A race for their lives Team Sanya sails into piracy waters

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LOCAL LINK: Richard Mason, who grew up at Muriwai Beach, helming onboard Team Sanya during leg two of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12, from Cape Town, South Africa, to Abu Dhabi.

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With emergency repairs, secret stopovers and the threat of pirates, it is clear the Volvo Ocean Race is no ordinary competition.

And having assumed control of a battered ship with a skeleton crew, Muriwai Beach's Richard Mason arrived at The Maldive Islands on Friday morning.

With the threat of piracy out of Somalia and elsewhere, that location had been kept secret as a safe haven for boats.

Mason became the stand-in skipper for Chinese Volvo Ocean Race entrant Sanya and guided the boat the previously undisclosed Maldive Islands that was the finish of leg two, stage one on Thursday.

For the second consecutive leg, Team Sanya had pulled out with damage, this time with wrecked rigging after leading the fleet from Cape Town, the race's first stopover.

The plan was for the boats to sail from South Africa to the The Maldives for leg two, stage one. Boats would then be transported by ship to the northern Emirates before a speed race into Abu Dhabi as leg two, stage two.

However, Team Sanya was forced into port at Madagascar to fix the rigging problem, did not make the ship for transportation and did not sail in stage two. The team remained a fortnight repairing their D2, before resuming racing on January 7 with Mason at the helm.

Since then, Sanya has had to deal with a tropical cyclone, the Doldrums and some short-lived trade wind sailing as they strove to complete the lonely trek to the safe haven.

On Friday, the boat finally made it to the finish line in the Maldives and by Sunday was back in the race.

Early reports had Sanya leading the fleet as it makes its way to the team's home port of Sanya, China for leg three.

Mason could not be contacted on either of his two cellphones, when the Rodney Times tried calling on Friday.

However, shortly after arriving at the location he had spoken to volvooceanrace.com.

"I've done a lot of these races, but I tell you I've never done anything as strange as this," he said. "We haven't seen some of our teammates or competitors for four weeks now.

"We're very much looking forward to reuniting with the fleet."

Despite finishing last in the leg, Sanya gains four points for the first stage of leg two. Under race rules they will also collect one point for the second stage and a further two points for the Etihad Airways In-Port Race in Abu Dhabi.

- © Fairfax NZ News