Yachting: Kiwi rescued from stricken movistar

New Zealander Stuart Bannatyne was one of 10 crew rescued from the Volvo Ocean Race yacht movistar when it had keel problems between New York and England yesterday.

The crew transferred to ABN Amro Two when movistar's keel pivot bearing broke away from the hull about 500km southwest of England.

The race website said crew waited for winds to drop below seven knots before using a liferaft to transfer crew between the boats.

Forecasts indicated winds of up to 50 knots were on the way, hastening the decision to abandon movistar.

Food and personal items were transferred with the crew and movistar was left with its generator running and communications system operational so it could be tracked.

Latest reports said ABN Amro Two was heading towards Portsmouth under escort by a fishing protection vessel.

With two legs still to go in the round-the-world race, ABN Amro One had enough points to claim overall victory when it was the first boat to arrive in Portsmouth on Sunday. It has won six of the past seven legs.

ABN Amro Two struck tragedy last week when sailer Hans Horrevoets was washed overboard.

ABN Amro One's New Zealand skipper, Mike Sanderson, said the leg to England was "hideous" from the start, and losing a teammate was a tragedy.

"He was a great sailor and will be tragically missed," Sanderson said.

"From the minute we got the message about the man overboard, I had a sinking feeling it might be one of us.

"We felt every minute that the guys were looking for him and they did an amazing job to get back to him.

"It was just tragic that it wasn't soon enough."

Sanderson said pushing on for the win was what Horrevoets would have wanted.

- NZPA