18 May 2006—Portsmouth,UK
Tributes pour in for Hans Horrevoets
As the reality of what happened this morning, when Hans Horrevoets was washed overboard from ABN AMRO TWO begins to dawn, tributes from all over the world are flooding in to race headquarters. Although everyone is shocked and saddened by the accident, the crews of the seven boats racing in leg seven of the Volvo Ocean Race are particularly shattered by the loss of their friend.
As part of a two boat programme, the skipper and crew of ABN AMRO ONE wrote:
“Today it is very hard to write, what a terrible, terrible 12 hours we have just had. Hearing the news that Hans (Horrevoets) had gone over the side and that one of our sailing team was in the water just gave you a very sickening feeling. It is a sailor’s worst nightmare.
“Over the past two years we have grown as a very big family at Team ABN AMRO, and those of you out there that knew Hans will agree that he was just the most lovely team player and family man, all we can do here is think of Petra his wife, Bobbi his little girl, and the rest of Hans’ family, who were so supportive of him being in the race.
“We have backed off another level, we have gone with a fractional gennaker and a reef and we will just monitor the pace, for sure we need to be very careful on board as emotions are very close to the surface. I feel the pressure more than ever to get the husbands, the dads, and the fiancés and boyfriends in to their families in one piece, and that's all good for Black Betty as well. We have to keep racing though, as otherwise all that Hans has worked for over the last couple of years will be wasted, and we know that he wouldn't want that.
“It's not really possible to deal with it personally out here, so that will have to wait a few days until we get in. We need to now get all the boats safely tied up to the dock after these next few days of windy running, and give ourselves time to grieve the loss of a very good friend.
“To Petra, Bobbi and all of Hans’ family, I can't say enough how very, very sorry and sad we are, our thoughts and prayers go out too you.”
Brasil 1 sent the following message to Team ABN AMRO:
“It was with shock and astonishment that we received the terrible news. As part of the Volvo family, we feel the loss of Hans Horrevoets like a loss within our own family. We can only imagine the feelings within those who were closer to him.
“At moments like these, there’s not much to say but we just want you all to know that this is also our loss.
“If there’s anything at all that can be done by us to help in anyway, please count on us.”
Some boats were asked by race headquarters to alter course towards the location of ABN AMRO TWO. Movistar gybed in order to alter course, but soon after they had gybed they received the news that ABN AMRO TWO had recovered the casualty. As they gybed back onto course they completely ripped their indexsail horizontally, approximately five metres from the top. Whilst dealing with this situation in high winds, Andrew Cape broke the news that Hans Horrevoets was dead.
“No words were necessary,” wrote Bouwe Bekking. “Everybody felt miserable, but we had a situation on our hands that we had to solve, so that distracted us away from the bad news. Our feelings go out to the family of Hans, the crew of ABN AMRO TWO and all the other Team ABN AMRO members,” he said.
LEG SEVEN DAY 08, 1600 GMT POSITION REPORT
Leg Position
Yacht
Latitude
Longitude
DTF
SMG
24 Hour Run
24 Hour Speed
DTL
DTL-C
Projected Leg Points
Total Projected Leg Points
ETA
Projected Overall Race Points
Projected Position Overall
1
ABN1
46 50.23N
026 13.29W
01019
21.4
459
19.1
00000
+00000
7.0
7.0
20/05/06 20:__:__
77.5
1
2
ERIC
47 13.33N
029 20.81W
01131
20.8
421
17.5
00112
+00001
6.0
6.0
21/05/06 01:__:__
40.5
6
3
POTC
46 58.27N
030 57.03W
01198
22.1
429
17.9
00179
+00002
5.0
5.0
21/05/06 05:__:__
52.5
2
4
BRA1
46 54.83N
031 10.34W
01208
22.2
406
16.9
00189
+00005
4.0
4.0
21/05/06 05:__:__
46.0
4
5
ABN2
46 49.24N
034 40.11W
01345
13.2
319
13.3
00326
-00048
3.0
3.0
21/05/06 18:__:__
45.0
5
6
MOVI
46 11.06N
034 23.93W
01348
18.7
442
18.4
00329
-00017
2.0
2.0
21/05/06 18:__:__
49.0
3
7
AUS1
47 21.64N
036 09.32W
01391
09.0
301
12.5
00372
-00072
1.0
1.0
21/05/06 21:__:__
3.5
7
ABN1 ABN AMRO ONE
ABN2 ABN AMRO TWO
BRA1 Brasil 1
ERIC Ericsson Racing Team
MOVI movistar
POTC Pirates of the Caribbean
DTF: distance to finish, SMG: Speed made good, DTL: distance to leader,
DTLC: distance to leader change; the difference between the distance from the boat to the leader taken at the time of the last six hour poll, and the distance from the boat to the leader at the previous poll
For further information:
Cameron Kelleher PR Director at race headquarters:
Tel: +44 1489 554 828, Mob: +44 7795 185 430
Email: cameron.kelleher@volvooceanrace.org
Camilla Green Press Officer Team ABN AMRO
Mob: +44 7970 746 482
Email: Camilla@pitchpr.co.uk
Lizzie Green Press Officer at race headquarters:
Tel: +44 1489 554 832, Mob: +44 7801 185 320
Email: lizzie.green@volvooceanrace.org
Sophie Luther Press Assistant at race headquarters
Mob: +44 7956 285548 email: sophie.luther@volvooceanrace.org
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