E ho'a'o no i pau kuhihewa

Andrew Lewis comes from the beautiful island of Hawaii in the South Pacific; there is an old Hawaiian proverb that sums him up exactly;

“E ho’a’o no i pau kuhihewa”

Or in the other words; “Just do it!”

Andrew Lewis is only twenty-four but he has already mounted an Olympic Laser campaign, competed in the Volvo Ocean Race and is currently racing in the America’s Cup. Louay Habib asked Andrew about his background and his relationship with the very top end of the sport.


Copyright:Oskar khilborg


“When I was about three or four years old my Dad used to take me surfing, I wasn’t strong enough to push out through the surf, so I would hang on to my dad’s leash and he would tow me out that’s the way all the kids learn to surf in Hawaii. You get pounded a few times but eventually, if you persevere, you get the hang of it and before you know it you are out there on your own.

When I was about ten years old I was really into all kinds of sports; baseball, ice-hockey and surfing, hanging out on the beach that sort of thing. I got into sailing through my parents, they were sailors and they gave me the option of going to Summer school or joining the junior sailing programme. I didn’t want to go to Summer school so that was that; I did my first sailing in Toppers. I enjoyed it and had a lot of fun with friends, I have always loved the sea and capsizing was just part of the fun, I was used to it from surfing anyway, slowly I got more and more into it and started racing.”

By the time Andrew was fourteen he was racing lasers and winning had become a habit, he was totally dominating the Waikiki Yacht Club Junior sailing programme. John Myrdal another Hawaiian was selected to represent the United States at the 2000 Olympics and he chose the teenager, Andrew Lewis as his training partner;

“In the early days it was quite hard to finance my sailing but I worked hard, did fund raising events and saved as much as I could and my parents were very supportive. When I was asked to train with John Myrdal it really opened the door for me, John was like a brother to me and put me down the right road to find sponsorship, He also encouraged me to go to the mainland and reach another level.



Training with John was really good for me, he was in the top ten laser sailors in the world and was used to competing with the likes of Ben Ainslie and Robert Scheidt, he gave me so much help and experience, I still like to train with the best and prior to the Volvo Ocean Race, Laser European Champion Paul Goodison used to come out to Hawaii for a couple of months to train with me.”

At just sixteen, Andrew won every junior title and with that momentum and with the sail training of John Myrdal and physical training of his dad, Andrew sailed in the 2000 Olympic trials and began his own bid for the 2004 Games.

Throughout the next several years, from 2000-2004, Andrew competed in several national regattas, winning the ABYC Olympic Class National Championship four times; the Pacific Coast National Championships three times, and the US Laser National Championship in 2005. However, Andrew just missed out on the Olympic Trails having tied for third.


Andrew Lewis has always loved water-sports and even when he takes a break from pro-sailing at his home in Hawaii, he can usually be found out on the water.

“Sports like wind surfing and kite surfing came naturally to me, I am much better at them than say reciting the capitals of all of the United States! In Hawaii it is windy so often that it is hard to find places that aren’t blown out, so I end up wind surfing a lot more, I also love to surf when it’s not too crowded but I will have a go at just about any sport, especially if it is on the water, one of my heroes is Robbie Nash, he is a legend in Hawaii not just for his surfing and windsurfing but by the way he has changed the nature of the those sports, he is a great ambassador.”

“I like to listen to mega-pop before going out when the surf’s big and you know you are going to get nailed.”


Copyright: Jon Nash

In 2005 Andrew was selected to join the ABN AMRO youth team to compete in the 2005-2006 Volvo Ocean Race, an adventure which will stay with him for the rest of his life;

“Prior to the Volvo Ocean Race the only offshore experience I had was to go from Hawaii to Maui which only takes ten hours, my first offshore race was Vigo to Cape Town; twenty-three days! Fortunately I don’t suffer from sea-sickness but there was a lot to learn, including stuff like personal hygiene when you don’t wash properly for three weeks! The four hour watches were hard work; reefing, unreefing, stacking and then off watch you had to eat and sort out any cuts or stuff like that and then even then you were often called onto deck for sail changes, everybody was run down and soaking wet most of the time, you often get very irritable in that situation. But you just have to deal with it, that is what offshore racing is all about.”

Andrew Lewis has a background in small boat sailing but this was to prove to be an advantage when steering a Volvo 70 rather than a hindrance;

“A Volvo 70 is just like a big dinghy; in a laser downwind your course changes are radical either to keep the boat by the lee or broad reaching, you are never dead downwind and the same is true of a Volvo 70, in the beginning a few of the crew were laughing at my helming because I never used to use the instruments, except the compass offshore. I never used the true wind angle, it was aggressive helming but the skipper Sebastian Josse encouraged me to continue steering that way. One of the biggest differences for me was steering at night, something I had little experience of, again Seb was aware of this and during training I did a lot of nights on the helm.”

