In a video from on board, skipper Will Harris, who is leading the ship and crew for the injured Boris Herrmann during the second leg from Cape Verde to Cape Town, described the situation like this:
We have realised that we have a little damage to the starboard profile, which is not ideal. So we have to be a lot more careful with it and hope it doesn't get any worse, because there's basically no way to fix it."
The Briton, who seemed demoralised, went on to say that it was "annoying because we're not even pushing the boat particularly hard at the moment. We are sailing quite conservatively". The crew had already been worried about the foils beforehand. Otherwise, however, there were "no problems with the boat".
The video shows that the team has apparently retracted the starboard foil to reduce the loads. However, this also reduces the lift. A new drone video released today, however, shows "Malizia" in full foil mode.
Boris Herrmann relativised the damage this morning in a brief statement to YACHT online: "We don't really have a problem," he wrote, but could not be reached for further enquiries.
In fact, "Malizia - Seaexplorer" has so far been able to keep up with the other boats surprisingly well; there is no sign of a significant drop in performance - the German boat recently sailed only slightly slower than Charlie Enright's "11th Hour Racing", the most westerly boat after "Malizia".
Meanwhile, Robert Stanjek and the Franco-German "Guyot Environnement - Team Europe", who were the first through the crests, continue to lead. However, the gap to second-placed "Holcim - PRB" is narrowing more and more. This morning, Kevin Escoffier, the winner of leg one, was less than 30 nautical miles behind and sailed three knots faster than Stanjek & Co. It remains exciting - especially as the trade winds are less consistent at the moment.
Jochen Rieker
Herausgeber YACHT
