As the reality of what happened this morning, when Hans Horrevoets was washed overboard from ABN AMRO TWO begins to dawn, tributes from all over the world are flooding in to race headquarters. Although everyone is shocked and saddened by the accident, the crews of the seven boats racing in leg seven of the Volvo Ocean Race are particularly shattered by the loss of their friend.

As part of a two boat programme, the skipper and crew of ABN AMRO ONE wrote:

“Today it is very hard to write, what a terrible, terrible 12 hours we have just had. Hearing the news that Hans (Horrevoets) had gone over the side and that one of our sailing team was in the water just gave you a very sickening feeling. It is a sailor’s worst nightmare.

“Over the past two years we have grown as a very big family at Team ABN AMRO, and those of you out there that knew Hans will agree that he was just the most lovely team player and family man, all we can do here is think of Petra his wife, Bobbi his little girl, and the rest of Hans’ family, who were so supportive of him being in the race.

“We have backed off another level, we have gone with a fractional gennaker and a reef and we will just monitor the pace, for sure we need to be very careful on board as emotions are very close to the surface. I feel the pressure more than ever to get the husbands, the dads, and the fiancés and boyfriends in to their families in one piece, and that’s all good for Black Betty as well. We have to keep racing though, as otherwise all that Hans has worked for over the last couple of years will be wasted, and we know that he wouldn’t want that.

“It’s not really possible to deal with it personally out here, so that will have to wait a few days until we get in. We need to now get all the boats safely tied up to the dock after these next few days of windy running, and give ourselves time to grieve the loss of a very good friend.

“To Petra, Bobbi and all of Hans’ family, I can’t say enough how very, very sorry and sad we are, our thoughts and prayers go out too you.”

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