Nya rigghaverier har förändrat ställningen i Volvo Ocean Reace Leg 2. Team Sanya har tvingats till nödhamn för att reparera riggen och ledningen har därefter övergått till Puyma, som har Telefonica hack i häl. Team Sanyas skeppare, Mike Sanderson, har dock lovbat sin besättning att teamet ska vara tillbaka Volvo Ocean Race i Leg 3, som går till Sanyas hemmahamn.
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Ingen skadades turligt nog vid haveriet med Sanyas rigg. Mer om detta och mycket annant i de två senaste pressreleaserna från tävlingsledningen, som publiceras här nedan.
Foto: Andres Soriano/Team Sanya/Volvo Ocean Race.
No one was injured in the incident and the crew are all safe. The incident means Sanya are highly likely to have to rejoin the race for the second stage of Leg 3 rather than in Leg 2.
The damage was to a vital piece of the mast’s supporting rigging called the D2.
Team Sanya are sailing towards the town of Tolagnero in the south east of Madagascar, with an ETA of Tuesday at 0700 UTC. They will be able to berth there at the new port of Ehoala, where they will finalise a plan to get back in the race. Shore manager Nick Bice and rigger Frano Tregasgis will also arrive there on Tuesday to meet the team and assist in the repair plan.
“Today was a huge blow, for sure one of the worst I have had in my Whitbread/Volvo Ocean Race career,” said skipper and team CEO Mike Sanderson.
“The whole team had just done the most amazing job to get us back for Leg 2 after our collision with an obstacle on Leg 1. To then be forced out of this leg whilst leading the fleet with a rigging failure just feels like such a let down — but rest assured we will be back for sure for Leg 3.
“That just has to happen. We made miracles happen to be on the start line for the second leg and now we need to do it again to be able to join the third leg to Sanya. Don’t give up on us! We certainly haven’t lost one bit of faith and we know that we have what it takes to make our team, our families, our sponsors and our growing number of fans proud.”
Because of the anti-piracy plans drawn up by organisers for Legs 2 and 3, the fleet is currently heading towards an undisclosed ‘safe haven’ port in the Indian Ocean. The boats are due to be loaded onto a ship at that port and transported to a point off the Sharjah coast to resume racing with a sprint into Abu Dhabi.
Race rules mean that Sanya will still score points for Leg 2, the In-Port Race in Abu Dhabi and the first stage of Leg 3 if they cross the finish line at the safe haven port under racing conditions at some point.
Their goal will be to repair the boat, complete the first stage of Leg 2 and then rejoin the fleet when they return by ship after the first stage of Leg 3, which will take the fleet on to the team’s home port of Sanya.
Sanya were forced to retire from Leg 1 but the shore crew performed heroics to get the boat repaired in time for the Cape Town In-Port Race and the start of Leg 2 earlier this month.
Sanya Government Deputy Mayor, Mr. Wu Yanjun, showed his support and sent his best wishes to the team:
“The adversity and misfortune that Team Sanya has experienced since the race got started often reminds me of the Long March of the Red Army in China in 1930s –even though the hardship and failures never get out of the way, the victory and successes are just awaiting around the corner. I sincerely wish Team Sanya the best of luck while we are anticipating the team’s arrival in Sanya in February of next year.”
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19 december:
At 1900 UTC tonight Telefónica (Iker Martínez/ESP) and PUMA’S Mar Mostro (Ken Read/USA) were engaged in a proper fight for first place as the fleet racing in Leg 2 of the Volvo Ocean Race heads north in a drag race 681 nautical miles (nm) east of the coast of Madagascar.
CAMPER (Chris Nicholson/AUS) is also in the mix, just 5.30 nm behind Martínez and his men who are back on top. Groupama 4 has also made some substantial gains this evening and is in fourth, 162 nm to the east of the main pack. Ian Walker’s Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing is still over 100 nm behind the leader tonight.
The endless days of no wind and icy cold rainsqualls are now a distant memory, replaced by typical trade wind sailing with warm spray coming over the deck and a shining sun, which have raised the spirits of the crew who had all but given up hope of finding these kinds of sailing conditions. Wet and smelly sailing kit is coming out to air and shoes are replacing sea boots as the temperature begins to climb. All the gear is carefully stacked on the windward side to tease out every ounce of boat speed.
Average speeds in the past three hours have been hitting just over 19 knots for Groupama 4 and have led to far more respectable 24-hour runs such as Telefónica’s run of 359 nm over the past 24-hours.
Meanwhile, the luckless Team Sanya continues to head towards the Madagascar port of Ehoala where they will assess their options after breaking a vital piece of supporting rigging on their mast (D2) in the early hours of this morning.
