Short facts
Born:  August 1981
Place of birth: Sydney, Australia
Hometown:  Don’t really have one for the moment
Nationality:  Australian
Position on the team: Navigation support
Family: English girlfriend in London, Rachel
Favorite place: Palm Beach, North of Sydney
Favorite food: A nice lamb roast on the Sunday
Hidden talent: Surf life saver
Hutch is also a big drinker of Earl Grey Tea and can cook a good banana cake

Sailing achievements & professional background

3 x Rolex Sydney Hobart races (2002, 2004, 2005)
1 x Rolex Fastnet race (2007)
1 x Rolex Middle Sea Race (2006)
2 x Farr 40 World Championships (2004, 2005)

Alfa Romeo Yacht Racing team 2005-2007, crew
Kokomo Farr 40 Sailing team 2004-2005, crew
Australian Match Racing Champion team 2002 & 2003
Bear of Britain Sailing team 2002, Cowes, England

Graduated in 2004 as an Engineer from Sydney University with a bachelor degree in Mechatronics – the science of electrical and mechanical systems.

Profile

Andrew “Hutch” Hutchinson’s knows what makes a boat go fast in reality but can also translate that into a number - a good combination and skills that are well sought after. “When heading for university I knew I wanted to get into engineering side of sailing and the marine industry,” Hutch explains. “I wanted to combine something that I love, sailing, with something that I am trained in.”

As for many others involved in the Ericsson Racing Team, Hutch’s interest in sailing started when he was young. At the age of 10 he got into dinghy sailing at the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron. The yacht club soon became the center of his social life, the place to hang out and spend time with friends.
Just after he graduated he joined an Australian Farr 40 program and did the European and US tour as a crew. Larger sailing programs turned out to be his thing and he continued on with the 100 footer, Alfa Romeo. That kept him busy full time for two years.

“My goal became more and more clear over the past few years, I wanted to become involved in a high profile team within the Volvo Ocean Race or the America’s Cup. By the time I met Stu Bannatyne on Ericsson’s international crew, I was ready to move on,” Hutch says.

“There was a navigation support spot on the team available, and that is what I am all into now.
I do most of the team’s electrical and/or instrumentational data analyses. What it is all about is to measure performance both by feel and numbers.”

During the other campaigns Hutch has been involved in, he has spent plenty of time on the water sailing as a race crew. “Of course I wouldn’t mind to be sailing here as well, but the caliber of the crew in a high profile VOR campaign like this is so high, why I am happy to have settled for the area that I am strong within, what makes a boat go fast, translated into numbers.”

Leading up to the race start, there is plenty of analyses to be done.
“We are load testing, by putting load cells in certain areas of the boat. We are also jotting down all numbers for performance in different angles and wind speeds for navigational purposes. Further to that we are looking into profiles for the different sails, which can also be assisted by numbers and calculations.”

Hutch spends hours in front of the computer trying to make sense out of the numbers. The measurements are not always that straight forward and to understand the numbers they need to be cleared from faulting factors. This can sometimes be quite a tedious job, something that Hutch is not too afraid of.

His closest work colleagues within the team are the navigators of the two crews, Jules Salter and Aksel Magdahl as well as Richard Kent who is head of the electronics on board the boats.
Throughout the race Richard and Hutch will help each other out keeping the electrical systems on board top notch.