Technical difficulties for Transatlantic Race leader

(December 4, 2017; Day 10) – Ludde Ingvall’s CQS suffered a setback in the RORC Transatlantic Race after a technical issue quickly snowballed to significantly impact their progress toward the finish in Grenada.

“We got caught in a bad squall of probably 40 knots which resulted in a number of issues,” Ingvall reported from on board on day 10 of the race. “There has been damage to sails and onboard electronic systems, but we are still progressing towards the finish.”

Kenneth Thelen, co-skipper for Australian Maxi CQS confirmed that all of the crew of the 96ft canting keel Maxi were safe and well. “Part of our electronics failed making it hard to sail in the dark,” described Thelen. “We blew our biggest spinnaker, but it is repairable.

“As we went into a gybe, the engine stalled and we lay flat on our side for a while which resulted in a diesel spill inside the boat, so the smell is terrible in the heat! We broke the top three battens in the mainsail, but we are still sailing towards the finish at reasonable speed, in pouring rain. We will assess the situation at first light.”

At 1100 UTC on December 4th, the race tracker showed that CQS had slowed down to barely a few knots of boat speed to effect repairs. “We are back on track,” continued Ingvall. “We lost about six hours while sailing slowly and then stopped to repair probably at 90-95%, but we are now doing 14-15 knots average with G1 and a full main.”

At the time of the incident CQS was more than 400 nautical miles ahead of Jochen Bovenkamp’s Dutch Marten 72 Aragon and Southernwind 96 Sorceress, skippered by Daniel Stump. As of 1600 UTC, CQS appeared to be back at full speed, was 618.8 nm from the finish, and holding the overall ORC lead.

Eric de Turckheim’s French Nivelt-Muratet 54 Teasing Machine leads overall after IRC time correction and the majority of the record fleet are reaching at double-digit boat speed towards the finish in Grenada.

Race details – Tracker – Entrants

The fourth edition of the RORC Transatlantic Race started November 25 at Marina Lanzarote, Canary Islands with a record 23 teams racing 3,000 nm to Grenada, West Indies.