Volvo Ocean Race- Nicholson tells of being shipwrecked + Video

by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com on 1 Dec 2014 Australian skipper, Chris Nicholson, spoke on Sunday night of his immense pride at the way his Team Vestas Wind crew came through the ordeal of being grounded and being forced to abandon their boat in complete darkness on a remote Indian Ocean reef.

The shore crew from Team Vestas Wind have arrived in Mauritius and will travel to the Ile du Sud and the site of the beached Team Vestas Wind to see if the yacht can be salvaged.

In a conversation with Mark Covell of Volvo Ocean Race, Chris Nicholson, 45, said he had to make 'the number one toughest decision of my life' to leave the stricken Volvo Ocean 65 in the small hours of the morning after it was effectively beached on the reef on an archipelago of islands called St. Brandon, 430 north-east kilometres from Mauritius.

He was interviewed by volvooceanrace.com on Sunday night as he surveyed the idyllic, but remote, island of Íle du Sud, where he was transported with the rest of his crew to safety as day broke following a night of drama.

'It’s the most beautiful night I’ve ever seen,' he said. 'And last night was one of the worst nights that I have ever seen.'

Nicholson, from Lake Macquarie, New South Wales, continued: 'We’re kind of literally shipwrecked It’s a unique experience going through it.'




Team Vestas Wind struck a coral reef at dusk on Saturday evening at a speed of close to 20kts. The boat came to an immediate stop fortunately without injuring any of her crew.

When you talk about the tough decisions you have to make in life, I have to say that was number one for me, and it’s one of those ones where, okay, we hit the rocks and we had massive damage. The immediate concern was just for people to be able to hang onto the boat and buy time until the situation got better.

'But by that, the situation’s not getting better, basically the boat has to destroy itself to end up more on the rocks and out of the breaking waves. I can’t begin to describe how hard it was literally just to hang on.

'It was never, ever my intention to get off the boat in the dark. I just did not want to do it and that was the intention right from the start - but unfortunately when we hit the reef it was just dark so we had to spend 7-8 hours trying to hang on till daylight and we probably would have run, I dunno, 15 or 20 drills how we were going to do it. We practised it throughout the night, always with the intention of never needing to do it, and had to make the call one and a half or two hours before daylight, when we got off.

The ‘massive pounding’ of the waves eventually told and Nicholson decided he had no option but to abandon ship, the most dreaded words a skipper can utter.

He and his crew then waded across the reef in knee-deep water in their boots before finding a mercifully dry spot where they waited for a coastguard RIB to take them to Íle du Sud and safety.

Nicholson, who at times struggled with his emotions during the 20-minute long interview, said the spirit of his crew after such a blow had stunned him. 'I always believed that we were a strong team.

'My major concerns are obviously for the well-being of my crew, and also everyone who may actually have felt for them last night as well. Some of my first phone calls after colliding with the reef, once I let Race Control know, were asking (Team Vestas Wind Shore Manager) Neil Cox to get the families informed so that they knew what was going on. During the course of things we lost all electrical supply, we lost satphone coverage, and the old snowball thing was happening. I can only imagine what was happening with the families.

'So that’s my immediate concern and also that we need to recover this vessel as much as we possibly can.

'We're going to be working obviously all tomorrow removing all ropes and as much wiring and everything as possible from the boat. And that will lead the way with whatever final decision needs to be made in regards to what we do with the boat.

'So that we’ll all do tomorrow, and then I think on Tuesday morning, we make a 20-hour boat trip back to Mauritius where I’ll catch up with Neil Cox. ‘Coxy’ is already there, I spoke to him just before you Mark and he’s under way, talking with salvage crews, and got to make these decisions as to what can and cannot be done with the boat.

Nicholson was also amazed that the boat survived the impact without breaking up immediately.

'We made a mistake, which led to what happened last night, but I’ve been blown away by the way the guys dealt with the situation, trying to make things as right as possible today. They make me so proud.'