Emirates Team New Zealand Media Update: 24 hours until action for CAMPER

CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand is just 24 hours away from the start of the 2011/12 Volvo Ocean Race.

Leg One of the gruelling around the world race, a 6,500 mile stretch to Cape Town starts from Alicante, Spain at 1400h Saturday November 5 CET (0200h, Sunday November 6 NZT).

Skipper Chris Nicholson says that CAMPER is ready to go.

“We’ve been preparing and practising for this moment for over a year. The boat and the guys are in great shape, and we just want to get out there and prove the potential that we think we have.

“I feel that we’ve done everything we could to prepare the best that we can and now it’s just a matter of starting racing and doing the job we’re here to do.

“The Volvo Ocean Race is one of the greatest sporting challenges and I’m incredibly conscious of New Zealand’s amazing history in this race. We want to continue that history and do all the great Kiwi sailors that have gone before us proud.

“We’ve said time and time again how competitive the fleet is this time and we know that we will have to fight hard for every metre of advantage, but this is a strong boat, a strong crew and we’re backed up by a great shore operation.

“We are ready and confident that we will be competitive.”

CAMPER and the rest of the fleet are in for a challenging first 24 hours with 25 knots on the nose and a confused sea state forecast for the beat out of the Mediterranean.

“We know that we’re in for a hard and wet upwind ride to start with but we’ve done thousands of miles in this boat in those sorts of conditions around New Zealand so we know what to expect”, says Nicholson.

Leg 1 sees the teams take on the unpredictable Mediterranean, the tidal bottleneck of the Straits of Gibraltar and the strong northeasterly trade winds of the North Atlantic before facing the Doldrums.

Once through the Doldrums the teams will search out the southeasterly trade winds close to the Brazilian shore, hoping for a quick ride through the South Atlantic to Cape Town.

The leg start will be streamed live at http://new.livestream.com/volvooceanrace.