Marcelo Ferreira, Team Delta Lloyd and Torben Grael, Ericsson 4. Image copyright Dave Kneale/Volvo Ocean Race.
by Riath Al-Samarrai
Torben Grael tends to be a man of few words, but one particular conversation topic gets him going.
"Marcelo," he says. "He is great. A great sailor, but we are probably better friends socially."
He has been sailing with Marcelo Ferreira for more than 20 years, ever since they got in a boat together at the Rio Yacht Club in Niteroi in 1985. "He was in our circle of sailing friends and we just started sailing together," he says with a grin.
It was not a bad decision. They won a Star class world title five years later and then, over the next 14 years, became Olympic legends, sailing together to take gold medals in the 1996 and 2004 Games with a bronze sandwiched in between. When Grael was made skipper of Brasil 1 in the last race, not surprisingly Ferreira was his right-hand man.
"Great memories," Ferreira adds.
On Saturday, they will both be sailing on Guanabara Bay again, but not on the same team. Ferreira will be trimming onboard Delta Lloyd, Grael calling the shots as skipper on Ericsson 4. It will be a golden head-to-head, but it's got both men scratching their heads.
"I don't remember when we last raced each other," Grael says.
"No idea, really," adds Ferreira. "But racing Torben." He pauses, exhales loudly and laughs. "Racing Torben, hard. Very hard."
Grael adds: "He is just a great competitor. It's very tough racing him. He is very motivated and has a strong drive too. When it counts, he is reliable. He can do it when it is most important. He doesn't crack under pressure, a great sailor."
More importantly to Grael, he is a "great friend".
"We are probably better friends socially than we are professionally," Grael says. "It is a nice friendship for sure."
And yet they are almost binary opposites. Whereas Ferreira seems constantly jolly, laughing and talking with anyone who passes, Grael is harder to understand. He can be happy and warm, but rarely operates outside his own terms. He gives the impression, from time to time, that the media is a burden he can do without. And stories of his temper are not hard to find. But, on the other side, he is said to be extremely generous, kind and good natured, a point illustrated by the Grael Project, a cost-free sailing program for children from low income families. To friends like Ferreira, he is simply "a great guy".
"He is a very quiet guy, conservative in his words," he says. "I have known him for so long. He is a great friend.
"He is completely different to me. A nice formula, a balance."
That said, the professional and personal mystery of Grael, referred to by some members of the Ericsson team as the "Torben Factor", has not totally been solved by Ferreira.
"You never know what he thinks," he laughs. "I have known him for many years and I still do not know what he is thinking some of the time. He loves to win, that's a big thing for him. Everything must be done right. When he is with a crew that is well trained, doing things right, he is quiet and concentrated. When we have a new team he gets crazy, screaming a lot, wanting to do the best all the time. He gives a hard time when it's not in good shape.
"Torben loves to win, he is so determined. When he is focused, he does not lose. His talent, wow. I sit in the same boat and I do not see the things he sees. He has something very special. He has a very, very, very strong feeling. He just does it, instinct, feeling. Wonderful to sail with him."
And yet on Saturday they sail against each other, two legends of the game locking horns.
Grael still can't remember the last time it happened. "A long time ago, I think," he says. "It's better to sail with him."
Volvo Ocean Race
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