Positive news for Brits Alex Thomson and Steve White who are still working to get back on the water
Britons Alex Thomson and Steve White may be working hard to get their boats ready for the start of the Vendée Globe next Sunday (9 November), but the news remains positive from both. The last minute refit of White’s Spirit of Weymouth (pictured) and the work going on to Hugo Boss at the Alliaura Boatyard shed means that both British boats should be back on the water at the weekend.
“We are actually moving forwards, definitely.’ Steve reaffirmed. “The sails will be ready tomorrow, painted and everything. We get them Friday. Painting the bottom is one schedule, despite the best efforts of the weather to muck things up. So by lunch time tomorrow (Thursday) all the bits that need to be painted orange will be done?and the new branding will be on the side.”
“But as it is you finish up mucking about like a headless chicken trying to sort out little things – plastic to go on the side to protect the soft, new paint, chasing up the last of the bits that come from the UK. But things are on schedule, nothing we can’t get over. Inside the electronics are 98% done, Fleet 77 is in and working, the generator will be stuck down now, so it’s coming on. I feel I do need to spend some time with the family before the start and I am hoping I get a couple of days away to do just that.”
Harry McGougan, Hugo Boss shore manager, also commented: “In Boat World we are just laminating the outside skins, inside skins of the bulkheads, so by tomorrow it is on to prepping the paintwork. So by the end of tomorrow we will have primer on and then the vinyl going back on for the branding.”
“In Mast World the inside shells were glued on last night and so now laminating, and the first load goes on tomorrow and then the final cook will be tomorrow evening, taking about 12 hours. The rig guys are busy getting the trip lines and mousing?Prep World we are down to making sure that the screw heads are all lined up the same way. Well, not quite, but really we have got as far as we can without the boat. There is only so much we can do until the boat is back in the water.”