Two of the six teams currently en route to Cape Town in Volvo Ocean Race have chosen the Marine Bean from Coast New Zealand to provide a little luxury in an otherwise Spartan environment dominated by unforgiving carbon fibre.

Camper Team New Zealand and Team Sanya have both shipped Marine Beans aboard their state-of-the-art Volvo Open 70s.   At this level, space and weight are at a premium, but the Marine Bean is considered essential gear for the on-watch navigation team.

The Volvo Ocean Race is notoriously unforgiving, but the Marine Bean has been here before, having travelled through high latitudes and mountainous seas aboard Open 60s, Mini Transats, a record-breaking Transpac single-handed catamaran and this year’s winner of the VELUX solo round-the-world race, Brad Van Liew’s ECO 60, Le Pingouin.

If the Marine Bean is tough enough to survive aboard a Volvo 70, you can rest assured it will survive on your deck – and of course we stand behind this boast with a 5 year guarantee against fading a deterioration.

Our commiserations to Kiwi skipper Mike Sanderson and Team Sanya, whose boat suffered hull damage just hours after the start.  With luck, they’ll re-join the race in Cape Town, where a new hull section is being rapidly assembled. 

Best of luck to Camper (currently in second place behind Telefonica) and the remaining teams as they close on Cape Town this week.