Mark Lloyd / www.lloydimages.com

Musandam-Oman Sail breaks foil

Sidney Gavignet-skippered MOD70 down to 70% potential

Monday July 9th 2012, Author: James Boyd, Location: none selected

Musandam-Oman Sail, the Omani MOD70, was lying in fourth place in the Krys Ocean Race fleet alongside Michel Desjoyeaux’ Foncia and Sebastian Josse’ Groupe Edmond de Rothschild, 1,000 miles into the race from New York to Brest when shortly before midnight (UTC) the lifting foil in her port float broke. There are now two boats limping in the MOD70's first transatlantic race, following Race for Water's daggerboard damage after a collision with a submerged container yesterday.

“We were going between 30 and 32 knots in about 25 knots of breeze when we noticed the boat had slowed down and the bow was digging in deeper than usual,” explained skipper Sidney Gavignet.

It is not clear why the carbon fibre foil broke, but it is one of two options - either it failed or it collided with something in the water. The latter seems unlikely given Gavignet's comments. The foil has since been removed and put down below. Further investigations will take place when the boat reaches land.

“We didn’t feel anything and couldn’t see any reason why it happened," continued Gavignet. "It is not good news - we are now sailing at 70% of our potential – the other boats are going at 30 knots but we are at around 25 which is disappointing but there is nothing we can do until we get the boat to Brest and have a look. Until then, we will just keep going.”

The crew are all safe, Gavignet added though naturally they were all disappointed after making a good start to the race where they were leading during the first 24 hours.

 

Latest Comments

Add a comment - Members log in

Latest news!

Back to top
    Back to top