december 17, 2023 - Damage control mode
Saturday morning. I’ve got the main back up to a double reef. I discovered it was ripped on Thursday. I got it down Thursday afternoon. I worked on it a lot on Friday, and had it back up to a triple reef yesterday. Now I’ve got it back up to a double reef. And so I got some repairs up there, the white one and the gray one. I’m not as well equipped as I would like to be in hindsight in many ways. It was a rush for me to get to the start line. We were working on the boat every day, and there’s some problems to be dealt with that I’m not as well prepared to deal with as I would really ideally like. But what what I’ve done is I stitched the ripped parts back together doing the zig-ag stitch. And then I did some hydranet cloth that I cut off off an old staysail. I cannibalized this old staysail for some hydranet cloth. I glued that down with some sikaflex, and then I just stitched it to the sail.
And then on the right I stitched the sail then I had one strip of this Cuben fiber material. So I stuck that, stitched it down to the sail and then I put down some sticky back on both sides. They’re not pretty repairs, but they are repairs and the sail is back up. I’m really babying the main and cautiously getting the boat back up to speed. Fortunately, I’ve had nice conditions to work on it the last two days. Seas have really laid down. We’re near some high pressure. We’re near some lighter air, but also the breeze has been pretty northwesterly. I’ve had a pretty good angle to sail even under reduced sail and not flying a code zero or a kyte the last two days. I’ve just been exhausted by this last ordeal. Also, I’ve been working a lot on the main and trying to keep the boat mellow, but I’ve still been keeping it going seven knots, eight knots.
I’m just in damage control mode right now, gradually trying to get back up to speed and just mitigate how many miles I lose and then figure out if I’m going to Fremantle or Hobart, I’m definitely making a pit stop. It’s not just the mainsail issues that I’m having, but I’ve been on my backup autopilot since day one. There’s a number of other issues that I’ve been dealing with for the entirety of the race. There’s been other issues that have been cropping up recently. It’s been a lot of miles on the boat, already over 10,000 miles sailed, and there’s a lot of things that need to be addressed. I’ve been doing running repairs, obviously, like everyone else. I’ve been doing running repairs for the duration of the race, but getting to port and getting some proper repairs on the main sail, but also getting some more materials on board to be better equipped to handle some more issues as they arise. It was a mad dash to get to the start line. And while I have been able to sail the boat pretty well for most of the race, and while I’ve been able to handle most repairs as they become necessary, I would like to be better prepared to handle some things, such as sail repair.
If people aren’t aware, it was in my first blog, but I had a big water ingress issue in the back of the boat on day two. I had a lot of water back there, and a lot of my repair materials got destroyed. There’s been a lot of issues that I’m dealing with, and I haven’t I guess, been as communicative as some people in the race because sometimes I just internalize when I’m dealing with issues. But definitely, I think a pitstop is in the cards. Right now, I’m just trying to cautiously make good decisions and try to get the boat down the track day by day and see where we end up.
