Volvo Ocean Race - 'Code red' situation for Puma team

by Volvo Ocean Race on 15 Mar 2012 Volvo Ocean Race competitor Puma Ocean Racing took delivery of a new daggerboard on Thursday, just hours before they were due to take part in official practice racing.

Ken Read's team found themselves in a 'code red' situation after arriving in Auckland with damage to one of Mar Mostro's two daggerboards with just three days to spare before hitting the water again.

A call to the Volvo Ocean Race's official logistics partner DHL triggered a chain of events that saw Puma's spare daggerboard shipped from Amsterdam to Auckland just in time.

'It was a code red moment,' said Puma Ocean Racing's General Manager Kimo Worthington. 'A case of 'just get it here, whatever the cost'.

'If something were to break in the Southern Ocean it would be really bad.'

Leg 5, which starts from Auckland on Sunday, will see the fleet race more than 6,700 nautical miles through the Southern Ocean and round Cape Horn to Itajaí in Brazil.

Volvo Ocean Race website