Route du Rhum: Boris Herrmann comes within a hair's breadth of breaking the mast!
Andreas Fritsch
· 14.11.2022
The German describes in a video from on board what exactly happened:
"The J2 sail, which is also one of the structural forestays that holds the mast, had detached from the mast. It swung round and hit the cabin roof. At the time, I was sailing through heavy seas and the boat was bouncing over the waves. Then the alarm went off for insufficient forestay tension. In the first rush of adrenaline, thoughts start racing through your head: 'Has the furler broken? Has the safety pin slipped out? Or the (rope) loop? Do I have to give up the race? How can I fix this? The thoughts race through your head. The first thing I did was to send a message to the technical team. An improvised solution would have taken hours. Then I put on oilskins and the lifejacket with lifebelt to go to the foredeck."
"Then Edwin (Delaat, the team's rigger, ed.) called back and gave me instructions for a fix that he said should take 20 minutes: I should take a 4 mm Dynerma line and use it and the sheet to catch the free-swinging forestay and pull it towards the bow. Then I loosened the backstays and tilted the mast forwards so far that I could reinstall the forestay. That actually worked really well. I was so relieved. Afterwards, it turned out that the backstay's constrictor clamp had slipped through. As a result, the mast had fallen forwards and the loop on the furler had come loose. I have now secured it."
Luckily, the second forestay further in held the mast and Boris noticed the whole thing so quickly. Otherwise the mast would certainly have come down.
The field of the Open 60 fleet is still fighting its way south-westwards on the wind, gradually towards the trade winds, and is just passing the Azores. But the field is splitting: the leading half, which was already further south, can already sail south-westwards, while the back half of the field has to sail westwards, as they have a different wind direction and more wind. Boris Herrmann is currently in 13th place and his gap to the leader Charlie Dalin has now grown to around 250 miles. He is still sailing confidently with an 80-mile lead ahead of his rival Jérémie Beyou with "Charal" and Thomas Ruyant's "Linked Out". He is closely followed by the two new boats "Holcim" from Kevin Escoffier and "Biotherm" from Paul Meilhat.
Skipper on the verge of total exhaustion
The skippers are now feeling the strain of the first few days with storms and high seas, as the leading Ultim skipper Charles Caudrelier ("Edmond de Rothschild") describes, who is engaged in an exciting battle with François Gabart's "SVR Lazartigue" and Thomas Coville's "Sodebo". He describes how much they would like to finally get into the trade winds, as the three are currently sailing north-west to get into the better weather.
"The trade winds are not what we want at the moment. It should get better soon, because sailing like this is exhausting, we are always at the flight limit (foiling, ed.) We are tearing our hair out over the chart and therefore trying to be as fast as possible, but there is the high swell. Not easy conditions." Caudrelier made a very tired impression during the regatta organisers' morning call.
"It's a very demanding Route du Rhum this time. The weather is demanding, there are no shortcuts. I'm so tired that I can hardly fall asleep. But we'll be there in a little less than two days." The Ultims still have just under 1,200 miles to go to the finish line.
The Class 40s are still a long way from that. On the contrary, the field is being hit particularly hard today. After another skipper, the Australian Rupert Henry, had to retire yesterday due to structural damage, the skippers are now sailing into the third storm front with winds of up to 45 knots, as Yoann Richomme, who is now sensationally leading from time to time, reported from on board. He is engaged in a tough battle for the lead with Corentin Douguet, who has led for a long time, with just 0.2 miles separating the two. The first ten boats are no more than 32 miles apart. A tough competition.
