me. I made a choice: for Brazilian sailing it is very important to participate in this regatta, without me it would be difficult to put this challenge in place. Evidently. I will be able to make myself available to Luna Rossa quite late and so I will be “forced” to maintain my role.

GdV – Is he still having fun or not?
T.G. – The America’s Cup world knows me as a tactician, I’ve also played this role on the offshore boats: it’s a fun role that plays a key part of the regatta. I think I do it well, that’s the important thing.

GdV – They say you learned Italian so well because of Meco Lillia. Is that true?
T.G. – Let’s say that from the first phone call I made to him in ’88 at a regatta, I noticed that he spoke very little English. So it was necessary to use your language; already on my first visits to Musso I committed myself to learning both written and spoken Italian. Then I started to do regattas on boats of your owners and that helped me a lot with the language.

GdV – It is no mystery that you were lucky early in your career. You come from a family with no financial problems.
T.G. – In Brazil, sailing has always been stigmatized as an elitist, niche sport, also due to the fact that the champions come from that environment. But today it is also from the middle class, which is crushed in Brazil, however: the social pyramid has a very broad base and a very narrow top. That’s why it occurred to me, my brother and Marcelo Ferreira, my bowman and a wonderful person, to come up with the Grael Project: an idea born in ’96 that we made concrete two years later.

GdV – Do you want to introduce him to us?
T.G. – Very willingly. We want to direct children to the sea, to sailing but especially to a job related to boating. So we fund various initiatives, we just bought a workshop in Niteroi to train skilled labor. We don’t want to train champions but to help talented and not well-off people become good at it. Besides, as mentioned, educating as many young people as possible to a profession. We got lucky, they have to find it.

GdV – Does this make you happy?
T.G. – Yes, it is a project that brings great satisfaction and serenity in my heart and to which I would like to devote even more time. When I am asked what was the greatest joy I felt from the gold in Athens, I have no doubt: the celebration all the children gave me when I left and the even greater one I found when I returned.

Thus spoke Torben Grael from St. Paul: a champion of life. Meco Lillia is right.

by Sabina Saracini

Editor’s note: Torben Grael won the 2009 edition of the Volvo Ocean Race, at the helm of Ericsson 4. In the previous edition (the one discussed in this article), he had finished the competition in third place, at the helm of Brasil 1.

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