Volvo OR - Team AkzoNobel repairs spar + Video
by Sail-World.com/nz 15 Dec 2017 15:09 PST
16 December 2017
Leg 3, Cape Town to Melbourne, day 6, on board AkzoNobel © James Blake / Volvo Ocean Race
The Team AkzoNobel Volvo Ocean 65 has been a flurry of activity all day today as the crew set about the repairing the damage done to the mast and mainsail yesterday when things went wrong during a gybe in 45 knots of wind and big waves.
Volvo Ocean Race on board reporter James Blake filmed the repairs and sent thes video and images updates from the boat. The daily Live Show from Volvo Ocean Race have also covered the events of the day and recovery.
A key person in the repair process is Kiwi sailor, Brad Farrand who has the task of scaling the mast in the Southern Ocean to remove the broken piece of laminate from the mast and then going back upstairs to fit and secure the repair while the adhesives set.
OBR james Blake has done an outstanding job of covering the event and showing the first ever drone video taken from one of the boats as they surf in the Southern Ocean. He also captures an albatrosses eye view as Brad Farrand works aloft.
Volvo Ocean Race reports - A hectic and drama-filled day out on the Southern Ocean yesterday saw team AkzoNobel sustain mast and mainsail damage during a gybe in strong winds and gigantic seas while in fourth place on Leg 3 from Cape Town to Melbourne.
Despite at times surfing at over 20 knots on waves up to 10 meters (32 feet) overnight using just a J2 headsail, the crew had dropped to seventh place in the rankings at 0700 UTC (0800 CET) this morning.
At this stage, the sailors will care less about their position in the fleet as today they take on the mammoth task of trying to re-attach a three-metre section of the narrow carbon mast track that attaches the mainsail to the aft (back) edge of the mast.
It’s going to be painstaking work. First they must glue the track to the mast using strong epoxy adhesive and use ratchet straps to hold it in place for 12 hours while the glue hardens. Only then will they be able to re-screw the track to the mast – a procedure that is likely to take five hours or more depending on the weather conditions.
At the same time the crew must also effect repairs to the boat’s mainsail and then refit the carbon stiffening battens that they repaired late yesterday.
This challenging schedule of work – difficult enough to achieve in a boatyard ashore – will all be all the harder on the rolling, pitching deck of the team AkzoNobel Volvo Ocean 65 deep in the unforgiving wilds of the Southern Ocean and will require major teamwork and coordination from the crew to get it done.
Team Akzonobel Repairs DronedStop the presses. Perhaps the best Volvo Ocean Race drone video so far as Team AkzoNobel is under repair in the Southern Ocean. We keep posting about OBR James Blake's coverage and it keeps getting better...
Matt Knighton: Blakey gets not only the shots of the injured VO65 being repaired with men up the rig in epic seas but then the Albatross make a cameo and he's flying through them thousands of miles away from land in the most remote corner of the world. This is something new and I can't stop watching!
VOR RAW CONTENT ?? http://bit.ly/2zDvKW7
Posted by BoatFeed on Friday, December 15, 2017