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Vestas Wind Aground


Hurts

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At 1510 UTC, Saturday, November 29, Team Vestas Wind informed Race Control that their boat was grounded on the Cargados Carajos Shoals, Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean. Fortunately, no one has been injured.

We are in contact with the boat to establish the extent of the damage and ensure the crew is given the support needed to enable it to deal with the situation.

The Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Reunion Island is aware of the problem.

The crew has informed us that it is currently grounded on a reef but nobody is injured. Volvo Ocean Race and Team Vestas Wind’s top priority is to make sure the crew is safe.

The crew has informed Race organisers that it now plans to abandon the boat as soon as possible after daybreak.

Team Alvimedica and two other vessels are in contact with Team Vestas Wind to assist.

We will give you more information as it becomes available.

 

Sounds like the VOR is down to 6 boats now

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From that screenshot it looks like one of the other boats (Dong Feng?) were pushing their luck too.

Kinda, but at least they went around it, definitely a curve, not a lucky straight line. Might have been visible in the daytime too?

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From that screenshot it looks like one of the other boats (Dong Feng?) were pushing their luck too.

Kinda, but at least they went around it, definitely a curve, not a lucky straight line. Might have been visible in the daytime too?

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One design is not an issue for me - It levels the playing field and will result in the best sailed boat winning, rather than those with the most $ winning in the design stage. It's been pretty close racing so far, but I think the lack of a Kiwi entry has really destroyed a lot of the interest here, as you said.

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I really like all the boats being different. It meant that each one had it's strong points, and you could sail different lines to take advantage of weather and wind which might be more favourable for your boat.

 

I tried to watch some of the reporting on U-tube but it was so so lame. So reality TV over produced. meh

 

the sailonline version is actually more fun.

 

One design has minimized the field.

 

I think it would be better to open it right up, get as many entries as possible. It's not even a rich man's regatta now, it's a sponsor regatta.

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They have always been sponsored entries, & don't think that opening it up would necessarily equate to more numbers. There were only 6 entries in the last event, five new builds, with the first leg having only 3 finishers, leg 5 having 4 finishers, & leg 6 five finishers. Despite the different designs the spread in the boats in the last race seems to be roughly similar, coming in to Auckland there were 2hrs from 2nd-6th after 5220nm.

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:thumbup: One design good, Team NZ choosing not to enter bad, we could have won this, unlikely to win the A/C.

The professional thing had to come, but ditching the classic Whitbread route took away interest for those who compare the classic events.It seems to be a meaningless course now to parade the sponsors. These boats are magnificent machines, and it was comparatively cheap this time $7 Million was the whole cost not just the boat. Some of the techniques from these boats do transfer down to the rest of us judging by some of the 'cruising' boats just leaving our shores for the Sydney to Hobart

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So has anyone go the lowdown on what caused the grounding? Presumably it’s a navigation error not gear failure etc.

The shoal they hit is charted & was successfully dodged by the other boats so what did Vestas do differently?

I would have guessed the blame would lie somewhere between the navigator, skipper, watch captain - whoever was responsible for checking where they were supposed to be at 4am. Was a poor watch handover a key factor?

It’s certainly a career limiting move for at least one sailor if not all 8.

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