VOR: Telefonica Black Sets Sail for Singapore

by Volvo Ocean Race media

Telefonica Black face a race against time to join the fleet for leg five of the Volvo Ocean Race after setting sail at the end of the week for Singapore.

The team had been docked in Subic Bay in the Philippines for five days since a cracked hull wrecked their leg four trip from Singapore to Qingdao.

The severity of the damage had been rated as a "three or a four out of 10" by the team's shore boss Campbell Field, but after some repairs the boat returned to the water on Friday and is expected to reach Singapore by the middle of next week.

Assuming Telefonica Black arrive in the leg four start port on February 4, it will leave them just 10 days to complete any remaining repairs and reach Qingdao, from where the fleet will depart for the 12,300-nautical mile leg five race to Brazil on February 14.

Given the obstacles in their way, most observers would rate the team as a long-shot to be on the start line for leg five. No one from the team was prepared to comment as yet about when the boat will rejoin the race.

Field explained that Telefonica Black had initially suffered from a "compression failure on the starboard side sheerline". He added: "It's a crack about two metres long that runs from the sheerline to the waterline. It's a big job and there is going to be a lot of work to repair it.

"It's not really that there was a big failure and a two-metre hole in the side of the boat. There is a part that failed and then the area around it yielded like you would expect. I'm looking at it and can say the area that failed is no more than the size of a Frisbee. The rest is consequential damage."

The hull damage has been fixed to the point where the team feels it can safely take it to Singapore under its own power. Whether it undergoes further repairs there, or is shipped to Qingdao or Rio de Janeiro remains to be seen.

Volvo Ocean Race