Johannes Schwarz grew up sailing on Lake Neusiedl near his hometown near Vienna, Austria and close to the Hungarian border. “It’s actually the best lake for dinghy sailing in Austria!” Schwarz says. He’s come a long way from his lake sailing youth, today spending his days travelling all over the world running his four Volvo 70s: Green Dragon, E1, Monster Project and Ocean Breeze.

This week, he’s in the BVI for the first time with Monster Project, who began her racing career as the Russian entry Kosatka in the 2008-2009 Volvo Ocean Race. Following that, she was refitted and used for race charter. A few years ago, Schwarz bought her in an auction and refitted her once again to keep her technical systems and sail wardrobe competitive. All of Schwartz’ boats are available for charter for racing or cruising; Schwarz himself is a very experienced Volvo 60 and 70 skipper and sail trainer with more than 250,000 NM offshore. 

“A couple of years ago, we set out to participate in the most interesting and challenging races,” Schwarz explains. “So far, we’ve done Sydney to Hobart, Fastnet, Newport to Bermuda, the Middle Sea Race, the Caribbean 600, and Trans Pac with amateur crew. We’ve competed with Monster Project in St Martin and Antigua, but this is our first time in the BVI with this boat – it’s fantastic, and the most beautiful of the islands. We’d love to see more big monohulls here!”

 

Schwarz’ interest in large ocean racing boats goes back to the early 90s when he was aiming to take part in the 1993-4 edition of the Whitbread Round the World Race in a Volvo 60 which were specifically designed for that race. Unable to raise the funds to see the campaign through to the end, nonetheless Schwarz had developed a connection to the race and subsequently bought several Volvo 60s before he ultimately moved on to the 70s.

 

“At some stage it was just a good opportunity to move to the 70s, but owning four was not the original plan!” he laughs. “Monster Project and Ocean Breeze came to me in auctions where they were being sold off due to fraud and bankruptcies. I thought I’d buy, refit them, then sell, but then Covid hit, the market was dead, and I was stuck with four of them. They’re kind of like kids; you didn’t plan to have four but once you have them, you love them all!”

 

While he charters and coaches pretty much full-time with his four boats, Schwarz’ vision is to bring back a race like the former Whitbread Round the World.

 

“The Volvo Ocean Race is for the show, but the old Whitbread was for the sailors; every sailor, offshore sailor could have the dream to take part in at least one or two legs but something like this is not there anymore; the Clipper Race is not the same,” he explains. “There is some development of my idea but until it happens, I’m financing the boats by running race charters which are more commercially viable the bigger the boat.”

 

Schwartz’ boats race in Europe during the summer and also the UK when there’s a Fastnet. In the winter, they always come to the Caribbean.

 

“I think it’s now my 14th or 15th Caribbean season; I have competed at BVI Spring Regatta twice before on E1 (Ericsson One), and then for some years we were the record holder for the Round Tortola Race on Ocean Breeze,” he says.

 

Jacek Siwek, from Poland, manages the crew on Monster Project, which is a huge job. Other than a couple of sailors from Johannes’ professional crew, the entire team of 20 racing BVI Spring Regatta this week are all amateurs.”

 

“Monster Project is all-manual so it’s a bit of hard work, but Johannes is a very good coach, and he’s also a very good at managing amateurs on the boat. We have a good number this week because there are that many positions on the boat.”

 

Schwarz does enjoy sailing on smaller boats, citing them as “very sporty and very demanding” but the bigger boats, well, there is another dimension to them, he says.

 

“It is not the size itself but it’s like a living space – when you’re doing a long-distance race it’s not just about the technical part or the regular teamwork but it’s also the social part, where you live with the people on the boat, and this is more intense and interesting on a bigger boat.”

 

Monster Project has a fun schedule ahead; at the end of April, she goes to Panama, the Marquesas, Tahiti, Fiji, and finally Australia where she’ll compete in the 2026 Sydney-Hobart race.