Friday, December 28, 2007

Paprec-Virbac 2 makes repairs



Going on 46 days at sea-

Yesterday, Jean-Pierre Dick and Damian Foxall had to repair serious damage to the starboard (right) rudder following a collision with a UFO (unidentified floating object). This caused a massive impact, which was a threat to its structure, notably at high speed in the Southern Ocean. So Damian Foxall has undertaken some high precision, acrobatic work in order to reinforce the rudder with sheets of carbon. (see photos in the picture gallery).
Jean-Pierre Dick describes what happened: Damian covered the damaged area of the rudder with carbon material and coating. The idea behind it was to form a protective layer to ensure that the carbon wasn’t in contact with the sea in its raw state. At high speed, there was a risk of the rudder delaminating (ref: layers of carbon becoming unstuck). The hardest thing was gaining access to the lower section of the rudder. Damian was extended outside the boat with a harness. It was pretty acrobatic! -http://www.barcelonaworldrace.com/