The cause of the loss is not yet clear, but Boris Herrmann's team Malizia has been without an important sail since the evening of 28 February on the Queen's leg of the Ocean Race. At around 7 pm, the crew on "Malizia - Seaexplorer" was sailing in good wind conditions when the large downwind sail Code Zero fell into the water without warning. The team quickly realised that it had come loose at the masthead. The shore crew and sailing crew are now discussing the incident in search of the causes of the failure.
Will Harris with courage and knife on the foil
With darkness approaching, the team had to act quickly on Tuesday evening. Skipper Boris Herrmann had noticed that the Code Zero halyard was pulling against the mainsail. To avoid causing any further damage, he cut the halyard two metres away from the halyard lock. This made it easier to repair the halyard later. Because the sail had already wrapped itself around the keel and foils in the water, Herrmann's British co-skipper Will Harris had secured himself and jumped onto the foil with a knife to cut the sail free. Once it was free, Will Harris and Rosalin Kuiper were able to pull it on board and stow it below deck.
Boris Herrmann explained: "Our downwind sail came loose from the halyard lock and fell into the water. It wrapped itself around the keel and foils. It now has a huge hole in it. We pulled it back on deck and stowed it below deck through the foredeck hatch. This problem gave us a good hour's work and caused us to drift backwards. We lost at least 20 nautical miles and a sail! But everyone is fine, everyone did a good job."
Boris Herrmann: "As far as we know, no further damage has been caused"
The Imocas must have a total of eight sails on board for each Ocean Race leg, of which one storm jib and the mainsail are mandatory. This means that the teams are free to choose which six other headsails they take with them on a leg. Team Malizia is now missing Code Zero - a gap in its inventory. The loss could range from painful to very painful.
Skipper Boris Herrmann said: "We are now travelling with a different downwind sail. As far as we know, no further damage has occurred." In the current leg, Team Malizia had fallen back to fourth place on the morning of 1 March, 105 nautical miles behind the leaders from Team Holcim - PRB. Only Guyot Environnement - Team Europe was able to keep up with Kevin Escoffier's team. Although "Guyot" had also lost a few miles to "Holcim - PRB" on Wednesday morning, it kept the gap small at 34 nautical miles. Team Malizia was only around seven nautical miles behind the third-placed US team 11th Hour Racing.
