Yachting: Smashed yacht may yet rejoin Volvo race

Team Vestas Wind's yacht, which smashed into a reef near Mauritius, has been salvaged and is now on a container ship on its way to Malaysia before it heads to Italy. Photo / Shane Smart

Hope is building that a yacht that smashed into an Indian Ocean reef with two Auckland sailors on board will rejoin the Volvo Ocean Race.

Veteran yachties Rob Salthouse and Tony Rae flew from Auckland to Abu Dhabi at the weekend for a bitter-sweet ceremony to mark the completion by six other boats of the second leg of the renowned round-the-world race, from Cape Town.

Their own vessel, which hit the reef about 420km northeast of Mauritius head-on at 19 knots (35km/h) on November 29, has been lifted on to a container ship amid hope it may be able to be repaired in time to rejoin at least some of the race's final stages.

The pair were home for Christmas, but due to meet up with the rest of the ill-fated Team Vestas Wind VOR65's nine-member crew for today's prize-giving in Abu Dhabi.

Team Vestas Wind's boat grounded on the Cargados Carajos Shoals, Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean. Photo / Marc Bow

Mr Salthouse's brother Dean, an Auckland boat-builder, said it should be worth their Danish wind energy sponsors' while to have the stricken vessel repaired back in Europe "even if they just get it back in [the race] for the last legs. It's all about getting value for the sponsors, at the end of the day."

The third leg of the race, from Abu Dhabi to China, starts on January 3 and the field is expected to reach Auckland in late February or early March.

Although nobody expects Team Vestas Wind to be back in the running by then, there will still be five more legs before the race ends in Gothenburg, Sweden, in June.

A race spokeswoman said last night that the yacht was on its way on a Maersk Line container ship to Malaysia, before heading to Italy.

The crew lay their life jackets and other belongings on the beach to dry. Photo / Marc Bow

Dean Salthouse said his brother had yet to receive an update on when it might be realistic to expect the boat to be shipshape again, after a delicate operation last week in which it was floated off the reef after having its keel cut off.

But Team Vestas Wind has promised an announcement before the start of the next leg "on the outlook regarding a potential return to the ... race".

Australian skipper Chris Nicolson and the team's shore manager, Neil Cox, were helped by residents of the nearby Ile du Sud after making good a promise to return to the reef with a salvage boat to at least clean it up even if there was little left of their yacht.

"They wanted to ensure they didn't do any environmental damage because it's a pretty beautiful place," Mr Salthouse said.

Although the crew all survived the grounding unscathed, after wading through knee-deep water in moonlight to reach a rock from which they were rescued by a coastguard vessel, the risk of a shark attack was high on their minds.

"Sounds like the shark thing up there was pretty nasty."

Although his brother was the watch captain, he was off-duty and in his bunk when the yacht grounded. But that didn't spare him a ribbing from family at home over Christmas.

"I did say if he needed a hand I could help him round the house so he didn't run into anything," Mr Salthouse said of his brother, 49, a veteran of three previous Volvo races.

He and Mr Rae, 53, who has done four Volvo races, came second under Mr Nicolson's command in the Camper in 2012. But that had its drama: Mr Rae broke two ribs before the yacht's bow was damaged in the Southern Ocean.