It's almost like a Formula 1 pit stop, with hundreds of technicians and logisticians, engineers and specialists scurrying around behind the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront harbour pier. And the hustle and bustle had already started before the awards ceremony had even finished on Sunday afternoon.
While Team Malizia was the fourth boat to dock at the finish line, 11th Hour Racing already had seven men hoisting the mainsail and lazy bag off the boat. Shortly afterwards, the main boom also came off. The neighbouring sailors from Germany did not hesitate for long.
When it got dark at around 8 pm, "Malizia - Seaexplorer" was also missing its main boom, spars and stays, but above all - the port foil! An operation that demands a lot from other teams on land and with the help of a mobile crane was carried out in the water. Respect!
Monday was crane day, at least for four of the five Imocas in The Ocean Race. Since then there has been no stopping them. Because it's back in the water again on Saturday. This is the protocol of the organisers, who want to present their Race Village, now called "Ocean Live Park", as a tourist attraction.
At the jetties, where the sponsor flags will be rattling in the rigs again from the weekend onwards, only "Biotherm" is currently lying a little lonely and deserted, and that too without a rig. Skipper Paul Meilhat wanted to have it thoroughly checked before the next, the longest and toughest leg of the race. The sheer, beautifully painted boat looks lost in the wide harbour basin, like the last remnant after being craned out in late autumn in any Baltic Sea marina - only in summer temperatures.
On Monday evening, half of a prefabricated frame frame was on deck, along with an industrial hoover and a generator. The rather secretive team, which is one of the most tightly financed, apparently has to remedy structural weaknesses once again. This was already the case before the launch in Alicante, where, according to information from YACHT online, no fewer than three frame frames were reinforced or re-laminated. The Verdier design is maturing in the race, so to speak.
It is all the more astonishing that Paul Meilhat and his crew still managed to finish in second place. He benefited from the very good all-round characteristics of his boat, which is based on the design of Thomas Ruyant's "LinkedOut", the winning boat of the Route du Rhum last November.
And like Charlie Enright on "11th Hour Racing" and Robert Stanjek on "Guyot Environnement - Team Europe", he had a large A2 spinnaker on board, ideal for deep courses in light winds, which benefited "Biotherm" in the opening and closing phases, as well as in the calms.
Unexpected foil problems for co-favourite "11th Hour Racing"
The most painful refit programme is foreseeably underway on board the American team, although their boat has by far the longest maturing period behind it. The crew's attention was already focussed on the foils in Cape Verde, especially the "elbow" - the bend between the shaft and the tip. This is very strongly angled on the "11th Hour Racing", which increases the loads. This is another reason why the profiles are considered very heavy. The depth and extent of the damage could not be seen with the naked eye in the maintenance area in Cape Town, which was cordoned off for the fans.
However, team boss Mark Towill had both replacement foils flown in as a precaution. They are one version older and not as powerful as the last ones. The results of the ultrasound examinations have not yet been communicated. But there are some indications that the boat will set off on leg three to Itajaí with the old, intact foils. After all, taking the risk of a major breakage on a 12,750 nautical mile leg, which brings double the points (five instead of ten points for first place), would make little sense.
Especially as Charlie Enright's crew has the experience and his Verdier design the performance to still be in contention for victory. So far, "11th Hour Racing" is only three points off Kevin Escoffier's top-placed "Holcim - PRB" in the results list. And not even 25 per cent of the overall standings have been sailed yet. So everything is still possible.
Apart from that, the damage and maintenance work is manageable: the watermaker needs to be checked and its installation improved. And the screw connections of the hatch on the aft ballast water tank had come loose in places. Peanuts compared to the possible total damage to the foils, which, if confirmed in the NDT analysis, would add up to around 600,000 euros alone.
Boris Herrmann confident for "Malizia - Seaexplorer"
The Germans know a thing or two about this and had to swap their profiles in Alicante in a hurry before the start - which was a more extensive operation as the mounts didn't exactly match the replacement foils, which came from a Sam Manuard design.
"Malizia - Seaexplorer" got off to a good start with these. According to Boris Herrmann and his co-skipper Will Harris, they are even easier to handle, require less adjustment and deliver slightly better performance upwind and when reaching.
However, the aft edges on the shaft, which is located inside the boat in the foil box, tore between the upper and lower bearing. This only slowed the crew down slightly because they took the precaution of pulling the foil slightly into the hull to reduce the shear forces. Nevertheless, the VPLP design with the spoon bow protruding extremely far out of the water was clearly the fastest boat on the beam in strong winds and swell.
"We were able to go full main and didn't have to worry about crashing into the wave ahead with the bow," Will Harris told YACHT online after the debriefing. This was exactly what Boris Herrmann had in mind when designing the boat. The difference in speed compared to "Holcim - PRB" and "11th Hour" was up to two knots over long periods - not much when everyone is travelling in the 20s, but possibly the key factor on the next leg.
The damage to the foils is definitely not structural. This was already clear on Tuesday afternoon when the expert who had flown in from France to carry out a composite examination gave the green light. By Wednesday, the port foil had already been reinforced on both sides.
The technicians had two millimetre-thick carbon rails baked in an autoclave in Cape Town, which already had a slight pre-bend and were applied to the trailing edge using Spabond structural adhesive and a vacuum. The screw holes with which they were connected to ensure even contact pressure during curing were then drilled out. Glued-in carbon rods closed the holes like a plug; they are intended to provide additional stability against the torsional forces.
As already reported, work on the replacement rudder is being carried out in parallel. The shaft is to be optimised by a few tenths of a degree in the longitudinal axis, which was only possible on one attachment in Alicante due to time constraints. In addition, the "piano", the organiser mounted in the centre of the cockpit for no less than 53 trim lines, will be replaced. Neck lines and rig lashings are also on the maintenance list. Not much compared to Alicante.
Apparently no major construction sites at "Holcim - PRB" and "Guyot Environnement - Team Europe"
The boats in first and fifth place do not appear to have any foil problems, nor does "Biotherm". Their hydrofoils remained untouched. The Swiss boats are only expected to undergo minor optimisations.
This comes as no surprise, as Kevin Escoffier is not only an extremely strong-willed skipper who is determined to win, but also a highly experienced engineer. Alongside "11th Hour Racing", his Imoca is one of the most sophisticated new builds and is based on the same design by Guillaume Verdier, albeit with different foils, a modified bow, deck and cockpit.
Robert Stanjek, like all sailors currently recovering, has so far been unavailable for comment on the status of "Guyot". We spoke to Jens Kuphal this lunchtime. The boat, which initially led for a long time, proved to be on a par with the best. Mileages of around 520 nautical miles in the deep South Atlantic are extremely respectable for a boat from 2016, and not much was missing from Alex Thomson's old 24-hour record.
The biggest and only serious damage was to the sails. The A2 spinnaker tore at the starboard foil, the J Zero fell into the water after the halyard latch was unintentionally opened, and another headsail was damaged. They can be repaired, but not replaced, because the total number of sails for the entire Ocean Race is limited to eleven. However, at least the A2 will probably not be seriously missed on the third leg. And otherwise: "No damage," says Jens Kuphal. "We could get back in the water tomorrow and go."
All in all, it looks like the entire field will be able to set off for Itajaí on the chase through the Southern Ocean in full possession of their strength after the very close finish. That's not a matter of course, but it's good for the race and exciting for the fans!
