Tamanaco - More Code Zero stories

Today we set out to hoist our Code Zero again. First attempt was unsuccessful as we couldn’t get the sail to unfold. Worse, still, the halyard (rope that holds the sail from top of the mast) seemed stuck. It took Valery’s 115 kilos, plus Vincent and Rodrigue strength to pull it down. Thinking things over, we determined the anti-torsion cable needed straightening, and we needed to fold the sail properly ahead of trying to hoist it the conventional way (vs. unrolling). We all went down inside the cabin with the sail extended from the end of the bed in the front cabin, until the bed in the aft cabin. Lots of sail and unfurling- remolding. Everything came back inside the bag, which we brought above deck, to the front. We connected the halyard and attached the sail at the foot to the bowsprit (extension. Of the hull in front) and attached the sheet. Hoisting the conventional way requires good coordination, trying to pull the halyard to raise the sail as quickly as possible, while holding the sheet and maintaining the right boat heading to minimize pressure in the sail while it’s being hoisted. A few moments later ourCode Zero was flying out nicely, and we were surfing large swells routinely exceeding 11 knots in the surfs. This is my favorite task, helming the boat in big seas. I steered for a few hours, followed by Val, Vincent and briefly Tony. We made good progress. At the end of the day, however, we heard another one of these “puck” sound and saw our CZ flying ithe air! The attachment point at the foot had yielded. Note it is the same swivel mechanism that broke twice at the top. No luck with that design, definitely. The bottom swivel was flying I the air, with potential to hit the boat or even one of us, so we manœuvred to drop the sail I. The sea and retrieve it from. The side of the boat, wet. We are becoming quite good at retrieving sails from the water, and this time no one needs to climb in the mast. So was our day, we made good distance toward St Lucia and worked well as a team.
Cheers.