Mālama Moments: The Southern Ocean without a spare rudder

[@erikaswinburne1233]

Leadership amazing from Charlie and Sci-Fi. Crew pretty amazing as well 👏

[@slickheisenberg8208]

First team Guyots structural damage to the hull, then Malizias cracked mast, now this. It’s amazing how well all the teams handled these challenges so far. Wishing you lots of luck for the rest of this leg!

[@GermanGreetings]

I thought the same... :)

[@moster4899]

Thank you for this detailed insight, which shows very authentically and comprehensibly what challenges await the team. I pay my respect for the way the tasks are being managed. I keep my fingers crossed that the rudders will hold.

[@para1324]

Good luck and best wishes for you all.

[@jwwebnaut7045]

A remark and two tips: These boats are under autopilot all the time. I wonder if the crews keep an eye on the forces (to luff or lee) that impact the rudder/s. Two points of advice: 1. If both rudder are out, it should be possible to mount a jury rigged oar for steering. 2. If the rips cannot be repaired, there's an old trick which might stop them from lengthening: drill a small hole at the end/s of the rip. I once used it on an aluminium mast, and it was quite effective.

[@RumenLazarov]

Вие сте моят фаворит! Пожелавам ви късмет и скоро да поведете състезанието! Vous êtes mon préféré! Je vous souhaite bonne chance et menez la course bientôt!

[@peterholtei7018]

I hope that the rudder will last until you‘re in Brasil where you can change it - good luck for this and all the Best from a Malizian! Most important: stay safe!❤ you‘re all doing a great job.

[@327365hp]

Sika-flex the F out of it, then pedal to the metal! 🏁

[@sailfast2005]

Hope you all manage some sleep after that brilliant crew work.

[@rolandtb3]

Another brilliant team mini crisis documentary. Sea state, failing rudders stress fractures, replace starboard rudder, port tack, speed, potential repairs, crew safety, 2k miles to go. How hard to push, making up for lost time, fleet compression, in heavier sea state and increasing wind gusts, how long will the port rudder last? Anxiously waiting for a reply strategy for starboard rudder repair if at all possible. Dealing with time zone differences.

[@paulgush]

Yes, this was a well told story. Well done to the OBR, plus any shore crew involved

[@Eef-wg3fg]

Gosh, just think what incredible forces are at work on the equipment to find all those breaks and cracks and tears?! And what a fantastic relentless crew, to continue checking, repairing, sailing and dealing with what will be considerable tension, in this lonely part of the planet. Wow.

[@lesshort2049]

Impressive teamwork. I hope you manage a fix and that it holds. Respect. Stay safe.

[@Bob_Morrow]

So nice to see the new design makes swapping rudders a (relatively) simple task. So concerning that all three rudders are of the same build. Stay in the game it is a long race!

[@thomaspotschka5387]

It is like formula one cars on Paris Dakar race! Stay safe, folks!

[@kurtofer7988]

The professionalism and clear sightedness of the crew thru the rudder diagnosis and change is an inspiration. Yet if I were paying the bills here, I would be asking why are both of my rudders cracking? Engineering error? Fabrication error?

[@rmjryost]

Keep up the good work!

[@klausbeyenbach2959]

With all the technology and know-how, the failure of hooks, sails, hulls and rudders is astonishing. It appears that the boats are not built for the punishment they are experiencing. At least the crew is not as exposed to the elements as in previous races.

[@dixonlegrande]

Do you think you hit some ice? Cheering for you in Texas!

[@thomascooley2749]

Well considering I had yall picked for the first to sink "with all crew recovered safely" your still doing great Keep an eye on those foil control lines tho still have that and over driving the boat as the likely culprits Good luck and stay safe hope yall prove me wrong

[@cathynoorman3278]

I trust that all will be good.

[@rexwolfe9916]

Sounds like a pit stop in Hobart might be in order.

[@tree4408]

Wow. So sorry guys! Got a good hard wood plank to widdle down making a rudder!

[@FrankDelSavio]

Stay Safe!

[@russellmoore1533]

I am somewhat surprised how small the rudders are, both in actual area and their thickness. Once they clear the scoring gate, they could divert to Hobart if needed. In fact that is what I would be doing, better safe than sorry. I assume new rudders could be flown to Hobart?

[@timdunn2387]

Is that Bubs you were talking to on the phone?

[@terrulian]

I am reminded of the old saying for the AC, "If the boat finishes the race, it was overbuilt." Supposing these repairs fail, how do you steer an Imoca with one rudder? One bad one is one thing but structural damage to two is just too troubling. I would do the prudent/cowardly thing and head for Cape Leeuwin. But that, and a thousand other reasons, is why I'm not in the game.

[@stephanievegter5438]

Any duct tape in the tool box? Sorry guys for your troubles. Vasbyt. 😘♥️

[@Braelyn.the.brunette]

Grind it out..quick and dirty repair. Swap. Do the same with the other.. then back to full send!

[@Pelican5077]

Bring back the VO65s. Boats actually designed for this stuff.

[@andyslaybids]

Where were the rudders made / what shop?

[@cheva68]

Eye protection? Please?

[@FiferSkipper]

NO kidding!?! It's important when the hospital is 5 minutes away... to say nothing of how important it is when it's 5 days away!

[@ruudvanderzee]

Could you have done the rudder change solo ? Pip did it

[@Robinlarsson83]

Yeah, I assume that any of them could have done it solo, these rudder systems is designed to make that possible. But of course it would have been harder and taken longer. Also, this specific Imoca (afaik the very first one) is not designed for solo sailing at all basically. And as Kyle Langford pointed out to me when I spoke to him at a boatshow the other day (super nice guy btw), Malama was even designed for a 5 Sailor + 1 OBR crew and no autopilot, and then the rules changed to 4 sailors with autopilot. When the rule changed this boat was already in build so that probably gives them some small downsides. Afaik it was designed to have dual wheel helmstations, and that was changed to tiller fairly late in the process. That said, I havent seen a lot of massive differences on Malama compared to the other new Imocas that were originally designed purely for Solo sailing, at least visually the main systems on Malama is similar to other Imocas, I actually expected to see more VO65/VO70 style influences on 11th Hours Imoca :) Sadly I havent had a chance to get onboard any of these boats, but I atleast got to watch them for a few days close up in Alicante :D And to be fair, Pips Southern Ocean rudder change on the previous Medallia was a lot more impressive than even if one of the crew on Malama did their rudder change solo. The old Medallia didnt have kick up rudders, but rather normal underslung rudders, so its a lot more difficult to change them on the water, even more so to do it solo. The Dongfeng crew made it look easy when they did a rudder change on their VO65, but to do that solo, man, that is impressive! Pip is amazing:)

[@aaronpercy650]

how bout make the boats 100kg heavier "stronger the loss of speed will be far less then the losses incured by all the breakages they are having

[@FiferSkipper]

That was the idea behind the one-design volvo 65s, they were all built heavier but since it was a one-design fleet, the racing was still competitive. The extra speed from the IMOCAs is great for photos but not worth the trade off in breakages.

[@paulgush]

Can someone define Malama in this context?

[@TheDarkenLP]

its the boats name

[@keithc5729]

Turn off the music.

[@peterebel7899]

This is no good 😞

[@rudolfjohn4549]

0 hjemme'

[@sabretom7594]

Get your money back

[@pierpalumbo415]

I came back from the future to register: Unidentified Floating Object detection in maritime environment, is the most urgent task.