Team Sanya setback in Volvo Ocean Race
China boat heading for Madagascar port for repairs
The Chinese entry in the Volvo Ocean Race has been forced to head for a port in southern Madagascar after damaging rigging early yesterday, event organisers said.
No-one on board Team Sanya was injured and the crew were all reported to be safe.
Members of the crew noticed the damage to one of the stays on the mast during a sail change on the race’s second leg from Cape Town to Abu Dhabi and contacted Race Management.
“We were just out of the major breeze and changing sails from the J4 to the fractional zero and were in wind speeds of around 12-14 knots when we noticed a vital piece of rigging loose from the mast (D2),” said skipper Mike Sanderson.
“We had had an awesome night’s racing and were totally hauling and making massive gains so we were very upbeat with our progress.
“The weather was turning for the better and so we were happy in our decisions and general progress.
“We had been due to tack an hour earlier in the darkness but had delayed that given the conditions and for sure if we had done that, the rig would have fallen over the side.
“As you can imagine we are totally gutted and can’t quite believe this has happened when everything was going so well.”
After arriving in the port, the crew will assess the damage and make a repair plan.
Team Sanya is one of six boats contesting the second leg, having left Cape Town for Abu Dhabi on December 11.
The first leg from Alicante in Spain to Cape Town was won by the Spanish boat Telefonica.