This photo from the Club Swan 50 Pimu this morning is sending exactly the wrong message: They had to drop out of the Pac Cup, and are now sailing home, approx. 200 miles from Marina del Rey. They separated and bent the top section of the mast track (glued on), rendering the boat to mostly sail in limp mode, which is no way to race.
I spoke with navigator Damian Craig who expressed huge disappointment. “We are super bummed as it was shaping up well. We felt good about where we were positioned, in the same lane as Ragtime who have moved up to second. But when you push hard, shit happens. No wipeouts, just the loads of ripping along with hard sails at 20 plus knots of boat speed. With the J0, IRS, and a single reef, with hit 28.5!”
Damian added “A lot of amazing work by the boat captain, a lot of practice by the crew, a lot of work on sails, crossovers and polars. And of course a lot of $$$ by the owner. But we made the decision together and we have all raced enough to understand things like this happen. I would go offshore with all these guys anytime. They are great sailors who are great people, which is not always the case.”
In this dreary photo, Damian commented that they “are under a double reef, jib and IRS. Can’t use the J0, but could maybe use the CZ. “if it was day 4 or 5, we probably would have kept going, just slower and not really racing. But one squall and big main jibe, we could lose the only piece of track we have left. That’s when someone could get hurt.”
We appreciate Damian’s forthrightness about all this. These are the stories that need to be heard, I mean read! – tempesta