The ABN AMRO two team were all under thirty and they were relishing the amazing adventure of racing around the world and enjoying the media interest and the warm welcome in some of the greatest sailing venues in the world, however tragedy was to strike on Leg Seven. As ABN AMRO TWO battled severe conditions Mid-Atlantic,Hans Horrevoets was washed overboard and although the crew recovered him, it was to be too late to save his life, the loss had a profound impact on the crew, especially Andrew Lewis;

“A lot of us were in shock after we lost Hans and personally it hit me more after the end of the race. When I look back at that time or see the scenes on DVD it definitely hits me harder now than it did then. At the time the support from ABN AMRO, Volvo Ocean Race and everyone was just fantastic; we always had people around us and we took it all really well. We had a good closure with the trauma of losing Hans but sometimes I think about it now and I don’t have the same support we had then.

In the watch system I was the guy that went off watch with Hans, we were from two very different sailing backgrounds and sometimes we would have differences of opinions but towards the end of the Trans-Atlantic leg I was the only one going off my watch because Hans wasn’t there anymore, so it was kind of a lonely time for me as Hans was the main guy I interacted with; I ate with him, I talked with him, we had sometimes disagreed but at that time I really missed him.

The first few days after the tragic accident were tough and we were just coming to terms with it when we had the call to turn around and rescue Movistar. We just wanted to get to shore but of course we would have done anything to rescue those guys and it turned out to be good for us to have them on board; fresh faces, helping us out. They were a tremendous comfort to us.

That first night with the Movistar crew on board, we had a full on gale blowing over thirty five knots, it was some of the knarliest sailing we had done the whole race. We had the kite up because we had to push really hard to stay in front of the weather behind us, the data had told us there was sixty knots catching us up very quickly. It was fantastic sailing but it was a very sad experience all at the same time.

As we neared the finish of the leg, we knew that ABN AMRO had flown most of our parents in; my mother got a last minute call and flew in from Hawaii and had re-written the airline schedules to be there. We had an awesome finish down the Solent, it was blowing thirty knots and we came through the finish line at some speed. As we came into Gun wharf Quays in Portsmouth, we could see hundreds of people lining the dock, all in silence, it was pretty moving.”


Copyright: Victory Challenge

After the Volvo Ocean Race Andrew Lewis took up another challenge; joining the Swedish America’s Cup Team. Victory Challenge had taken on many Volvo Ocean sailors including Andrew’s ABN AMRO team mates Simon Fisher and Luke Molloy.

“I always thought that the America’s Cup was something I would have done way before the Volvo Ocean Race, Victory Challenge has now got some good sponsors, a great team and we are moving in the right direction, we have spent six weeks in Dubai working hard on our sail development and other areas and we should be back sailing the new boat in Valencia by the middle of February and hopefully, knock on wood, she is going to be fast. Killian Bushe is the builder of the new boat and he did an awesome job with the two ABN boats in the Volvo.

The biggest difference I have experienced between the Volvo and the Cup is that in the Cup, it is an impressive operation when we go out practicing; four tenders, data collection and attention to detail, it is like running a business. Also they are not so many people and media around as the Volvo but I guess that when the Louis Vuitton come around that part will change, there will be tons of people around, I think that atmosphere in Valencia will be unbelievable.



After the America’s Cup, I would love to get back into small boats, I miss my friends from my Laser sailing and all that but it would be very hard to get back into it in time for the Olympics.Depending on what goes on after the Cup, I may put together an Olympic campaign, the trials are in October which would give me about four months to train, I will have nothing to lose by going for the trials.

Long term I would definitely like to do the Volvo again, it is an amazing race, the new boats are just fantastic and in my mind they are much safer in waves than the Volvo 60s; on the older boats in big breeze the masthead spinnaker would still be up but on the newer boats over thirty knots the spinnaker would be down because your apparent wind is so far forward. Everyone is in the back of the boat most of the time, the jib trim is locked off and it’s all about helm and mainsheet trim. What impressed me about these boats is how stable they are and as they are light they go over the waves easier than the 60s.

As far as the keels breaking, people have learnt a lot and in the next race those problems should be in the past, the next race will see boats very similar in design and the racing should be a lot closer. The TP52 circuit excites me and so do the Open 60s but I think it would be really good for me to do the next Volvo whilst I am still young. The new notice of race states that the crew should have a certain number less than 30 years of age and that could be really useful for a lot of the guys from ABN AMRO Two. Young guys getting the opportunities like I have has got to be good for the sport.

p.s. I was wondering if Yachts and Yachting who commissioned this article would like to send me to Hawaii just to make sure all of this is true, just for the sake of correct journalism, you understand, Aloha!