Team Vestas Wind WILL return

Ship wrecked VO65 to be rebuilt by Persico

Following the recovery of its VO65 from a mid-Indian Ocean reef just before Christmas, Team Vestas Wind has announced plans to rebuild its severely damaged boat and will return to the Volvo Ocean Race by June.

The blue VO65 is currently being assessed by experts in Malaysia. It will then be transported by Race partners Maersk Line to Italy and then taken to Persico in Bergamo for repair.

Skipper Chris Nicholson said the condition of the boat had built confidence that it could be fixed and returned to competition before the Volvo Ocean Race concludes in Gothenburg: “We got the boat off the reef in better condition than we thought possible. There are large portions of the deck that can be reused – 70 to 80% – and a lot of other components within the structure. We’ll rebuild our boat just as we rebuild our hopes and dreams.”

The aim is to return the boat to the race in Lisbon ready for the leg 8 start on 7 June.

Nicholson continued: “It’s really going to hit hard tomorrow night, not necessarily on the start gun tomorrow when the boats start (1000 UTC) but tomorrow night. That’s when you always know you’re back in an ocean race – the first night. Until now we’ve been focused on how we can clean up everything on the reef, the best job that we can do getting the boat back and then ultimately relying and trusting on Vestas and Powerhouse to hopefully allow us to get us back in the race. Now that that’s done, hopefully mentally we can be in a different phase now to rebuild everything that we’ve hoped for.”

Team Vestas Wind CEO Morten Albæk has told his skipper that the ultimate plan will be not just to return for the eighth leg start from Lisbon to Lorient but give the six other boats in the fleet a run for their money after that.

“That,” he said, “will be real success.”