April 20, 2024

Dee Caffari (Aviva) in an e-mail to her shore team speaks of her concerns. “I am so anxious about my mainsail all the time and it is stopping me pushing the boat a bit and affecting how I sail. I am hugely worried about it. I have half way around the world to go to keep it together. It is something in the lamination process and just one of those things. I have to keep on doing what I’m doing until I get back. It won’t look pretty but I have to work at keeping it together. My latest plan is to paint it with epoxy resin from the boat building kit which seems to be working but I can only do it in patches because it makes the sail very stiff. And when you bend it, it breaks. I have to do this either until the end of the race or until everything runs out. I am running out of sail repair kit and I will be running out of resin after a while. But I can only do what I can do but it makes me cautious so now I am avoiding the wind and not enjoying the wind. It is annoying because it is beyond my control. If the mainsail blows up it is a very long race just with headsails. It is really annoying as the rest of the boat is great and desperately wants to be on fire and show everyone what she can do, but I am so worried about the mainsail it is hard to enjoy any strong breeze.”

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