Just four days into leg two of the Volvo Ocean Race, Ireland’s entry has suffered a serious setback.
The Green Dragon, right up with the leaders on this leg to Cochin in India, broke its boom as it was heading east at over 20 knots towards the scoring gate.
Ian Walker's men were not alone in sustaining damage as wind speeds consistently hit the +40knot mark and seas rose between 10 and 12 metres.
A number of the eight yachts have reported damage and shredded sails. Leg leader Puma is also considering whether to re-route away from the rest of the fleet to Cochin, having sustained serious structural damage for the second time in 24 hours.
The Green Dragon’s damage came after an eventful couple of days sailing in which the boat suffered a Chinese gybe - where the upper section of the main sail moves across the boat, filling from the opposite side, while the lower section and boom remain on the original side of the vessel. As conditions progressively worsened as the fleet headed towards the Southern Ocean, the Dragon still managed to pull off a coup when it crossed ahead of Puma by about six miles.
Then at 11am on Tuesday skipper Ian Walker sent a message to race headquarters in Portsmouth, alerting the race organisers that the boom had broken in two in a “50knot squall”.
Their position at the time was 39:41.17S , 40:28.73E - some 1,500 miles from Mauritius. Having weighed up whether to continue under jury rig to Cochin or head for Mauritius where a replacement boom could be fitted, the Dragon is ploughing onwards.
“Four days into leg two and the Southern Ocean is living up to its name. One broken steering system, one Chinese gybe, one broken boom, and now three knock-downs, but we are still charging along for the scoring gate at longitude 58 east.
“ I have to confess to being slightly nervous about our predicament, but the forecast is good and we will soon be heading north (ish ). We seem to have the boat going pretty well, but we are vulnerable to being knocked down in the frequent squalls as we are fairly committed to carrying a full main and there is no easy way to ease it.
“Down below everything is sodden as we have several leaks - one of which is the hole we drilled in the side to jury rig the steering, We also have a leaking daggerboard case, which has split. I feel a bit like the character the Black Night from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, who refuses to be beaten and keeps on fighting as his arms and legs are cut off one by one by his adversary.”
The Dragon will now focus on sailing to the scoring gate in a bid to get as many points as it can before deciding its best route to India.
