TEAM SANYA GET OFF ON A GREAT START IN THE ROLEX FASTNET RACE  Sunday 14th August, 2011 The day started with a forecast of 15 knots expected at the start and talk of a building breeze and perhaps a quicker race than anticipated yesterday so there was much excitement amongst the Team Sanya guys this morning in the final hours of preparation. The boat and team left the dock at 1030 sharp as planned and headed out to the Solent start area with the other hundreds of race and spectator boats. The wind strength had risen to around 20 knots by the start time the warning signal went at 1300. The three Volvo 70’s started with two other bigger boats, Rambler 100 and Leopard. Off the start line Team Sanya had an impressive start with Rambler to leewardand Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing to leeward of Rambler and closer inshore and Groupama slightly behind. Up the first part of the beat, the boats stayed in close contention with Abu Dhabi and Team Sanya exchanging the lead a few times on cross tacks and staying in tight combat. 
Around 20-25 minutes into the beat, a port tack boat GER 6002 did not see Team Sanya and caused them to avoid a collision and lose around 6-8 critical boat lengths giving Abu Dhabi the chance to push ahead. To follow the racing on the live tracker as they go into their first night, go to: http://fastnet.rorc.org/2011-fleet-tracking.html Blogs and updates from the team will be posted on: www.facebook.com/teamsanya ENDS For information about Team Sanya sailing team, please contact: Leslie Greenhalgh, Commercial/Marketing Director lesliegreenhalgh@teamsanya.com Tel +44 7795 483116 |
