Invictus suffers wing damage participating in the Solent Slog

Team Invictus have continued the demolition Derby that has inflicted Steve and Fred over the last year. The Solent slog was our occasion, and what happened has been discussed and mused over, but so far with no real answers as to why the backstay really gave way. It was new(ish) rope, well treated and at the time, not even loaded at the time.

The result was "wing overboard", clipping the bow as it came down. This, and the subsequent battering by waves caused a fair degree of damage, including breaking the mast in the middle. Is it repairable? We are still looking over it and trying to decide if this changes our boat development plans. We have a choice of focusing effort onto getting this back on the water or on designing a newer better wing.

Testing times indeed. Life on a C class challenge remains an emotional roller coaster, hopefully it will start going back up again soon!

The team would like to say a special thank you to Weston Sailing Club for their fantastic hospitality and many thanks to the rib crew that helped salvage the boat and crew.

A more detailed account of events written by Gordon Kaiser can be found on Sailing Anarchy:

http://forums.sailinganarchy.com/index.php?showtopic=122434

The recovery of Invictus's wing