Multiplast meets its challenge in the Vestas repairs

______________________________________________________________________
On the 29th of November during the second leg of the Volvo Ocean Race from Cape Town to Abu Dhabi, Team Vestas ran aground on the St Brandon Archipelago reefs off the Mauritius coast. All hope of returning to the race seemed impossible at the time...

The actors mobilize and plan forms

What seemed impossible a few weeks ago, was in fact starting to seem possible.

The organisers of the Volvo Ocean Race , Team Vestas Wind's sponsors and the consortium that had been in charge of the building of the monohulls came together to try to find a solution. The aim : to reunite Chris Nicholson's team with their boat so that they would be able to race the last two legs.

The repairs

While Vestas's technical team, driven by Neil Cox, recovered the wreck from the reefs, the Carboman group was setting up a dedicated team to enable the work to be completed in the shortest time. At Multiplast in France, the plan was to rebuild the aft deck that had been completely destroyed during the accident, the tramson, the companionway bulkhead, the ballasts, as well as the communication pod. In Switzerland, at Décision SA, builders were taking care of the construction of new structural panels.

Photo Brian Carlin/Team Vestas Wind/Volvo Ocean Race

It took some 4,000 hours of work to achieve in just seven weeks all of the pieces that would need to come together for the boat's repair. But come together they did and today the road convoy has just left Multiplast to deliver the pieces to Persico Marine, which is situated in the Milan area. The completion of the repair now continues at the Italian yard.

Yann Penfornis : " It's with great relief and pride that we said goodbye to the road convoy at Multiplast. It represents such a lot of work in such a short period of time, so much so that, to be honest, we were not completely sure that we would be able to meet this challenge. That we did so is down to the talent and the dedication of our team - a big 'thank you' to them. Now, my task is to support the other members of the consortium, Green marine and Persico, to launch the boat as soon as possible".

The Multiplast team cannot wait to see the seven monohulls on the start line in Lorient.

Aft deck leaving Multiplast yard

For more information :

Contacts : 

Yann Penfornis : + 33 2 97 40 98 44 / + 33 6 12 05 86 97

 Internet links :

Volvo Ocean Race

Team vestas Wind

"If your dreams don't scare you, they are not big enough"