Fixing the black spaghetti

An update from +39

The hard work continues at the base of the Italian America's Cup challenger +39. Easter holidays are over, they have been celebrated with 'carbon fibre spaghetti' as an Italian daily titled it.

The work continues attempting to rebuild their broken Version 5 carbon fibre spar The bottom part of the mast has already reached already 'phase two', and is being laminated. "Positioning 50 to 100 skins of unidirectional fibre," explains the team’s shore manager Sebastiano Morassutti, "is the second step. Before there was gluing, layering and laminating. The third phase is the curing, that will be done in the oven that was given us by the Shosholoza team and which is ready to go. For superstition too, I'm not making any definitive schedule. Let’s say that we are hoping to substitute the mast during the first Round Robin.

"There are 12 to 14 people working now, some from the Soleri and Sicilcraft shipyards, some from the mast builder, Marstrom, the whole shore team, two technicians and, in shifts the whole sailing crew and the design team."

Already stepped on +39 is their old version 4 mast, and this will be tested over the next days by the crew led by Iain Percy prior to the start of Round Robin 1.

First up for +39 this coming Monday Percy, Walker, Bruni, Trujillo and the team will find themselves face to face with Areva Challenge and the Spanish hosts on Desafio Espagnol in their first race of round robin 1.