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Team Brunel - Blog 7 - Team Brunel in the ARC



Blog 7 ARC Rally 29th November 2015

Breaking news:
Team Brunel out the race, replaced by Team Bnel
Last night at 10.07 UTC a well controlled gybe was set up in pitch dark 
moonless conditions. We’ve done this numerous times so routinely every 
step was executed. Without warning the Mainsail completely ripped in two 
horizontally from masttrack till leech line when moving form port to 
starboard. Pretty disastrous we might say. Immediately Johnny took the 
lead the rescue operations. Jens in charge over the technical job of 
getting the mainsail down, Rokas up the mast, all hands on deck, wind 
blowing force 6. We got the mainsail down to the 3rd reef position and 
were able to secure the bottom half of the sail. Despite the obvious 
shock and disappointment all was handled in an incredibly smooth way by 
our pro team with the rest of us assisting in muscle power and shutting 
up. Jens communicating from the deck to Rokas in a howling wind at 35m 
high demanded full concentration. All went well and some 45 mins later 
the boat was on its way again, not like a lame duck but still the speed 
was severely reduced.

So, for our dedicated followers on the tracker, we didn’t fall asleep, 
went fishing or anchored for a swim, we just had some pretty bad luck. 
Why it happened, a mixture of contributors like a mainsail that has more 
than successfully raced around the world plus many more miles since, a 
stiff breeze, 4 m. waves, darkness etc. etc. Anyway it happened and we 
could still sail. OK a 3rd reef is not what we aimed for but no-one got 
hurt and the yacht is well in control and still some 600 NM to the 
finish. (That is a full Fastnet race!)

Team Brunel
At sunrise a new plan was born. Johnny and Tomas started to organize the 
ripped sail part, climbing up the end of the swinging boom. They tied 
the top and bottom end of the sail together with lashes between the sail 
battens as if the ripped middle part had never been there. All hands on 
deck again to host to sail to max height, about as high as 1,5 reef and 
carefully sheet in the main again. Will it hold? Is it gonna rip again ? 
and to every ones joy the boat started speeding off again, it worked. 
Brilliant plan skipper, never give up. The boys examined the sail shape 
and fragile parts and decided to do version 2.0 of the new mainsail 
setup. Sail down again, more smart lines attached to spread the load and 
up again. And than power on, pedal to the metal.
As part of the sail is missing, the RU has left, only Bnel is still 
visible, go Team Bnel, go.

The race update:
For the Class 2A results we seem to be 603 NM on the map, and more than 
24hrs ahead of Durlindana3 on corrected time/ distance. That is the 
(IRC) system to equalize difference in the construction and sails and 
size etc to make a comparison possible between different boats. It’s 
like the trick to convert all fruit into apples….. However, as the old 
sailors wisdom states: before you can win a race you first have to 
finish it. The broken mainsail and subsequent repair were a very close 
escape from not finishing at all. So we keep our focus and enjoy the 
circumstances to the max


Clean housekeeping:
Almost impossible, so no further details on that….

The weather:
Caribbean…

The mood
Great, we’re all fully committed to make this Pro-Am off shore race a 
great success! And we are having a great time out here at the boat, 
despite the setback of the mainsail.

Your OBR a.i. Koen




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