Delta Lloyd to skip fifth leg and go to Rio

SAILING/VOLVO OCEAN RACE:AS THE aftershocks from the fourth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race continue to be felt here, the Dutch/Irish Team Delta Lloyd has announced that it will retire from this leg in Taiwan, where the 70-footer took refuge last week after storm-damage.

The winning boat from the last edition of the race is expected to be shipped to Rio de Janeiro, the venue for the start of the sixth leg, this morning, where repair work will be carried out in time to resume the race programme.

Once the team officially notifies the race director of its retirement, Delta Lloyd should be assigned two points for its “Did Not Finish” status in leg four.

That will move the team up to seventh overall.

On Saturday, the sound of 600 drums and cheers from a crowd of well-wishers greeted skipper Ian Walker and the crew of Green Dragon when they sailed into port here.

Having defeated storm-force winds but being seriously damaged, the 11-strong crew claimed fourth place for the leg and regained fourth overall at the half-point of the 39,000-mile race.

After a brief, emotional reunion with family and friends on the dockside, Walker and his crew were led along a replica Great Wall of China.

They then passed lines of drummers three-deep amidst a press scrum before being dressed in traditional warrior costume for the official welcome ceremony.

For, although fourth in the leg, it was a special welcome bestowed on the Green Dragon by its adoptive second home-port alongside Galway.

Built in China, part-funded by Chinese sponsors and carrying the first Asian crew-member to participate in this race, this was a special bonus for the New Year celebrations.

But there was a palpable air of relief mixed with the celebrations.

In Green Dragon’s case, it was a relief just to complete the stage and take whatever points available just to deliver on promises to sponsors and supporters of the team.

“We’re here, thank God!” said a relieved Walker.

“Whatever else happened, we really had to get here.”

With the ceremonies over and as hamburgers and beers were being served to the crew, the full story of just how bad conditions were in the leg started to emerge.

“The nearest we came to disaster was the forestay breaking – that we had the least control over,” said Walker.

“After that, we were never going to be a racing force on this leg because we couldn’t use our headsails.”

But competition had already become a secondary consideration as first, survival, and then longer-term considerations of the rest of the race came into play.

“A lot of the decisions we made were all based around how far we were from land, can the boat survive these conditions, where’s the nearest helicopter!” said Ian Moore, the team navigator from Carrickfergus.

“We always had to ensure that safety considerations were taken into account for every decision we made on the way here.

But the hero of the day was Guo “the cannonball” Chuan, the team’s media crew-member who took the helm entering his home-port, having sailed with Green Dragon since joining the boat in Galway last July.

“It was really a dream and now it’s a dream come true,” he said. “It’s unforgettable.”