Skipper Charlie Enright’s 11th Hour Racing Team continues to face significant challenges on leg 3 of The Ocean Race, but the team is determined to continue racing to Itajai.
From batten tip issues that forced the team to suspend racing in the first hours of the leg to cracked rudders, Enright and his team have had plenty to keep them occupied during the opening two weeks of racing.
The latest issue is a badly torn mainsail, with the team revealing a major rip in the sail along a batten at the first reef point .
“The front structural part of reef 1 is ripped off completely, so we dropped to reef 2. We can’t use the full main or the first reef because of the rip,” explained Jack Bouttell moments after it happened.
“It’s quite hard to repair on board, nearly impossible I think, because of where it is in a structural part of the sail… I don’t know, this leg is feeling pretty painful right now.”
Given more time to assess and reflect, skipper Charlie Enright gave a situation update on Monday:
“We did just stop and take a look at the yacht and assess and we made the decision as a group to get the boat to Brazil for some TLC as we have a number of things hampering our performance at the moment.
“We talked about stopping, whether in New Zealand or Tasmania, but ultimately decided that we feel safe in proceeding. Given the weather ahead of us there will be some opportunities but we’re really racing ourselves right now. We’ll see what the future brings…
“As a team we need to engaging in one of life’s last great adventures. We’re in this together as a squad… and we’re going to get this boat to Brazil. That’s the big goal from here.”
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