With the start of what often is the most gruelling leg of the Volvo Ocean Race just days away, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing may have to set sail without Adil Khalid.
Leg 5 begins Sunday, and when the six-boat fleet leaves Auckland for Brazil they will cross some of the most volatile ocean on the planet in the Southern Ocean.
At 6,776 nautical miles it is the longest of the nine legs and seen by many to be a critical one in what has been a closely fought race.
Azzam are the race’s overall leaders, having won the first leg and finished on the podium in each of the next three. They were second into Auckland.
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Khalid, in his second VOR, has been a key member of the crew and is the sole Emirati in the race. But he picked up a debilitating stomach bug last month, two nights before the start of the fourth leg from Sanya, a bug that had worked its way through the rest of the crew during the China stopover.
That forced Khalid to withdraw hours before the start and Azzam to recruit Alex Higby, a member of the on-shore crew team, to take his place on-board. Khalid returned to the UAE, where he had been recovering and regaining his strength.
He has rejoined the crew in Auckland as they prepare for the start of Leg 5, but it is understood that Khalid is not yet back to full strength. He is likely to have a fitness test over the next few days before a decision is taken nearer the end of the week.
Azzam have an official reserve in waiting – Louis Sinclair, from Antigua – should Khalid be unable to sail.
If that is the case, it will be the third successive leg in which skipper Ian Walker has been forced to make a crew change.
Almost every other boat has an official rotation policy in place where crew have come and gone over various legs.
It is mostly an acknowledgement of the rigours of the race, though in cases such as Race Team Dongfeng, it is done with the specific purposes of enabling their young Chinese sailors to gain vital experience.
Azzam have not had an official policy in place, although Walker had warned in September, before the race began, that rotation would be an issue.
The Abu Dhabi boat has always had reserves and a big enough squad to account for changes to crew, but Walker said in Cape Town that he was “old fashioned” and preferred one crew to stick together and sail around the world.
He was forced to replace Phil Harmer on Leg 3 from Abu Dhabi to Sanya after Harmer injured his wrist and then was struck down with tonsillitis while they sailed from Cape Town.
Neal McDonald, the veteran British sailor and Azzam’s performance director, stood in as his replacement.
osamiuddin@thenational.ae
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