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Volvo Ocean Race 2011/2012 - Leg 2
Start 11. Dezember 2011
www.volvooceanrace.com - Übersicht Leg2
Tagesvideo
December 19, 2011 - 1830 UTC Leg 2 Day 9
WE'RE DOWN BUT NOT OUT, SAYS TEAM SANYA SKIPPER
Team Sanya skipper Mike Sanderson promised his team would be back in the Volvo Ocean Race for Leg 3 to their home port of Sanya after suffering damage to part of their rigging early on Monday.
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.
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Groupama am 19.12.
Foto: Yann Riou
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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.&xnbsp;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.&xnbsp;&xnbsp;
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&xnbsp;February&xnbsp;of next year."
December 19, 2011 - 1000 UTC Leg 2 Day 9
TEAM SANYA LIMP TOWARDS MADAGASCAR
Leg 2 Report: 19/12/2011 10:05:02 UTCy
&xnbsp; DTL DTLC BS
1 SNYA 0.00 0.0 10.2 2 PUMA 104.10 51.0 16.2 3 CMPR 107.20 52.0 16.4 4 TELE 108.80 52.0 16.7 5 GPMA 156.40 50.0 15.1 6 ADOR 203.20 43.0 13.2
In a heavy airs manoeuvre earlier this morning, the crew of Team Sanya were able to save their boat’s mast when a vigilant crewman David Rolfe/NZL noticed a vital piece of rigging (D2) had detached from the mast. The team, who were leading at the time, secured the rig and are now heading west to Madagascar where they can assess the damage.
“The weather was turning for the better and so we were happy in our decisions and general progress,” said skipper Mike Sanderson/NZL. "We had been due to tack an hour earlier in the darkness, but had delayed that given the conditions. 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."The team are still sailing and have not suspended racing.Meanwhile, the reindexing five boats in the Volvo Ocean Race have broken free of the trough that hampered the progress of the fleet for most of the last week and have made the turn north. Average speeds over the previous three hours have been around the 13 - 16 knot mark.This is the first long period the fleet has had with consistent breeze. Only four nm separate PUMA (Ken Read/USA), CAMPER (Chris Nicholson/AUS) and Telefónica (Iker Martínez/ESP), who is in sight of CAMPER. A further seven miles back is Ian Walker and Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing’s Azzam, who has Groupama 4 159 nm to the east of them.While the crew of Sanya come to terms with the damaged rig and weigh up their options, the rest of the fleet is enjoying perfect sailing today, with bright sunshine and warm water spray.
December 19, 2011 - 0730 UTC Leg 2 Day 9
TEAM SANYA SUFFER DAMAGE TO RIGGING, head TO PORT FOR REPAIR
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Team Sanya suffered damage to part of their rigging early on Monday and are heading to a port in southern Madagascar in order to assess the damage and make a repair plan. No one has been injured and the crew are all safe.
Sanya noticed the damage to one of the stays on the mast during a sail change on Leg 2 from Cape Town to Abu Dhabi and contacted Race Management.
The boat is fully under control with the mast still upright and is still able to sail to shore.
“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 and team CEO 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.”
A spokesman for Dryad Maritime Intelligence Service said the port is not considered to be at high risk from piracy. &xnbsp; &xnbsp;
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