Shredding sail

From the French AC base in Lorient Sebastien Destremau describes a nerve racking incident during training

Friday, we took FRA46 out for a practice session in heavy weather. The training program was manoeuvring in 23 to 28 knots of wind...and it proved tough, real tough!

After going upwind for ten minutes, we turned around the top mark to hoist the spinnaker as usual. In this sort of wind, the spinnaker hoist is never easy but we've managed to do it properly. Then arrived the time to throw the first gybe in. Ouch! That was not going to be easy... At first, we started to pull the mainsail in using six people on the winches ... and it didn't move at all ... the second go was better timed (after we gave the 'dark look' to the guy who's winch was not connecting properly) ... inch by inch the mainsail started to come in slowly (the power is incredible) and then faster and faster ... the runners man was pulling the rope as quick as he possibly could and, on the other side I was awaiting for his 'all clear' shout before releasing mine.

So, when I heard the 'all clear', I quickly released the runner on my side. And I heard a big bang above my head. Ooops, did I do anything wrong? The whole team feared for the worse and looked up to see if the mast was broken. Thankfully it was not but the 220sqm Kevlar/carbon fibre mainsail was in two pieces, shredded like a simple sheet of paper.

But this was just the beginning. The procedure was to complete the gybe before trying to do anything else, but without the mainsail's power the America's Cup yacht's was losing her balance and started to roll from one side to the other. just thinking about it and shivers are going down my spine.

The guys at the bow were working real quick to put the spinnaker pole back into position before starting the spinnaker take down manoeuvre .... But without the mainsail to mask the spinnaker in this breeze, the drop was going to be something else.

Now, close your eyes and try to imagine the following picture: the helmsman, alone at the back of the boat, driving a 25 ton yacht, screaming down the bay off Lorient at 15 knots of speed, rolling from one side to the other with his massive Kevlar/carbon mainsail split clean in two...and the 15 other crew members, all at the bow of the yacht, wrestling down a 500sqm spinnaker which wants to do just one thing, ... to fly away as far as possible from the boat...

On top of this, dead ahead of us Ilse de Groix was approaching real quick! We had to be fast if we didn't want this incident to become a real drama! No sign of panic on board though - the boys knew exactly what needed to be done - just it was much harder than normal and normally it is already very hard!

We finally managed to put the spinnaker back on board, then, it was just a matter of going head to wind, dropping the remnants of the mainsail and taking the tow back to the base.

Everyday on these boats, we realise that a simple incident can turn into an hectic situation within a few minutes, but thanks to the training and preparation, last Friday was just another day at the office.

The de-briefing took place in the sail-loft around the ripped sail and, at the end, the whole team took their hats of and observed a minute of silent in memory of the dead mainsail. What a sad moment it was ... but the show must go on!