Camper, the round-the-world yacht that Team New Zealand will sail in the Volvo Ocean Race, has been relaunched in Auckland ahead of the next significant stage of its preparations.
Skipper Chris Nicholson and his crew will go racing in the 21m Volvo Open 70-class yacht for the first time next week onthe 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."
Nicholson's ideal weather for the race is a start from Auckland in a moderate south-westerly and hook into the south-easterly trades as they get closer to Fiji.
He's looking for a following wind on the return voyage to Auckland. "We have some down-wind sails that we want to test and a good, long run would be welcome change to the upwind sailing we experienced during the qualifying sail."
A fleet of 19 will line up for the 2011 edition of the race, with a mix of yachts ranging from the historic Maxi Whitbread Lion New Zealand, to Team Vodafone Sailing competing on their 60ft trimaran. 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.
