With the full fleet of the Volvo Ocean race now arrived in the Cape Town Race Village, as we go to print, ahead of the start of the second leg of the epic round the world Volvo Ocean Race, GAC Pindar, the official logistics suppliers to the race have had a multitude of behind the scenes logistics challenges to overcome just to ensure that the Cape Town Race Village was ready to open on the 1st of November deadline. It shows just how much goes on unnoticed, behind the scenes to put on an event like the Volvo Ocean Race.
Among the challenges faced by GAC Pindar were, noise restrictions meaning that no building could take place between 8pm and 8am, containers not arriving on time so having to be driven from 66 hours from Port Elizabeth and Durban and due to the unique race location across three piers under Table Mountain, there was only space for one delivery truck to enter the village at a time.
While all eyes of the sailing world had been on seven boats travelling the 6,487 nautical miles of the first leg, GAC Pindar had been working hard to tackle their own logistics challenge to ensure that the Cape Town race village was ready on time.
As the official logistics provider for the Volvo Ocean Race, GAC Pindar’s role includes the logistics and customs clearance of each race village in each port. The Cape Town leg presented a number of unique challenges that took meticulous planning, flawless execution and timing in order to have the race village open for the immovable deadline.
To tackle all of this GAC Pindar have drafted a ‘Smart Sheet’ document, the logistics bible for the whole operation. Everything you’d ever need to know about the Cape Town bump in and bump out is there and it is updated on a regular basis to make sure everything runs smoothly.”
GAC Pindar will also be on call 24/7 throughout the stop-over to manage boatyard deliveries and material handling throughout the village. The bump out will start on 19th November and all 117 containers will be transported by truck to Port Elizabeth, a 18 hour drive, from where they will shipped to Hong Kong on their way to Sanya, China.
