"That takes a lot of courage," Boris Herrmann attests to his co-skipper Will Harris on a day of high tension on board the "Malizia - Seaexplorer". Herrmann himself is open about his fear of heights. When he had to go up the mast during his Vendée Globe solo mission on the night of 27 November 2020 because his mast lock was blocked, it pushed him to his limits and beyond. He defied the fear with a lot of adrenaline in his body.
The repair processes are meticulously thought out and planned
On leg three of the Ocean Race, Will Harris took on the difficult task of carrying out the necessary work on the mast. Originally, Team Malizia had wanted to start the difficult repair work at first light, which had been necessitated by a 30-centimetre-long crack. This had occurred when the latch lock had broken the day before and Code Zero had come from above.
All the repair steps had been thought through and planned in detail in advance by the technical team on land. Firstly, however, the start of the repair had to be postponed due to the heavy swell. The dangers of working in the mast would have been too great for Will Harris.
Everyone has their task, there is no room for error
The aim of the operation is to laminate carbon fibre fabrics over the damaged mast. While the repair material is being prepared below deck, navigator Nico Lunven keeps the boat on course. On-board reporter Antoine Auriol documents all the work. Boris Herrmann coordinates the processes and communicates with the technical team, while Rosie Kuiper prepares the laminate. All work follows the strict instructions of the technical team, who are on call to answer any further questions.
Three layers of carbon fibres must be prepared. As there are not an infinite number of these in the spare parts bags, there is no room for error or waste. Will Harris volunteers to go up the mast and starts preparing the surface. There is little wind, but the swell is still chaotic. The waves are around three metres high, making the repair a real challenge.
With flex, determination and a headset in the mast
Will has to sand the damaged area with an angle grinder to create a roughened surface to which the laminate adheres optimally. The process takes well over an hour, during which Harris is repeatedly pressed against the mast by the swinging of the rig. He is quickly covered in carbon dust during the sanding process.
The team communicates with Will via the Bluetooth headsets. This allows them to stay in contact with him and pass on his questions directly to the technical team. Will is then given a short break before he has to go back up the mast to apply the laminate to the prepared area. Now the race against the clock begins.
Will Harris works non-stop for several hours in the mast
Once the resin has been applied to the carbon fibre fabric, there are 25 minutes before it starts to react. Will goes into the mast to apply Spabond. He then signals to the team below that he is ready to receive the first layers of carbon fibre. Rosie starts preparing the resin at zero minutes. The carbon fibre layers lie on a plastic sheet and are soaked in resin one after the other. This takes about ten minutes.
Prepared in this way, the clutch is placed in a bucket and pulled up to Will. In the meantime, 15 minutes have passed. Will applies the first layer to the mast and informs the team below that he is ready. Only then can Rosie start mixing the next batch of resin for the second clutch and then the third. The process takes several hours in total. Will is in the mast throughout.
Back to old strength or not? The decision will be made on Friday
With the application of the last layer, Will Harris removes the plastic film and rolls all the air bubbles out of the fabric with a laminating roller. Will completes the lengthy process in the pitch black of night with the light from his head torch. After six to twelve hours, the area should be cured. On Friday morning, another Malizia crew member will go into the mast to check the area.
The ideal goal would be achieved if the mast can be loaded to the maximum again after the repair. If this desired state cannot be achieved, the team can still continue sailing with a small headsail and a reduced mainsail (one reef). When Will Harris is finally back on deck on this long Thursday, Boris Herrmann says: "Epic teamwork, thank you for all your support! Now all we can do is keep our fingers crossed and wait and see if it goes well."
The sporting action in the Ocean Race has taken a bit of a back seat of late in view of the breakage and excitement on board the boats with German participation. The decimated fleet continues to be dominated by Kevin Escoffier's Swiss team Holcim - PRB led the way. The crew were the only ones to escape the doldrums and are speeding away. Abby Ehler said: "We are enjoying incredibly beautiful sailing conditions under blue skies."
On the danger of pushing the boat too hard with an ocean race crew as opposed to the solo sailors, Abby Ehler said: "It's hard to find the right balance between sailing fast and protecting the boat. This boat wants to take off. We're already sailing with a reduced sail area and slightly retracted foils, but this boat is like a racehorse. And we are competitors at heart, we want to push. Just not so hard that we jeopardise the boat."
"Holcim-PRB" rushes away, Team Guyot approaches Cape Town
"Holcim - At the start of race day five, "PRB" had built up a lead of 380 nautical miles over Charlie Enright's US team 11th Hour Racing on the queen leg along the three capes with a 24-hour average speed of 18.4 knots. Their 24-hour average speed in light winds was 4.3 knots. On the evening of 2 March, Team Malizia was 489 nautical miles behind "Holcim - PRB" fell behind. Team Biotherm had accumulated 537 nautical miles behind the leaders in the "doldrums prison". Guyot Environnement - Team Europe, meanwhile, still had 380 nautical miles to go to the stage harbour in Cape Town, where the boat is to be repaired.
