On 6 December, St Nicholas' Day, the time has come: Puma will be the last ship to arrive at the stage finish in Cape Town, with outside help of course, but at least in time to receive the reserve mast delivered from the USA for the start of the second stage.
Whether the team will also be able to take part in the second in-port race next Saturday is not certain at the moment, as the new beater still needs to be test-sailed and tuned. "How tight is the time?" asked Team Manager Kimo Worthington rhetorically. "The other day it was blowing at 50 knots, so the place was closed for four days."
But morale is intact, even if the sailors will have little time for their families. "Everyone is eager to get to work to get us back to the start." The new week is a busy one: Tuesday sees the arrival of the boat, unloading and launching, transfer to the team base and uncraning. Setting the mast on Thursday, then a day of trial sailing before the team management makes further decisions together with the sailors. "We want to win, not just sail along," said Worthington. Just putting the mast in and going is not the way to go. "Too much haste causes mistakes, and we can't afford that right now."
Team Sanya is also in a hurry as they have to replace the entire damaged bow section of their racer before they can continue sailing. The prefabricated replacement part is currently being laminated in Cape Town.
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