#VOR - The first candidates for places on Team SCA's all-female team for the next edition of the Volvo Ocean Race are currently sailing on a training leg from Southampton to Lanzarote.
The Volvo Ocean Race website spoke to one of the hopefuls, Vendee Globe veteran Sam Davies, who described the team's plans to field the first women-only team in the VOR as "an amazing opportunity for me and woman's sailing in general, especially for women ocean racers."
She's joined on the VOR 70 training vessel - which sports the team's recently unveiled livery ahead of the completion of their VOR 65 yacht - by fellow Brit sailor Annie Lush, Carolijn Brouwer and Klaartje Zuiderbaan from the Netherlands, Jeanne Gregoire from France, and Liz Wardley and Stacey Jackson from Australia.
Davies said of the team selection that it's "a two-way process... the managers are looking at all of us and we're testing it out to see if it is really what we want to do."
Team SCA managing director Richard Brisus said of the first trainee voyage to the team's base at Puerto Calero: "We have set out to work with the world’s best female offshore sailors and create a strong group of women that also has the ability to work well together as a high-performing team."
A second group of candidates will head out to sea shortly, and Team SCA coach Magnus Olsson said it "would be fantastic if we could find our team from these two groups.
“They are a remarkable group of women and each brings a very high level of skill sets to a potential team."
