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Sanya dockside after reaching New Zealand
Team Sanya are back on dry land after reaching Tauranga in New Zealand on Tuesday.
Sanya were forced to turn around four days into the 6,700 nautical mile leg after one of their rudders broke in huge seas east of New Zealand.
Mike Sanderson’s team notified race control that they were suspending racing on Leg 5 from Auckland to Itajaí, Brazil, at 2036 UTC on Monday, arriving in Tauranga around 0830 UTC.
The team announced yesterday that the boat will be shipped to Savannah in the United States and then sailed to Miami ahead of Leg 7.
"Sails are now de-battened, things are drying out on deck and we have had our last freeze-dried meal for a while," MCM Andres Soriano reported.
"Although a bit sad and a bit strange, we don’t let that occupy our minds too much and just concentrate on moving forward with what we can do next."
"We look forward to seeing our shore team tonight and reuniting with friends and loved ones. The next few days will be packed with action as we prepare the boat to be loaded on a ship and you can be sure that we will keep you updated on the progress."
Skipper Mike Sanderson added: “We will make it happen and Team Sanya will be back in action before you know it.”
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Windyness, I agree last vendee was much more interesting than VOR, more boats, thirll of making mistakes, with MJ giving lessons to competitors while passing by. This looks like train race, but some of them break from time to time. In-port and starts are really interesting to watch, then you wait for boats to break.
Not meaning to take away anything from the sailors in this race, but this is no longer "the Whitbread". Just look at the numbers of responses from sailors on this site and you'll see a distinct drop in support of the current racing format. This is NOT the race it once was. I'm no longer even bothered with following it any more. And I say this as someone that has raced on ocean passages. I love ocean racing, but don't really care about this farce any more. The Vendee is a much greater test, and far more interesting.
This edition of VOR seems to me more like survival than racing. Boat rules seem to be too fragile for the hard seas. All boats except Groupama broke, some of them twice, fortunately no-one has been hurt. We want to see them sail, not repair boats in south pacific. Knut, more safety is needed obviously.
I've a feeling the next Volvo should forget about sailing and focus instead on who can ship cargo and containers around the world fastest.
Two of six still racing. The Volvo 70's are not built for this enviroments. Dieter
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