Sailing Magazine
Day 5 – 9 January 2014
Maserati’s pace slowed by overnight damage
Maserati sustained some damage overnight: a running stay snapped during a gybe and shortly afterwards, the spinnaker exploded. Both have now been replaced and the Italian VOR 70 has resumed her race to Rio de Janeiro.
Giovanni Soldini described the incidents as follows: “Last night, we realised after a gybe that the stay didn’t have the normal minimal tension and a quick check revealed that a running stay had snapped. Luckily, we had a spare aboard with us. Corrado and Guido immediately shinned up the mast to change the PBO cable despite it being the dead of night and we got back underway again. But as troubles always come in twos, shortly afterwards, just as we were gybing, the new spinnaker – which truth be told, was a little light for its job – went haywire and exploded. We are using a spinnaker that is not quite right for these conditions, but we’re doing well all the same, flying along at 20 knots.”
The overnight breakages and repairs slowed Maserati, cutting her lead over her nearest rivals somewhat. At 09h00 this morning, Maserati was 1,845 miles from Rio de Janeiro.
