The Volvo Ocean Race yacht SEB which damaged her rudder and had to retire from the third leg of the race has been delivery sailed to Auckland.

SEB suffered severe rudder damages in the heavy winds of the second day of leg 3, on route for the Hobart pit-stop on the Sydney-Auckland leg. The lower of the two rudder bearings fitting the rudder to the hull broke lose from the hull and made the rudder vibrate and shake violently. The crew had to unfasten the rudder to avoid further damages to the hull, and had to assemble the emergency rudder to be able to sail.

“We looked at the different options available and decided to retire from this leg of safety reasons” Swedish Magnus Woxén reported. We did not want to risk it and carry on racing with emergency rudder in those Bass Strait weather conditions we had at the time.”

The crew decided to sail the boat back up to Eden, on the south-east coast of mainland Australia, for necessary repairs and then sailed to New Zealand. Having arrived, the boat will immediately be lifted out of the water to be thoroughly gone-through as preparation for leg 4, starting 27 January.