Newrest – Brioche Pasquier break the spi

Newrest - Brioche Pasquier broke the spi in half without an explicable reasons, early this morning while sailing in normal wind conditions slightly below the latitude of Cape Finisterre.

Unfortunately the status of the sail does not allow any repairs, and the absence of a major sail will affect the performance of Fabrice Amedeo and Giancarlo Pedote over the rest of the regatta to Brazil, especially in trade winds.

Contacted this morning, Fabrice Amedeo explained what happened: « We exploded the spi in its middle, without a specific reason. It was not slammed and we sailed under normal conditions. We had 20 knots of wind, we were slightly below Cape Finisterre. It happened at dawn, while the starboard side, tack to wrap around the anticyclone and go South. The sail is now unusable and will be missed it very much in the trade winds. But we do "the best of a bad luck" and in mind we only have the idea to continue our ride to the maximum towards Brazil. Morale on Board remains good ».

On the ground, the team Newrest-Brioche Pasquier is studying a possible solution to replace the sail, but unfortunately, it doesn't look like that a possible stop in the Azores or the Canary Islands to retrieve a new spi could be a win-win solution, compared to the time they woud lose in the stop and go.