On Sunday 9 March, Open 60 racing yacht Aviva arrived in Lisbon, Portugal having spent 42 days at sea in transit from New Zealand.
On Sunday 9 March, Open 60 racing yacht Aviva arrived in Lisbon, Portugal having spent 42 days at sea in transit from New Zealand. The 60-foot yacht was delivered on a large container ship via the Panama Canal, Savannah and Antwerp before arriving in Lisbon this weekend. Aviva's greeting party of Joff Brown, Harry Spedding, Rob Sleep, Martin Piquet and Craig Thompson will now prepare the boat to be sailed from Lisbon to the town of Cascais, only 20 miles along the Portuguese coastline.
Dee Caffari, Aviva's inspirational record-breaking skipper, bid farewell to Aviva from Wellington, New Zealand six weeks ago and has since been stepping up her personal fitness training and technical expertise. Caffari is now on route to Cascais, Portugal where she will meet up with the boat and team to start an intensive period of sailing and testing in preparation for the solo sailor's next challenge, the Artemis Transat.
Whilst in Cascais, Caffari and the shore team will be carrying out extensive tests on Aviva's keel following the discovery that Mike Golding's Ecover III, built in technical alliance with Aviva, has developed structural faults with its keel.
Dee Caffari said: "It's great to see Aviva has arrived safely in Portugal after such a long trip across the world. I can't wait to get out to Cascais and start sailing, so Aviva and I can really start to get to know each other. Once the keel has had the all clear we'll be trying out all the new sails and doing some overnight sailing in the Atlantic as well. After six weeks on dry land and lots of time in the gym I'm looking forward to being out on the water again."
For images of Aviva's arrival in Portugal log on to the images section of www.avivaoceanracing.com/.
-ends-
For further information contact:
Caroline Ayling
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7202 2840
Mobile: +44 (0)7801 351950
E-mail: carolinea@karen-earl.co.uk
Kelly Russell
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7202 2862
Mobile: 07786 516570
E-mail: kellyr@karen-earl.co.uk
Notes to editors:
Aviva plc
Aviva is the leading provider of life and pensions to Europe with substantial positions in other markets around the world, making it the world's fifth largest insurance group based on gross worldwide premiums at 31 December 2006.
Aviva's principal business activities are long-term savings, fund management and general insurance, with worldwide total sales of £41.5 billion and assets under management of £364 billion at 31 December 2006.
The Aviva media centre at www.aviva.com/media includes images, company and product information and a news release archive.