CAMPER triumph in Friday’s Pro-Am

The booming voice of helmsman/trimmer Tony Rae was the motivating factor for the sailing novices who helped power CAMPER to victory in Friday’s Pro-Am, which Team Telefónica sat out because of rigging issues.

A split points decision saw CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand claim the win on count-back over PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG after three races in perfect sailing conditions.

To check out the live video replay of Friday’s Pro-Am action click HERE:
http:/new.livestream.com/volvooceanrace/sanyaproam

CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand, skippered by Chris Nicholson from Australia in the Pro-Am Race in Sanya - PAUL TODD/Volvo Ocean Race

CAMPER skipper Chris Nicholson said the win was as much a delight for the guests as it was for the team ahead of tomorrow’s Sanya Haitang Bay In-Port Race.

“We had some terrific guests on board, some who had sailed before who were put to task by Trae,’’ he said. “It was just a great day to sail. We had good starts so hopefully that will carry through to tomorrow.”

More than 130 guests took part in the experience of a lifetime racing on board the Volvo Open 70s including local CCTV4 reporter Hao Xin who raced on board Team Sanya.

“I’m really afraid,’’ she said before stepping on board for the third race. “We were on board CAMPER filming yesterday and we had a few frightening moments, especially when the boat was changing directions. Today is windy so it’s raised my concern again.”

Team Sanya finished fifth, Groupama sailing team placed fourth and Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing claimed a podium finish with third place.

Team Telefónica opted to continue to work on their new rigging that their shore crew tuned on Thursday.

Skipper Iker Martínez said while his team would not be racing they would not disappoint their guests, instead giving them a front row look into the preparations for an ocean race.

“We have special guests and we know that they are really looking forward to it, but we are not going to rush anything,’’ he said. “We’ve got to do what we’ve got to do properly and calmly.

“We’ll just go for a sail and our guests will find out what a day of adjusting the mast is like, which is also very interesting.”

Abu Dhabi Ocean Race had also considered withdrawing from the Pro-Am on Friday morning after the shore crew found three one metre long, two centimetre wide scratches on their keel bulb.

Technical shore manager Mike Danks took an early morning dive to inspect the damage and concluded it was likely caused by a brief running aground during practice racing.

Danks said the team considered the time-heavy task of hoisting the yacht out of the water to fix the scratches, but they were fortunately able to work underwater to sand out the problem areas.

“The boat’s been aground at some stage and we have some scratches on the bulb paint so we went down this morning to have a dive and try to sand most of them out to try and avoid lifting the boat out of the water if we can,’’ he said.

“The scratches happened some time yesterday, it’s quite unfortunate, but there’s nothing we can do about it.

“They’re not that deep, just surface scratches really, just more a frustration than a problem. It’s 99 per cent fixed at the moment, we just have to do another small dive tonight then it will be 100 per cent.”

Articles about the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12.
Leg 1. | Leg 2. | Leg 3.

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Articles about Legends Regatta.

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Amazing Episodes from the Race 2008-09 / Videos.

Source: http://volvooceanrace.com

The VENUES of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12:
The 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race will start with the In-Port Race on 29 October in Alicante, Spain and the route will go to Cape Town, Abu Dhabi, Sanya, Auckland and on to Itajaí. Next stop is Miami and then across the Atlantic to Lisbon followed by Lorient and Galway.

1 Alicante 2 Cape Town 3 Abu Dhabi 4 Sanya 5 Auckland

6 Itajaí 7 Miami 8 Lisbon 9 Lorient 10 Galway

The Miami Race Village MAP and the Schedule of Events

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Posted by nauticweb on February 17, 2012. Filed under News, Regatta-PORTS, Regattas, Regattas with Picture, Volvo Ocean Race. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry