Volvo Ocean Race sailor, Andy Meiklejohn, joins Tulikettu Redkik Racing Team
Finnish offshore sailing team Tulikettu Redkik Racing, skippered by Arto Linnervuo, continues to make steadfast progress towards their goals. Tulikettu’s crew has been strengthened ahead of the upcoming season by two very experienced foreign pros, the most prominent of which is New Zealand’s Volvo Ocean Race sailor, Andy Meiklejohn.
Friend of head coach and multiple Volvo Ocean Race winner Stu Bannatyne, Andy will work in collaboration with and substitute Stu in races he’s unable to participate in. Andy brings a wealth of experience having raced in several Volvo Ocean Races, coached many teams and also sailed on similar carbon fibre racing yachts like the fox.
“In addition, Will Jackson, who is also responsible for the technical development of Tulikettu and former boat captain of Hugo Boss, arguably the most famous boat in offshore sailing, will sail with us in every race this season adding experience from foiling offshore yachts to the racing team,” Linnervuo says.
There is a clear reason for using foreign talent. “Although we are a Finnish crew, and our goal is to be the first all-Finnish team to win the biggest races in offshore sailing, we have to take this step to learn everything we can about our boat. Apart from the addition of Andy and Will, our crew remains the same core Finnish Tulikettu crew as before,” Linnervuo continues.
Tulikettu will open its RORC season at the Cervantes Trophy Race in the English Channel on Saturday 20 April marking the next phase of the Tulikettu project journey.
Our past schedule includes six races, 20,000 nautical miles and two Atlantic crossings. Experience shows that it takes two to three years to build top teams before they start winning races. “We have now been sailing on Tulikettu for one year. The boat has become familiar and tested. Now begins the next phase to discover the boat’s full potential and speed,” says Linnervuo.
With summer racing season starting on Saturday, Tulikettu will then head to Finland for the first time and take part in two of the biggest races in the Baltic Sea; the Gotland Runt on 30 June and also the second edition of the RORC Roschier Baltic Sea Race on 27 July.
“Up to now we have been racing approximately 80% of the time and training 20%. Last season we finished 11th in the Rolex Fastnet Race, which was a good result at that stage of our project. Now we are doing the opposite, training more and focusing on finding the pace of the boat with Andy. With the boat in Finland, we will be able to practice almost everyday.
In the opening race of the season, we are aiming for a clean performance. We have improved the performance of the boat over the winter and it will be very interesting to see how it does,” Linnervuo continues.
Next summer’s Baltic Sea race will prepare the Tulikettu Redkik Racing team for the toughest offshore RORC races in 2024-25 and the legendary Admiral’s Cup, where Tulikettu will represent Finland.
“We will leave no stone unturned in order to achieve our goals.” says Linnervuo.
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