Team Sanya suffered damage to part of their rigging early today and are heading to a port in southern Madagascar in order to assess the damage and make a repair plan. No one has been injured and the crew are all safe.

Sanya damaged

Sanya limps to Madagascar for emergency repairs - photo Team Sanya/Volvo Ocean Race.



Sanya noticed the damage to one of the stays on the mast during a sail change on Leg 2 from Cape Town to Abu Dhabi and contacted Race Management. The boat is fully under control with the mast still upright and is still able to sail to shore.

“We were just out of the major breeze and changing sails from the J4 to the fractional zero and were in wind speeds of around 12-14 knots when we noticed a vital piece of rigging loose from the mast (D2)," said skipper and team CEO Mike Sanderson.

"We had had an awesome night’s racing and were totally hauling and making massive gains so we were very upbeat with our progress. The weather was turning for the better and so we were happy in our decisions and general progress. We had been due to tack an hour earlier in the darkness but had delayed that given the conditions and for sure if we had done that, the rig would have fallen over the side.

"As you can imagine we are totally gutted and can’t quite believe this has happened when everything was going so well.”

A spokesman for Dryad Maritime Intelligence Service said the port is not considered to be at high risk from piracy.

Written by: Gael Pawson
Gael Pawson is the editor of Yachts & Yachting Magazine and the founder of Creating Waves. A keen racer, she has sailed all her life, and started writing about the subject whilst studying journalism at university. Dinghies and small keelboats are her first loves, but she has cruised and raced a huge variety of boats in locations across the world.