Iker: "Five days ago we had a collision with an object and we broke a daggerboard" and lost the lower 1.5 metres of the port daggerboard
Iker and Xabi repair the daggerboard on Mapfre. Image copyright Mapfre.
by Iker Martinez
Here we are, attempting to get through the Australian Barrier, to be able then go on to centre our focus on New Zealand.
There's a squall moving in from behind that we will have a hard time avoiding, and it's a big one, so we'll be treading carefully.
We're still battling with “Estrella Damm” a few miles behind. Alex and Pepe are doing really well and pushing forward at a steady pace.
Iker and Xabi repair the daggerboard on Mapfre. Image copyright Mapfre.
It's been impossible for us to push our speed up over the past few days and we've been forced to watch them catch up consistently.
The fact is that five days ago we had a collision with an object. We've had a few collisions with no consequences, but this time we broke a daggerboard.
We were sailing to starboard, first reaching and then close hauled to get through the ice gate, and we realised that a chunk of a daggerboard was missing.
There was nothing we could do at that point. It was better to carry on sailing with a piece of the daggerboard than to remove it, as we had to get through the gate, but we had already started losing ground with those behind.
From the gate onwards we got some breeze from behind and so were able to remove the daggerboard, although that was not ideal, as it meant sailing with a hole in the hull, although perhaps better than sailing with the damaged part in the water.
At first sight it looked like it was just the tip that had been damaged, a metre, or a metre and a half. It was a breakage where the bow end was more damaged and the main structure had withstood the impact better, with the deepest part now the rudder stock , totally uncovered.
What a mess! What could we do? Without a daggerboard you can survive without dropping back too much as far as Cape Horn, but after that, forget it.
Did we make a pit-stop in New Zealand or should we try to fix it on board? We were not even considering the first option, so off we set with repairs!
That's easier said than done on board. Firstly handling a part like this which weighs 100 kg and is over four metres long, whilst two of us are sailing is already tough, so we managed to remove it and propped it up to the windward side to work on it.
Iker and Xabi repair the daggerboard on Mapfre. Image copyright Mapfre.
We started by attempting to rebuild as much of the daggerboard as we could, to lose as little of it as possible. We used foam that we had in the driving seat for bow reconstruction to make the most of the deepest part of the stock (the transverse axle). The stern area had fared better.
We then had to fill the hole, because the daggerboard is hollow, so we had to close of the end. We then had to give it the most hydrodynamic shape we could, although it is almost impossible to get the original shape, which would have been ideal.
This all happened quite quickly, in just a couple of days from the collision, with very little sleep (because the only place you can scrape some time from with everything else that needs doing on board is sleeping time). The daggerboard looked better, then we had to laminate, which is a whole other story in itself.
At that point the boat was full of stuff everywhere: sandpaper, resin, glues, scraps of material... a mess! Exactly the kind of state you never want to see a boat in, and of course, the entry behind was moving closer, as our attentions were focussed elsewhere!
We couldn't move the daggerboard, so we laminated on the spot. We laminated as best we could, but you can imagine... the wet and damp, the jolts around, the wind, 'hold on, the material's moved'...etc.
So we finished and decided to cover the work area over as much as possible so that it wouldn't get wet and to see if it would dry by the next morning. That night it was five degrees outside and there were 20 knots blowing. We began to pinch at the bow and by the morning the daggerboard was soaked... the resin hadn't taken at all – a mess!
Drying the daggerboard on Mapfre. Image copyright Mapfre.
That's when we decided to move the daggerboard as best we could to move it close to the cabin hatch to try to protect it there, but we were already rushing as we were sailing port side and in just a day and half we'd be gybing again at the Australian Barrier and we'd get strong winds again, so we'd have to get it in place before then, or it would be impossible after that.
We managed to move it, with a few bashes along the way and we got the tip inside the boat, but we only gained in terms of damp. It was ten degrees inside the boat at night. It wasn't enough, so we made a small 'oven' and using the boat engine we managed to improve things somewhat.
We only had half a day left and the resin hadn't taken properly across the whole outside. We had to remove some material patches that hadn't stuck properly, but other parts looked good so we began to work on the shape using different putties.
Of course, where we needed five pots of filler, we only had one; so spreading it out as thinly as we could we managed to make it look a lot better than it had done. Night came and the putty still wouldn't set – what desperation! So we started up the engine again and made an oven and all the other funny stuff we'd been trying, but the clock was ticking and “Estrella Damm” was moving forward and getting very close.
We eventually got the part of the daggerboard out from inside the boat, but we had to gybe again because we were going into the Australian Barrier.
We gybed and got 25 knots straight away... Impossible to get the daggerboard in place with all the water on deck! Too dangerous, we could knock ourselves, so we secured it as best we could and we carried on sailing, with the hole in the water (the daggerboard case).
We were able to look at the wind forecasts and we saw that it was likely the wind wouldn't drop until New Zealand, which would mean eight days and a big squall to get through.
Mapfre. Image copyright Maria Muina/Barcelona World Race.
We didn't want to imagine getting through a squall with the daggerboard tied down to the deck. If it came loose or broke free from the ropes with the force of the water, we may lose it and it may damage other parts of the boat, being such a big part, so we decided to try to put it in place as soon as the wind dropped below 20 knots. We prepared everything, hung the daggerboard from a halyard and in a calmer spot we slowed the boat right down and got down to it.
The operation went quite well and we had the daggerboard in position – what satisfaction! We were both exhausted, dead on our feet, drained and that's when we got the report that “Estrella Damm” was just over 10 miles to our stern. We'd managed to carry out the repairs without them overtaking us, so we were over the moon! It was like going a set up!
Now we could get back to the sailing. First we had to recover ourselves. After that we could get the boat back in order and cleaned up, as it was in total chaos, and then we could get back to racing and back to working on building on the gaps with our rivals.
It's now been 24 hours since we finished the operation and we've been able to get some sleep. The boat's cleaner and we've been able to get back in the race. We are fighting with Alex and Pepe, with a steady gap, although we still need a few days to recover, eating and sleeping well. We must get ourselves back in shape for the big storm, due in 48 hours.
The daggerboard isn't the same as it was before, but it's not in bad shape. For us it's a real triumph to have been able to carry out the repairs on board and now we need to step on the gas because Alex and Pepe are giving it all they've got to get past us, which is normal.
So, as you can all see... life's certainly not dull on “MAPFRE”!
I'm off back outside as Xabi's driving and I need to take over as it's his turn to rest, and we need to recover from the exhaustion of recent days.
Video explanation in Spanish as to how the daggerboard was repaired:
Audio in Spanish from the video with Iker Martinez, explaining what happened with the port daggerboard on Mapfre
Mapfre
Barcelona World Race
