PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG were weighing up their options on Tuesday after dismasting in the South Atlantic. They are heading towards the remote volcanic island of Tristan da Cunha under jury rig fashioned from the remaining stump of the mast while their shore crew work tirelessly with race control to find a solution to get their boat, Mar Mostro, to Cape Town.
PUMA trailed Telefónica by just 31 nautical miles when their 31-metre mast came crashing down while sailing in 23 knots of breeze on Monday.
Volvo Ocean Race CEO Knut Frostad, a four-time race veteran, said the PUMA crew now faced their biggest challenge as they raced to get to Cape Town.
Despite a solid 96 nautical mile lead at 1300 UTC over second-placed CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand, Telefónica skipper Iker Martínez said his crew were painfully aware of the fine line between sailing fast and pushing too hard as they punched through the 2,000-nm countdown to the finish.
“Yesterday it was made even clearer to us that the leg isn't over until you actually cross the finishing line,” he said. “It wasn't a nice feeling at all to leave our closest rivals throughout the whole leg behind like that, 2,000 miles from the nearest coast and with no mast, but we have total trust in the fact that the organisers have the situation under control.
The 39,000-nm Volvo Ocean Race is renowned as one of the world’s toughest sporting challenges – and that reputation has been cemented with three of the fleet forced to retire from the first of the nine legs around the planet.
On the first night of racing Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing suffered a broken mast and Team Sanya pulled out due to structural damage. Both teams plan to rejoin the fleet for the Cape Town In-Port Race on December 10 and the Leg 2 start the following day.
Elevated into second place in leg one, CAMPER’s celebrations were short-lived after bowman Mike Pammenter was washed into the rigging by a wave, smashing out a front tooth and cutting his face.
Franck Cammas’ Groupama sailing team, lagging by 277 nautical miles at 1300 UTC, were racing to catch a front that would propel them to Cape Town. If they miss it Cammas said they could expect to be at sea an extra 24 hours.