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Super Yacht Specialist


We Can Rebuild Her,
We Have the Technology


Since landing on a reef at
Cargados Carajos Shoals
in the middle of the Indian
Ocean during the stage from
Cape Town to Abu Dhabi on
November 29, it has been a
race for Team Vestas Wind to
re-join the Volvo Ocean Race.


Initially deemed a complete
loss, the team now is
rebuilding their boat at
Persico Marine and planning
for a return to the race in
Lisbon in June. Here’s an
update on March 12 from
Team Vestas Wind shore
manager Neil Cox ...


It’s been six weeks since we
arrived at the Persico boat
yard, and as the mountains of
Italy start to thaw, it’s also a
reminder of the tight timeline
we have closing in on us.


A lot has happened since
getting our boat here, and we


have ticked off some major
and minor milestones that are
hopefully positioning us to
rejoin the race as expected in
Lisbon.

We now have a new hull that
had its final cook on the 25th
of February, and the team
here at the yard are now busy
with all the prep work and
fitting of the internal structure
which will continue for some
time over the next two weeks.

Some of these structural
components are brand new
and have been built in the
background by all corners of
the VOR consortium. Others
we have been able to salvage
as we were able to extract
them in a careful enough
manner that they are more
than good enough to go back
into the boat.

This is all happening in parallel
with the repair work required
to the aft section of deck.

We received the new aft
section of cockpit late last
week from Multiplast and
now have it positioned on
the jig with the rest of our
original deck, being correctly
positioned and aligned
to be signed off by Race
Management.

Tom Kiff is prisoner of our
containers at the moment as
the boat has been stripped
bare. He is making sure
everything will be in the best
possible condition for when
we begin to refit the deck.

We will have a few other Team
members (Tony Rae, Tom
Johnson, Nicolai Sehested)
returning to Persico next
week, as the container of
gear we salvaged from the
wreckage has now arrived
from Mauritius, with all the
safety gear, sails, deck gear
and VOR-supplied equipment
to go over and set ourselves
up to get all these areas
correctly accounted for,
serviced and back together
for when we regroup as a
complete team.

These are still early days in
the overall picture, but we are
getting through it and we have
a few important checkpoints
coming up by the end of
the month to give us a fair
indication of how we
are going.

It’s certainly hard to be this far
away from the race course for
us all, but regardless, I hope
all the teams enjoy a safe
Southern Ocean leg – it’s
what the race has been built
around for so long and what
we all look forward to
hearing about
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