PeteMoran

Has there been any word on the repair-turn-around time? I saw on Farr's facebook page that they had a team on their way to HK.

Whatever has happened, it seems like the situation wasn't life or boat threatening serious which is what the VOR/Vestas statement says. Prodder and forestay damage I'd reckon. No choice but to motor it in. A VO65 sinking a fishing boat would be an extremely high energy collision for which you would expect with injuries and urgent diverts.

That spectacular fleet marshalling was f'king dangerous.

On the homepage (where it says Live Now) http://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/home.html

Dalton nailed it a few years ago when he said the "biggest problem with our sport is the ridiculous cost". What role does the international federation have in this? Surely we don't "need" two travelling multi-hull circuses (M32s and Extreme) or Fast 40s, Farr40s, Melges, TP52s, IMOCAs etc etc. Some consolidation is needed. The average age of club participants seems ever higher too.

Jackson, Salter, Signorini, Kirby all out? Years of experience there. Damn.

What did Mark Turner do to himself - try to saw his own leg off?

The ST-action is over, or the whole campaign? (Sorry, trying hard to catch up!)

In future, the AskoNobel/ST will be presented as a text-book example of how not to handle PR and sports-admin.

Dock-out show is presenting ST as the skipper, including a quick interview. Is there a serious suggestion that someone is going to deny them access to the boat?

Shouldn't there be 7 really well sailed, fully crewed, more capable boats than a double-handed previous gen 60-footer?? What would people reckon the SMA budget is? Anyway, it re-inforces for me why VOR won't repeat sailing with the Sydney-Hobart fleet again, and probably do Fastnet reluctantly. Thankfully for them too that Monster Project is low budget and the other VO70s are scattered elsewhere.

Can anyone confirm the config of IMOCA 60 SMA? Is she still a previous gen machine non-foiler (ie the old Macif)? And was she double-handed? Seems like VORs worst nightmare to me if that's the case.

Congrats!! How far out are they booked? 2 years!

Whereabouts do you live Pete? We're in Fremantle.

Anyone recall the period pre-race that Vestas arrived last round? I seem to recall lots of chat that it was an extremely difficult task to announce and practice with such a short run into the event? Aren't we already in that window? I have grave fears for this round, perhaps they should delay 'til 2018?