Rigging problem for Sanya

Mike Sanderson's VO70 heading for Madagascar

Team Sanya reported into race headquarters early this morning that they had suffered damage during the night to part of their rigging (D2 intermediate shroud) and are having to head to a port in Southern Madagascar in order to assess the damage and make a repair plan. All the team are safe and well, no one has been injured and the race boat is fully under control with the mast still upright and the boat still able to sail to shore.

Mike Sanderson, CEO and Skipper of Team Sanya, advised on the situation and background to the incident: “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 shroud). We had just been through an awesome night’s racing and were totally hauling and making massive gains, so we were very upbeat about 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.”

The team had now got the boat tidied up and they have secured the rig in a safe manner as they make their way towards a port in Southern Madagascar. The shore team and Volvo Ocean Race officials are assessing the port options and are in constant contact with the team on the boat.