In the second stage of the VOR Brazil had a structural breakage in the cover that forced to him to saturate urgently in a port of the South Africa to carry out the necessary repairs. They lost many days and the possibility of reaching at the top of race. When returning to leave way Melbourne, the last boat in race, the ING. was to more than 1000 miles ahead, but she did not run to all their power because of problems with the track of the major.

Brasil1 was during many days sailing with very high averages and recovering miles day after day. The boat walked to a regime rampant, although not more than the ABNs in head.

No longer they were rociones…  The water strained to the interior, forming powerful rivers that descended by the stairs, giving work without rest to the bailing pumps. Sometimes the cover disappeared almost completely under waters of the waves that broke hauls in it of the helmet.

At heart, it was not either an abnormal situation in a race like the VOR, in which the boats that compete are authentic pumps of “Formulates 1” sailor.

The wind blew to 18 knots, and the conditions of the sea were smooth. We sailed with gennaker and the major to the maximum, canteada keel and the boat gliding to 20 knots of speed. While it rested in my bunk, I listened to a sudden “Bang”. After very long ones and shut up seconds the noise of the carbon fiber was heard withdrawing. In few seconds we were all in cover observing all the equipment thrown hauls in on it of leeward. The wood was divided in three pieces, of which the inferior remained getting up on the cover. The central fragment rested on the bathtub and the superior oscillated on the waves past the stern of the boat. We had much luck of not having no wounded crew member.

Spent minutes we began to react. Each would be in charge of a task, but we did not know by where beginning. All that rigging dough was an authentic maze of cables and fragments, some of sharp them. To all the part superior of the wood in the water it struck the rudder with the risk of breaking it. The greater danger in case of mast breakage usually is the possibility that this I acted as a ram and breaks the helmet doing a hole around the waterline. We discuss the options while others packed down what they could be separating of the maze.

Constantly we asked ourselves: “What has happened? Has jumped some shroud? Why now, if we did not take the boat to top and the conditions were good?

First it was to avoid the conditions that could originate more damages. At the same time we realized that we could not separate the candles of the track of the wood, but needed all the fragments and mainly we could not break the major that floated in the water, since it would not be possible to in time make a new one for the rest of the stages of the race. To break it would have been a total catastrophe. The great waves were something, but the wind relaxed a little, so that we tranquilized ourselves and we began to act. One was to carry out the work passage after step. They worked separating the tensions and ironworks, while others ordered and kept the pieces that were taken shelter. Andre Fonseca our brave diver, dress with the neoprene and moored by an end was thrown to the water to dive in cold waters and to cut the halliard to them of the major in the head of the wood, that already began to sink. Also we could save gennaker submerged and to reclaim all the fragments of the wood. A great work…

We had to save the third fragment of the tronchado wood already half sunk. A fragment of 12 meters in length that continued crawling by the stern and that exerted much resistance to the recovery. We went recovering meter to meter while we cut the rigging retained that it. It was not nor a single piece in the water, with the exception of the wind measurer of the head of the wood that was lost in the impact.

We begin to prepare an equipment of fortune with the 6 meters of wood that were still on. All we reacted of different ways. Some very calm, others spoke without stopping, some behaved of a hyperactive way, and they could not stop climbing up the small wood to try to organize something or to observe above from all the scene.

With the equipment of fortune and the candles used for this occasion we sailed to near 9 knots with winds of 35 knots, but the storm that approached forced to us to change totally of course and to approach to us making North the Australian coast. After days we decided to leave the stage and to reach the Australian coast to the maximum possible speed, that is to say motor, to be able to have the sufficient margin of time to repair the boat, and to begin regata coastal and 3º stage in the best conditions.

We did not have fuel so that “we were” in half of discharge with a fishing boat to refuel. This it left a “rosary us” of tied cans to an end that we were recovering until securing about to 600 liters of diesel engine and fresh foods!