It was to be her stage. Malizia - Seaexplorer" is optimised for the Southern Ocean. Deep in the South Atlantic, she already proved on the second leg that she is almost unbeatable in wind and waves. But now two severe setbacks have considerably decimated her chances of victory.
First, the Code Zero fell into the water because a latch lock had opened unintentionally. Boris Herrmann and his crew were only able to prevent consequential damage to the boat by cutting free the very important sail, which cost tens of thousands of euros.
But what Rosalin Kuiper discovered when checking the one-design mast was far more serious. The top halyard had to bear the entire load of the Code Zero for a short time after the halyard latch was opened. In doing so, it literally sawed the front of the wing rig to pieces over a length of 26 centimetres. Since then, the crew has only been travelling eastwards at creep speed, at times only logging around 3 knots.
For the time being, the mast can only be loaded up to the attachment point of the shrouds, the loops of which can be seen on the right and left in the photo. This means that the maximum "Malizia - Seaexplorer" can currently sail with the working jib (J2) and the main in the first reef - a configuration for 25 to 30 knots of wind, but not for the 5 to 10 knots that are currently forecast for the sea area in which the German boat is travelling.
In a video from on board, Boris Herrmann explains the damage and how the crew intends to tackle the repairs at first light tomorrow morning. He speaks - with one exception - in German this time, and you can tell he is disappointed. At the same time, he seems composed and is able to think beyond the current situation, which shows strength and greatness.
After consultations with the designers, mast builders and the technical team, the repair plan envisages grinding the area around the crack first, which is a tough task in itself at a height of around 26 metres on the open Indian Ocean, which is still very turbulent today. After that, however, comes the really tricky part.
Rosalin Kuiper has to apply several layers of carbon fibre fabric that have been soaked beforehand and placed on top of each other. She then has to carefully de-aerate them with a roller to ensure a really strong bond. Once thrown off course by a wave - and all the preparatory work can be gone. However, as team director Holly Cova has just announced, she is confident that she can manage the tightrope act. And there is no doubt that the Dutchwoman does not lack the necessary determination.
If the repair is successful, the laminate must cure for several hours to achieve full strength. Ideally, the carbon fibre "plaster" will be enough to restore the mast to its original strength so that "Malizia - Seaexplorer" can resume the race in full. If not, the team will have to sail heavily reefed as they do now.
In any case, performance will suffer.
Even the loss of the Code Zero hurts. An Imoca is only allowed to sail with a maximum of eight sails during a leg. Four of these are part of the standard wardrobe: main, storm jib, jib 3 and jib 2, leaving four flying sails for half-wind and space sheet courses. Of these four, one is already missing, the cut-up Code Zero; that is 25 per cent.
However, it is unclear whether the top halyard will even be usable again after the emergency repair at sea. If not, Code3, which is important for lighter conditions in the transitions between two lows, will also be missing. Then 50 per cent of the large sails would be unusable and the crew would only have the FRO (a code zero sailed in a fractional halyard) and the strong wind spinnaker left. That would be a bitter blow. Because it would be impossible for the rather heavy boat to keep up with the other competitors.
However, Malizia's misfortune will be in favour of Guyot Environnement - Team Europe, who will have to start Cape Town due to a laminate breakage in the hull floor and may have to cancel the entire stage. If Boris Herrmann and his crew were to slowly but surely make it through stage three, which counts double, they could still pick up at least four points.
For the time being, however, the team is confident that the repair will be successful and the disruption will be minor.
Editor's note: The original version of this report referred to damage caused by the fractional case. This was also how the news from the team last night was to be understood. However, the gap in the mast was actually caused by the top halyard, as we have since learnt from on board the Malizia. We have corrected this accordingly.
