Boat captain Liz Wardley in frightening accident in Volvo round the world in-port race
SO what do you do when you are nearly thrown overboard after being dragged across a boat at high speed and having your leg caught in a life line — calmly get on with things if you are Liz Wardley.
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SO what do you do when you are nearly thrown overboard after being dragged across a boat at high speed and having your leg caught in a life line - calmly get up and get on with things if you are Aussie sailor Liz Wardley.
Any critics of a new rule which gives women the chance to sail alongside their male counterparts in the Volvo round the world race need to meet self-described “tough nut” Wardley.
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The pint-sized sailor starred in a race drama during an in-port race in Portugal ahead of the second long leg of the race to South Africa.
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OUCH! 😫 @turntideplastic's @lizwardley's got her leg caught in a sheet in the @mirpuri_org In-Port Race – & it could have ended a lot worse! pic.twitter.com/PNUCn6Vdnv
— Volvo Ocean Race (@volvooceanrace) November 3, 2017
The frightening incident, which could have resulted in a far worse injury than the severe leg bruising she suffered, was caught on video with the boat captain of Turn the Tide on Plastic in obvious pain and shock but just gritting her teeth and getting on with her job.
“Thanks to everyone for your messages! I’m all good, it’ll take more than that to get rid of me,” she wrote on Facebook.
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Wardley is one of three Australian women in the Volvo roach which now sports a rule to encourage mixed-crew racing.
She is also one of its most experienced sailors - male or female - with two previous round the world campaigns to her name and renown for being one of the toughest competitors in the sport.
At just 19, in the deadly 1998 race, she became the youngest female to skipper her own yacht in the Sydney to Hobart, a race she has since done multiple times.
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“We were doing a gybe and I had to try and get the J1 [sail] through without twisting the battens around the forestay, and there was a lot of slack in the sheet. It went around both my legs and it started pulling me overboard and I got stuck in the lifeline,” Wardley said of the accident.
“I was just scared I was going to break my leg [but] a couple of people came to my rescue and got me untangled pretty quick, so thank you.”
The second leg of the Volvo round the world race starts early Monday, with multiple Olympian and world champion Chris Nicholson a late addition to the AkzoNobel crew for the 7000nm race from Lisbon to Cape Town starting early Monday.
More than a dozen Australian sailors are spotted throughout the fleet with Stacey Jackson and Tom Johnson on Vestas which won the opening leg of the race.