In some stunning footage from onboard reporter Antoine Auriol, Boris Herrmann and his team aboard Malizia decided to cut their Code 0 free after it came loose and got tangled in the keel last night.
But Malizia is far from the only team struggling to keep their boat in good shape as they enter the Southern Ocean. Guyot Environment has announced that they are returning to Cape Town following the discovery of “abnormal movements” in the hull bottom, likely indicating a hull sandwich failure.
“Given the current position of the boat and the distance to the arrival in Itajai, unfortunately it is better for the crew and the integrity of the boat to turn back to Cape Town,” said Thomas Cardrin, the team’s technical director.
Because of its length and severe weather, Leg 3 from Cape Town, South Africa, to Itajai, Brazil, is a double-points leg with an option for partial credit for making it to a certain point. Not completing the leg will hurt any team’s standings (though not as much further damage to the boat that would force them to sit out the remainder of the race), and safety of the competitors is always paramount.
This much drama early on may raise some questions about the fitness of the fleet, particularly in comparison to the identically maintained one-design fleet that the race has been sailed on for the past few editions. Time will tell whether each team has done their due diligence in preparing for the rigors of Leg 3, but ultimately, as is always the case in the Southern Ocean, it also comes down to a lot of luck.
For more, visit theoceanrace.com.
