spoal: Damage on Dongfeng | Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15 – Volvo…
Damage on Dongfeng | Volvo Ocean Race 2014-15 – Volvo Ocean Race
So, if you happen to have been obsessively running the tracker app backwards and forwards to judge relative speeds on the lead boats, and if you happen to have noticed that Dongfeng’s speed dipped significantly for a short time after 1800 UTC yesterday, this is the explanation. The attachment point for a block where the largest headsail’s sheet makes an acute angle at the back of the boat gave way. That made the sheet snap forward, taking out the lifelines and a chunk of the starboard steering wheel.
Fortunately no one was standing in the angle when that happened. Chinese crewmember Horace was standing closest; it’s interesting to watch his (non-)reaction in the video.
In a posting on the team’s Facebook page they said they lost about 5 miles in the 30 minutes it took to get the headsail sheeted in again, and that there’s a slight impact in terms of being inefficiently sheeted on the port gybe. From the tracker, it looks like they’re doing just fine; they’re still trailing ADOR, but not by much.
Reposted from http://ift.tt/1DRYZv1.
Tags: vor, volvo ocean race, dongfeng race team.
