Hello from Spirit of Canada
It’s been a busy week for Patianne and I here in Hobart as we deal with the many issues surrounding the repair of Spirit of Canada. On Wednesday, we took the Open 60 around to the inner harbour and with the help of INCAT and the port authourity; TAS Ports; took the mast down with a crane. The mast is now safely stored in one of their warehouse facilities and will be there until we put it back up in a few weeks. On Friday, after dealing with the Customs paperwork, I shipped the broken pieces back to Composites Solutions in the Unites States and they will fix and/or replace the spreaders. It is a real testament to CSI and their carbon mast manufacturing ability in the fact that the mast is still standing. The mast did a lot of wobbling on the 1000 nautical mile sail to Hobart but remained intact. The five pieces of synthetic rigging that were damaged by the flogging spreaders have been packaged up as well and sent to Navtec in Connecticut for repair. We continue working on the long list of smaller repairs on the boat to bring Spirit of Canada back into fighting trim.
We also continue to work towards a plan to ship the boat home but there are many logistical and financial hurdles in order to complete this option. Our preference is to ship the boat to save the wear and tear on the boat but the cost of shipping the boat north is $110,000. We will continue to look for a sponsor to help finance this option. Obviously, it can be sailed back to Canada and that is why we are fixing the mast and getting the boat ready to sail so that this option is available. The repair bill for the mast, rigging, sails and assorted repairs and logistics alone will be around $80,000. Since the retirement from the race, we have received approximately $22,000 in donations from individuals and corporations wanting to help get us home so we need to raise another $58,0000 to bring the boat back to sailing configuration.
I’m following the race now when I can and I must say that it’s tough not being out there racing. As you can imagine, it was a real shocker to have to quit the race so suddenly and I am still recovering from it. The ocean is indiscriminate in its dealings with sailors and constantly reminds me that you cannot fight the elements but only learn to deal with the conditions. The blow of the retirement is even harder knowing that we were performing well and might have had a decent result given a finish. The attrition rate for this edition has been difficult and many of the incidents will have to be discussed by the organizers, skippers and sponsors going forward. IMOCA is already planning the next discussions and the evolution of the safety rules for the future of the class and the boats. I wish all of the remaining skippers good luck on their drive to the finish line.
We are still struggling here a bit logistically as we cannot secure permanent accommodation and access to the internet. That being said, we are making good progress and the Spirit of Canada Team is totally committed to getting the boat back into racing configuration and moving forward towards being back out sailing again.
Take care,
Derek