Camper, the round-the-world yacht that Team New Zealand will
sail in the Volvo Ocean Race, was relaunched in Auckland
today ahead of the next significant stage of its
preparations.
Skipper Chris Nicholson and his crew will go racing in the
21.m Volvo Open 70-class yacht for the first time next week
on the 1141-nautical-mile sprint from Auckland to Fiji.
It will be one of 19 boats in the fleet for this year's
event, which begins on June 4.
Team NZ said Camper, which they are campaigning on behalf of
the Spanish footwear company of the same name, would be in
full race mode.
The yacht would have a crew of 13, rather than the 11
permitted for the Volvo race, with syndicate managing
director Grant Dalton being one of the two additions on
board.
Camper was launched last month and has since toured New
Zealand and been on a 2000-nautical-mile journey to the
Chatham Islands and back as part of the qualifying process
for the Volvo race.
Nicholson said he was satisfied with the boat's reliability
after the work-out it had got.
"Now we are into tweaking systems and improving crew work so
that when we get to the start line in Alicante in Spain in
November we are ready to go," he said.
"The Fiji race is an early opportunity to bed in the watch
system and work together as a crew. If there are any
shortcomings we'll find them and have time to correct them."
Among the stops in the Volvo race is Auckland, where the
fleet will spend three weeks next March and April.
The race finishes off Galway, Ireland, in July 2012.
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