Back on track

A new crewman while plans to repair Delta Lloyd are progressing at pace

Team Delta Lloyd is working on a strong comeback in the second half of the Volvo Ocean Race, starting from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The Italian company Eligio Re Fraschini S.p.a., specialising in the production of metal and composite parts, has started the process of building the new bow section. At the moment, they are milling the mould out of a big block of polystyrene. Meanwhile, former Australian ABN AMRO Two crewman, Nick Bice joined the sailing crew. He will replace Guillermo Altadill, who was only contracted for leg four and five.

Bicey is a qualified boat builder and skilled sailor. Bice gained a wealth of experience at Blue Sky Composites in Australia and worked initially as boat captain for Team ABN AMRO ending up being as watch captain on ABN AMRO Two. He was also involved in Team Amer Sports at the 2001-02 Volvo Ocean Race. His sailing career on the highest level commenced with Young Australia, the Australian entry in the 2000 America's Cup. Bice made his début as a trimmer. In 2003, he took the line-honours of the Sydney to Hobart Race with Skandia Wild Thing. More recently, he joined Team Origin as boat captain and pitman.

According to Killian Bushe, who built Delta Lloyd and who is responsible for the repairs, the boat did not suffer from the usual delamination: “The ultrasound test proved that the damage was caused by some impact. The hull is made of a sandwich construction, which means there are skins on either side of the core material. That core material was fractured by the collision. The damaged area was initially about 400-500 square millimeters, but by being unnoticed by the crew and the subsequent flexing from the continuous pounding in the large waves at the time, it increased to 3,5 meters by 1 meter wide. Once the core in a sandwich is damaged the panel can no longer support itself ”

In addition, the forward ring frame is also cracked and needs to be removed and replaced. Due to good seamanship and regular boat checks every four hours, the Delta Lloyd crew recognised the seriousness of the situation in time to secure a safe stop in Taiwan.

Bushe and his team of seven boat builders will take care of the repairs in Rio: “We will first remove all the structure in the bow and cut away the damaged panel, which will then be replaced. Eligio Re Fraschini is one of the few companies in the world that is able to shape a new panel that exactly fits Delta Lloyd at extremely short notice. The panel measures about 12 square meters, it is a bit oversized, because you never know exactly how much you need until you finally cut out the damage area. The whole process will take us about 12 days.”

Designer Juan Kouyoumdjian and Lucas Suar, provided Team Delta Lloyd with the drawings for the repair. Eligio Re Fraschini will convert them into the new bow section.

Fabio Rusconi (ITA), project manager at Re Fraschini, reports on the work in progress: “At the moment, we are milling the mould. After this, we will cover it with fiberglass and some paste and then remill it in the right dimension. The planning is to start laminating the panel on Monday, as well as the bulkhead.”