Team Vestas Wind Yacht Aground, Crew Rescued

Published Dec 1, 2014 2:24 AM by The Maritime Executive

The Vestas Wind crew has been taken to Ile Du Sud after their yacht ran aground 400km north east of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean.

The yacht, skippered by Australian Chris Nicholson, was taking part in the Volvo Ocean Race. All nine crew members are safe, but the vessel has broken both rudders and suffered stern damage after striking a reef in the Cargados Carajos Shoals.

The crew abandoned ship overnight and waited in life rafts to be rescued.

"I'm extremely relieved that every one of the nine crew members are now are safe and that nobody is injured," race CEO Knut Frostad said in a statement. "That has always been our first priority since we first learned about the grounding."

Nicholson had been attempting to sail around a tropical cyclone during this second leg of the round-the-world race. This part of the journey involved sailing from Cape Town to Abu Dhabi.

The race began on October 11 at Alicante in Spain and will end at Gothenburg in Sweden in June. The yachts will cover 38,739 nautical miles in nine legs.