It sounds like a flawless déjà vu: another broken crossbar between the rudder quadrant and rudder head, another damaged hydrogenerator - only this time the rudder has also suffered some damage. Thomson had almost exactly the same damage on the way to the equator and mastered the challenge of repairing it at sea with on-board equipment.
Thomson only described the course of the second crash, which took place on Sunday evening, to the race organisers yesterday afternoon as follows:
"At 10.20 pm, I rammed a piece of flotsam at a good 22 knots of boat speed. I was down at the nav table when it happened. There was a loud bang in the foredeck area, I think because the keel or centreboard had hit something. After that, there were some softer, softer impacts because the flotsam was obviously bouncing along the hull, and then finally another loud bang when it finally hit the rudder and the hydrogenerator.
By the time I had rushed to the companionway, the rudder was already up and the hydrogenerator was being dragged behind in the water. The boat shot into the wind without a rudder and I quickly furled the headsail. On closer inspection, it became clear that the rudder's safety catch had tripped on impact and the blade had folded up, just as it should. That is why it is only slightly damaged. But the hydrogenerator's propeller is broken and the bracket has been smashed and gone overboard. In addition, the rudder connecting rod has broken into three pieces - the one that hasn't been repaired yet!
I then replaced the poles so that I could continue sailing. The waves were quite high, washing over the cockpit and repeatedly hitting the upturned rudder. Both rudder cassettes were slightly damaged and it was quite a difficult job to hang back there at the stern and repair it while being constantly washed over by the waves! After that I immediately contacted the team and discussed repairing the rudder bar. I ended up fixing it in a similar way to the old rod, everything was a bit more difficult than last time because the break wasn't as smooth and the conditions were rough. I can't fix the damage to the rudder cassettes now, it needs to be dry for that. My team technicians don't think it's critical yet. But the hydrogenerator is probably beyond repair.
I then pulled the centreboard out as far as I could, but couldn't see any damage. The hull around the keel and centreboard area also looks intact from the inside. Of course I'm totally annoyed that this has happened again and that I've lost so many miles, but I'm glad that the damage isn't that bad and I can carry on sailing. The loss of the generator means that I have to save as much power as possible. Computer, satellite phone, GPS - I have to switch everything off as often as possible if I want to make it to the finish line.
And it sounds unbelievable, but on Monday night the autopilot alarm suddenly went off. When I came on deck, the rudder blade was already up again, the fuse was broken again! Something has collided with the rudder blade again, twice in less than a day! But everything is okay. I just hope that I don't lose touch with the leading group because of these setbacks."
It didn't look like that this morning, Thomson is still in 5th place with his "Hugo Boss" and is currently the fastest in the field at 19.5. Although he is 136 nautical miles behind the leader François Gabart, his nearest rival, the Swiss Bernard Stamm ("Cheminées Poujoulat"), is sailing just under 40 miles ahead of him, and Thomson's VMG is currently almost three knots higher.
Andreas Fritsch
Editor Travel
