"It's another slap in the face," the German reported yesterday, visibly frustrated from on board his "Seaexplorer". After his generator failed shortly beforehand, which he was able to repair quickly, he was hit by another disaster just a few hours later: "I damaged the sail between the second and third reefs when reefing, and a batten got caught under a shroud." The sail tore. The sail tore. Herrmann has been working feverishly on a repair since last night and was still travelling at only 7.6 knots this morning at 9 o'clock, while the competition was sailing almost twice as fast. First he had to stick on patches, now he is probably sewing them on.
Herrmann reports on his sail tear in the main
"I will never give up the fight, but I have lost my position and that hurts. It hurts a lot," he said shortly after his fourth Cape Horn passage under headsail J3. "I couldn't see the cape, I sailed too far south. But it would also have been too dangerous in the wind to get closer to the shelf." During his rounding of Cape Horn, the German reported gusts of around 40 knots and - as can be seen in the video of the repair - high, very chaotic swell, which of course made repairs on deck extremely difficult.
The trouble then also ensured that Maxime Sorrel ("V and B - Mayenne") and Ciancarlo Pedote ("Prysmian Groupe") slipped through and are now sailing around 30 nautical miles ahead of him.
To make matters worse, yesterday the Franco-German Isabelle Joschke received some bad news: the cylinder of her keel hydraulics is badly damaged:
"I went below deck to rest and after half an hour I heard a crack from the keel, which was slowly starting to sink. I knew immediately that something was wrong. I immediately called my team to check for hydraulic leaks. I wanted to switch on the engine for the hydraulics for a test and there was a loud metallic noise. Then I realised that the hydraulic cylinder had torn off the keel. The boat is not in danger, we have a system to lock the keel in the centre position."
On top of that, Joschke's gennaker tore shortly beforehand and she lost her wind indicator in the mast, which makes the autopilot very ineffective. The Franco-German was correspondingly disappointed. Her successful rounding of Cape Horn in eleventh place, just over an hour behind Boris Herrmann, was lost in the disappointment.
Meanwhile, the race continues with its usual rigour: Yannick Bestaven is still in a commanding lead and has extended his lead over Charlie Dalin's "Apivia" to 209 miles. Behind him, Thomas Ruyant seems to be putting all his eggs in one basket with his "LinkedOut", sailing an extremely risky course closer under land, directly into the high that is forming in front of him. He is probably hoping to cross it or that it will move eastwards so quickly that he won't be held up for as long as the weather charts suggest so far. This would allow him to make up miles on the two leaders - or park in the doldrums. In any case, he will then have to sail downwind for a long time, while Bestaven and Dalin may catch rough winds to the north-east of the high.
An exciting neck-and-neck race is now beginning in the South Atlantic. The field has fanned out and the gaps between the skippers have widened somewhat. Damien Seguin ("Groupe Apicil") is still sailing extremely strongly, having made his way east around the high, but is still in a commanding fourth place with his non-foiler. Behind him, Louis Burton ("Bureau Vallée 2"), who is pushing his boat and himself to the limit and is only 18 miles behind Benjamin Dutreux ("Omia Water Family"), is doing everything he can to catch up with his compatriot today. Which seems entirely possible, as he was travelling almost four knots faster this morning.
Andreas Fritsch
Editor Travel
