Update from Boris Herrmann - Team Malizia

Small update from the sea:

A very strong metal part holding a sail up broke the evening before yesterday at nightfall. (Code zero lock)

When the sail fell down its halyard ripped a 26 cms long hole in the face of the mast at the top (ripping through the carbon fibre structure).

The sail fell in the water and got pierced on the foil. We managed to pull it back on board.

With reefed sails we can now continue to sail. And once we have managed to put carbon over the crack we can sail almost back at 100%.

Right now we are so slow because a high pressure caught us and we are with no wind in massive big waves. It’s a bit horrible being thrown around and seeing the sails suffer from slamming from side to side.

We hope to be able to do the repair soon and resume proper sailing. Hopefully tomorrow.

All in all we had quite a bit of bad luck in this leg:

We started well and then lost out due to bad information on the aghulas current. (Not sure better info exists-tbc) This put us a bit behind holcim. Losing the sail made us loose more. Valuable miles. This added lead to us being caught up by the high pressure which holcim managed to escape.

The team is amazingly positive. And has a strong morale.

Myself I feel a bit shattered. Emotionally. Disappointed. But the great people around me show me the right attitude. Keep face and remain strong to achieve the dream of this round the world race. We thought about going back to Cape Town. This would be an easy reaction. The race could be continued from Itajai.

But we now all agree to try and continue. It takes of course even more mental strength then such an endeavor takes anyhow. The day we stand on the dock in itajai I will be super proud. These long races are incredibly challenging. I send u some photos. Send us some good luck, 10 knots of wind and flat seas.

-- Boris Herrmann