Aksel Magdahl (born 6 March 1979, in
Tönsberg
The Tönsberg is a hill ridge in the Teutoburg Forest that reaches a height of and lies in the district of Lippe near Oerlinghausen. Hermann's Way runs over the Tönsberg for about 3.5 km.
Points of interest
Along Hermann's Way on the c ...
), is a Norwegian
yacht racing
Yacht racing is a Sailing (sport), sailing sport involving sailing yachts and larger sailboats, as distinguished from dinghy racing, which involves open boats. It is composed of multiple yachts, in direct competition, racing around a course marke ...
navigator
A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation.Grierson, MikeAviation History—Demise of the Flight Navigator FrancoFlyers.org website, October 14, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2014. The navigator's primar ...
, author of the tactics that took the boat Ericsson 3 to the victory in the fifth leg of the
Volvo Ocean Race
The Ocean Race is a yacht race around the world, held every three or four years since 1973. Originally named the Whitbread Round the World Race after its initiating sponsor, British brewing company Whitbread, in 2001 it became the Volvo Ocean Rac ...
. The stage was the longest in the history of the race and it was disputed between the Chinese city of
Qingdao
Qingdao (, also spelled Tsingtao; , Mandarin: ) is a major city in eastern Shandong Province. The city's name in Chinese characters literally means " azure island". Located on China's Yellow Sea coast, it is a major nodal city of the One Belt ...
and in
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...
,
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
.
Background
In early 1985, master
painter
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...
and yachtsman Kjell-Rune Magdahl bought an
Optimist dinghy
The Optimist is a small, single-handed sailing dinghy intended for use by young people up to the age of 15.
The Optimist is one of the two most popular sailing dinghies in the world, with over 150,000 boats officially registered with the c ...
for his son Aksel, who had just turned six. The hope was that little Aksel would develop an interest in
boat
A boat is a watercraft of a large range of types and sizes, but generally smaller than a ship, which is distinguished by its larger size, shape, cargo or passenger capacity, or its ability to carry boats.
Small boats are typically found on inl ...
s and
sailing
Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' (land yacht) over a chosen cour ...
, just like his dad. But Aksel's interest in boats almost never set sail. He sailed his Optimist at home off Tønsberg on the
Oslofjord
The Oslofjord (, ; en, Oslo Fjord) is an inlet in the south-east of Norway, stretching from an imaginary line between the and lighthouses and down to in the south to Oslo in the north. It is part of the Skagerrak strait, connecting the Nor ...
’s west coast, but at the age of 11, other interests, such as
computer
A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...
s and
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
, took the upper hand. When he was 19, he rekindled his interest in
regatta
Boat racing is a sport in which boats, or other types of watercraft, race on water. Boat racing powered by oars is recorded as having occurred in ancient Egypt, and it is likely that people have engaged in races involving boats and other wate ...
sailing after he completed his
military service
Military service is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, air forces, and naval forces, whether as a chosen job (volunteer) or as a result of an involuntary draft (conscription).
Some nations (e.g., Mexico) require a ...
, not in the navy but with an assault team in the Norwegian
cavalry
Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from "cheval" meaning "horse") are soldiers or warriors who fight mounted on horseback. Cavalry were the most mobile of the combat arms, operating as light cavalry ...
.
Aksel studied
economics
Economics () is the social science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and intera ...
at the
BI Norwegian School of Management
BI Norwegian Business School () is the largest business school in Norway and the second largest in all of Europe. BI has in total four campuses with the main one located in Oslo. The university has 845 employees consisting of an academic staff of ...
in
Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...
, but his sailing career bloomed, and in 2004 two-time
Volvo Ocean Race
The Ocean Race is a yacht race around the world, held every three or four years since 1973. Originally named the Whitbread Round the World Race after its initiating sponsor, British brewing company Whitbread, in 2001 it became the Volvo Ocean Rac ...
skipper
Knut Frostad
Knut Mauritz Frostad (born 4 June 1967 in Harstad, Norway) is a Norwegian yachtsman, who has participated in a broad range of world championship level sailing events, including the Volvo Ocean Race and the Olympic Games, the latter in windsurfing. ...
brought him on board his ORMA60 trimaran Nokia Academy, winning the Nokia Oops Cup total in their first season together. With Nokia Academy he combined his computer skills and sailing talent to become a full-blood professional racing
navigator
A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation.Grierson, MikeAviation History—Demise of the Flight Navigator FrancoFlyers.org website, October 14, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2014. The navigator's primar ...
, and he also managed this project for two of his three years there.
It was the same Knut Frostad who, in early 2007, told Aksel that he might be Anders Lewander's and Magnus “Mange” Olsson's first choice as navigator for
Ericsson
(lit. "Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson"), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in informat ...
in the Volvo Ocean Race 2008–09. Aksel and Mange went on to lead the underdog team Ericsson 3, and the inexperienced team surprised the sailing world with three consecutive third places in the first three legs of the race after solid offshore sailing and some unusual navigation. He applied new decision-making- and analysis techniques and became established as one of the top offshore navigators in his first try.
Outside sailing, Aksel won the regional road cycling championship in
Vestfold
Vestfold is a traditional region, a former county and a current electoral district in Eastern Norway. In 2020 the county became part of the much larger county of Vestfold og Telemark. Located on the western shore of the Oslofjord, it bordered th ...
, Norway in 2011, and is a keen
private pilot
A private pilot licence (PPL) or, in the United States, a private pilot certificate, is a type of pilot licence that allows the holder to act as pilot in command of an aircraft privately (not for remuneration). The licence requirements are dete ...
.
Work
2004-´06 Nokia Oops Cup with Team Nokia Academy ORMA60 trimaran
2008-´09 Volvo Ocean Race Participation Fourth place Offshore: Legs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 In-Port: Alicante, Singapore, Boston, Galway, Stockholm
2011-´12 Volvo Ocean Race, Team Sanya
Sailing Achievements 2004–Nokia Oops Cup, multihull 60-foot (1st place), SORC (2nd place), North American Championship, Farr40 (3rd place) 2005–Nokia Oops Cup, multihull 60-foot (2nd place), IMS Nationals, mainsail/tactics (Champion) 2004–Nokia Oops Cup, multihull 60-foot (Champion), Faerder-Skagen, multihull record, Soling Nationals (2nd place) 2003–IMS European Championship (2nd place), Several 1st-3rd positions with WCST
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Magdahl, Aksel
Norwegian male sailors (sport)
1979 births
Living people
Volvo Ocean Race sailors