Magnus “Mange” Olsson
Lives
Stockholm, Sweden
Skills
Professional sailor
Personal description
Born in Stockholm , Sweden, Magnus early picked up sailing through the OK, Trapez and 505 dinghy classes. While his civil engineering diploma was still warm from university and a new job in place, Mange was asked to join Pelle Petterson’s America’s Cup project in 1976. He decided to take a one year leave of absence from his employer to go sailing…. And after 34 years, he still hasn’t returned!
Mange sailed with Pelle’s in two America’s Cup challenges. In 1977 and 1980. Later Mange and Pelle won 3 World Championships in the 6 metre class, the leading keelboat class of the 80’s.
With a couple of years of Americas’s Cup sailing under his belt….Mange realized he wanted to put all his energy into professional sailing, so he set out on a series of Whitbread Round the World Races followed by multiple Volvo Ocean Race campaigns. Mange is one of the only sailors to have participated in every Whitebread and Volvo race…. An amazing feat in itself. In between these “round the world” races, Mange found time for other challenges like organizing, and competing in the Nokia Oops cup in ORMA 60 class, the first professional multihull series in Scandinavia.
Mange Olsson sailed his first Withbread Round The World Race in 1985 on Drum (Funded by Simon Le Bon – Duran Duran – with Skip Novak as skipper), his latest lap around the world was on Ericsson 3 in 2008-09.
His campaigns included:
1985-86 on Drum
1889-90 Card
1993-94 intrium justutia (ended 2nd , Yamaha won)
1997-98 Magnus won Whitbread with EF (Paul Cayard was skipper),
2001-02 Assa Abloy (Finished 2nd with Niel Mac Donald as skipper)
2005-06 Ericsson 1 (Mange was the Technical shore manager)
2008-09 Ericsson 3 (finished 4th with an all Scandinavian team)
2010 Sailing Formula 18 for fun. Working on new ocean projects
Mange’s confident there are more campaigns ahead. At the age of 61, he's ready to get back into the thick of it, and would love to contribute to the success of another Volvo Ocean Race campaign. While waiting for something to materialize Magnus spends his time training in the highly athletic Formula 18 catamaran class. ‘I don't see age as an issue. I'm in good shape and confident I still have a lot to contribute on board'.
