Martine Grael at the wheel for the AkzoNobel team
Fast, strong, brave, smart and beautiful: this is the Brazilian 49erFX sailor Martine Grael. With the Dutch AkzoNobel team led by skipper Simeon Tienpont, the 27-year-old from Rio de Janeiro set a new 24-hour record of 602.51 nautical miles during the ninth stage. Martine's father Torben Grael had held the old record. In the race around the world in 2008/09 he and his team on "Ericsson 4" had already achieved an impressive 596.6 nautical miles in 24 hours. Hardly on land, his daughter now addressed cheeky greetings to the five-time Olympic medalist, double Olympic champion and Volvo Ocean Race triumphant, said in an interview: "I challenge him to get the record back. I'm pretty sure that we're going to have pretty fast boats for the next edition of the race. Who knows … "In Cardiff it is rumored that Martine has already given her father a new nickname:" Captain Slow ".
Ackert on board for AkzoNobel: 49erFX Olympic champion Martine Grael
Her father won the race around the world with his team on "Ericsson 4" in 2008/09. His daughter will probably not be able to do that at her Volvo Ocean Race premiere with AkzoNobel, but she was able to snatch the 24-hour record from her dad …
Martine Grael, who was at her home country when she raced to gold in the 49erFX with her crew member KahenKunze in Rios GuanabarBay in 2016, is the first Brazilian to take part in the Volvo Ocean Race. Her skipper Simeon Tienpont has given her top marks over and over again during the nine stages: "Our sport is quite male-dominated, but outside there are some incredible women. Martine is one of them. Her fighting spirit and her attitude towards competition are inspiring. She is an asset to any team! " Martine Grael was motivated to take part in the race not only by her father, who took part in the Volvo Ocean Race three times, but also by the British researcher Ernest Shackleton with his adventurous journeys.
When casting off in Itajaí in her home country Brazil, where Martine Grael is a sports star
AkzoNobel trimmer and taxwoman Martine Grael: One day maybe in a team with her father Torben Grael?
AkzoNobel skipper Simeon Tienpont had been among the proponents of the new race around the world rule, which had led all teams to sign up female crew members from the start. Before the race, Tienpont had said: "I now have a three-year-old daughter. If she likes sailing, then I am glad that she can now hang a poster over her bed on which one of our girls in the Southern Ocean is hanging in the mast." Maybe one day it will be Martine Grael in action who hangs Tienpont's daughter as a picture on the wall.
Rarely to be found in an evening dress: Martine Grael at a party
Fans and cameras love the natural and very personable Brazilian
Her fellow sailors say about Martine Grael that she is always 100 percent motivated