Anyone strolling through Itajaí's Ocean Live Park in the mornings over the past few days could experience a stage harbour in a state of emergency. Until yesterday, only three of the five participating yachts were moored here, two on land and one in the water. There was an almost irritating silence in the teams' tents. Only now and again did a cutting saw screech or a vacuum cleaner roar to swallow fine carbon fibre dust before it blew across the sun-soaked asphalt.
Hectic, swearing, night shifts - not here, not now. Not yet.
With calm and concentration, the technicians go through their long inspection and maintenance lists, which include several hundred items. These range from seemingly marginal items such as polishing the thimble at the head of the mainsail, where the halyard is attached, to tasks that take days - such as checking the keel hydraulics and bearings.
So far, however, no serious damage has been reported. And that is a real surprise after almost 15,000 nautical miles through the sometimes brutally raging Southern Ocean. After all, the latest generation of Imocas with a crew of four have never been beaten through here before.
Well, the French-German "Guyot Environnement - Team Europe" had to abandon the third leg and return to Cape Town after the hull bottom gave way in the swell. However, this repair was carried out in South Africa, which is why the boat from 2015 - Alex Thomson's former "Hugo Boss" - is now back on the floating dock as good as new. She was the first to reach Itajaí transatlantically from east to west.
But the German "Malizia - Seaexplorer" and the Swiss "Holcim - PRB", which regularly finished the royal stage in first and second place, also arrived in Itajaí largely unscathed. The boats that were really counted out will only cross the finish line in the next few hours: "11th Hour Racing" and "Biotherm" are missing the other three full days. They urgently needed more time for the refit.
Paul Meilhat's "Biotherm" in particular is a major construction site: the starboard foil has already cracked in Cape Town, the port wing was badly damaged in a collision with flotsam and the foil box is also broken. In addition, there was structural damage to a stringer, which was only provisionally laminated by the crew. The traveller and the mainsheet carriages were the source of trouble on several occasions. The autopilot went on strike, as did the wind sensors. And this list is still incomplete.
On 11th Hour, two of the three rudder blades have cracks in the fibre composite; the mainsail flew out of the leech several times and will probably have to be replaced because it is obviously not up to the strain. The electric pump for the keel hydraulics failed shortly after Cape Town, so that the crew had to swivel the keel to one side by hand for weeks.
So while the stragglers will become major construction sites as soon as the lines are tightened, Boris Herrmann's team is keeping things organised for the first time since Alicante and Cape Town. "We have the longest stop and foreseeably the least amount of work," Jesse Naimark-Rowse, one of the lead engineers in the German team, told YACHT yesterday.
A small caveat applies for the time being, as the NDT check had not yet been fully completed in the early evening. NDT stands for "non-destructive testing". Carbon fibre components such as foils, masts, booms and fuselages are tested using ultrasound. Stainless steel and titanium parts are tested for surface defects such as cracks, porosity, crushing or other anomalies using a dye penetration test.
So far, with the exception of one or two minor damages, everything has remained inconspicuous, which makes Boris Herrmann almost as happy as the stage win: "It's great to arrive here with an intact boat that has no structural problems," he said on Monday evening, after the boat was ashore and the mast and foils had already been dismantled.
It is further confirmation that the "concept is working", which he developed together with the VPLP designers from his experience on the Vendee Globe 2021 - namely to build a robust ship that can be handled safely even in heavy seas.
To validate it completely, the man from Hamburg stays longer in Itajaí than the rest of the crew, who are already on shore leave. He consults with the technicians several times. The sailing team had already noted down change requests and test positions en route for the upcoming refit. However, the engineers, riggers, electronics and composite experts in the team also follow their own checklists.
This stopover in particular is likely to provide the most important insights for the Vendée Globe 2024/25, as it led almost exclusively through the Southern Ocean. Anything that shows significant signs of wear and tear here is unlikely to last undamaged over twice the distance.
The level of detail involved, even in a team of this size and with such a wealth of experience, was demonstrated yesterday when Boris went through the spare parts list and the contents of the tool bag with the leading technicians. A battery-operated multifunctional device that the sailors can use to drill, cut or polish was listed as a replacement item. Marine Villard, the coordinator of the tech team, was not satisfied with this.
"Why do you need a new one?" she asked the skipper.
"It's ruined," said Boris, "just broken."
"And what guarantees that the next device will last?" Marine asked back. "Maybe we need a different model that lasts longer."
This scrutinising of even the smallest eventuality is what could make the decisive difference later on. The level of detail with which Team Malizia goes to work is simply overwhelming. Nothing, absolutely nothing, that is conceivable is left to chance or the "will do" principle.
So the first thing we did was to take all the equipment off the boat - not just to check that it was complete and to clean it of salt water. Everything was weighed to see where weight could be saved for future stages.
Will Harris' mast repair at the start of the queen's stage is also being redone these days. It turned out remarkably well and could theoretically remain in place until the end of The Ocean Race. But the risk of excess resin inside the carbon mast rubbing cables or outside the halyards is too great. In addition, a few hundred grams can certainly be saved if the gap is cleanly laminated under vacuum.
Composite expert Andreas Berg and a colleague set to work as soon as they arrived in Itajaí. First of all, the 18 layers of carbon fibre had to be sanded away without damaging the original laminate of the rig, which had been baked in an autoclave.
Once this was done, the resourceful professionals laminated a kind of splint further down the profile, which is glued against the damaged area from the inside after curing to create a homogeneous surface and can later be laminated from the outside under vacuum. In the end, the mast will be as strong as it was originally. A repair that takes a total of two to three days - and is only one item on the list of the new Technical Director, Pierre-François Dargnies, whom everyone at Malizia calls "Pifou".
Several trades work on the mast alone: the riggers check all the halyards and stretchers that run through a hole in the titanium mast base and are diverted into the cockpit. Anything that shows noticeable wear is replaced in case of doubt. They pay particular attention to the halyard locks after the hook of the Code Zero lock on the masthead broke, which led to the consequential damage in the rig. All the winches are dismantled and checked, as are all the clamps. But the electronics team is also at work: all data cables are pulled, measured and replaced where necessary.
It's an XXXXL maintenance service that's due. And as an observer, you immediately get a guilty conscience when you think of your own ship and the nonchalance that is sometimes exercised when the time before the crane is too short in spring. No shortcuts are taken here.
And if the work list is too long for the remaining two weeks or so until the relaunch, then the technicians will simply stay longer. Small teams with big tasks like "Biotherm" in particular will probably have to work several night shifts in the floodlit Race Village in Itajaí.
In the following video, Malizia director Holly Cova gives a tour of the German team's base and the boat from minute 07:30 onwards and shows some of the work that needs to be done over the next few days:
Jochen Rieker
Herausgeber YACHT
