Anyone who followed the start of the three-day inshore phase of the Admiral's Cup on Tuesday will have noticed it in race one: "Red Bandit" - just a strong fifth in the opening Channel Race in the large AC 1 class - was once again well in the race, moving between second and sixth place when she suddenly dropped back place by place almost every second in the tracking. It was immediately clear that the young team had a major problem with Carl-Peter Forster's Middle Sea Race winner.
Admiral's Cup: Mast break knockout for "Red Bandit"
Only a short time later it turned out that "Red Bandit's" mast had broken. The crew from the Bavarian Yacht Club reached the harbour in Cowes under their own steam and are now considering all options. "We are back in harbour, nobody is injured, we are sad," was the first statement from the crew on social media.
For the strongest German yacht on paper and also at the Admiral's Cup opener, it is a brutal knockout blow. The bitter Admiral's Cup exit on Tuesday also affects the team formed together with Dirk Clasen's "Ginkgo" under the umbrella of the Bayerischer Yacht-Club, which now has no chance of a possible good placing. YACHT online spoke to crew co-manager Moriz Forster immediately after the return of "Red Bandit".
The 24-year-old sailor reported that the accident happened in around 16 knots of wind in smooth water. Here is Moriz Forster's report on the course of events:
"We were really strong after the start. I think we were fifth at the windward mark ahead of 'Ràn'. Then unfortunately our old kite mushroomed at the windward mark, our A2. And then we had to go deep for a short time and switched to the A 1.5. Unfortunately, we had already lost quite a lot by then. Then we arrived at the leeward gate, dropped, sailed around - then our rig just came in on the first beat. It wasn't wild conditions, but it just snapped off over the first spreader under compression.
Grinder almost hit by spreader part
A piece of the spreader fell off and almost hit a grinder. In that sense, we were lucky that nobody got hurt. There were also a lot of motorboats there to help us. We did everything we could to prevent the rig from punching a hole in the hull. Then we spent two hours trying to cut it all off. And now we've got a big piece of it on the boat. The top of the rig is down in the ocean.
We had a saw on board. One good learning is that next time we'll have a good electric cutter on board. It was a lot of work to cut it away. There is no chance of a replacement rig for the Admiral's Cup. For that you would need a TP52, of which there are a few. We're working on the best-case scenario for the Middle Sea Race, but it's completely impossible for us to continue in the Admiral's Cup.
You don't just have to find a mast. It would also have to fit. We are an older boat from 2009 and our rigging is completely cut off everywhere. It's not just the tube. Unfortunately, unfortunately... We couldn't see a clear cause for the mast breakage at first. We will of course take a look at it on video. But we weren't anywhere near Max Runner Load. It will take a little while to process this. We'll watch it all again on video...
Admiral's Cup exit: "Better now than in the Fastnet Race"
The mast is always in very good condition. We have invested a lot in keeping it well maintained. We put a lot of effort into it, but at some point a rig from 2009 is... You also have to realise: Better now than in the Fastnet race. It's an extreme act to get that thing out of there. Without a motorboat to keep us upwind, it would have been really difficult."
We learn from it. And we'll be back!" Moriz Forster
To the Intermediate team results at the 24th Admiral's Cup here. To the individual results of the boats in the classes AC 1 and AC 2 here.
