The race was hard from the start: ten days after leaving Alicante, Team Vestas' outrigger suffered a brake, losing momentum as a result. Undeterred, the watch captain Robert Salthouse, took control of the situation and got on with it. Armed with his carbon fibre Composite Patch repair kits that all the ships carry onboard, he managed to join together the two pieces of the splitted outrigger. 

He used some of the tips&tricks that were shared with all teams by the composite patch staff in Alicante before the race start, using shrink tape and boiling water to speed up the hardening of the resin and eliminating possible porosities of the laminate – something made possible by the specially formulated epoxy contained in the composite patches. 

A top class job with which, despite the drawbacks, “Salty” saved precious time in such a close competition like these one design boats are proving to be .

Watch the Team Vestas repair

And congratulations to Brian Carlin, the on board reporter who took a great picture of the repair!

                                   ^{Brian Carlin / Volvo Ocean Race}

For Team Mapfre things weren't easier. Bowman Antonio Cuevas-Mons "Ñeti" and trimmer Anthony Marchand improvised a small workshop on the deck of the boat to repair another damaged outrigger. This was summed up by Team Mapfre's shore crew manager, Ben Wright:

"The epoxy patch kit contains different types of Composite Patch units that have already been used with great success in this leg. Anthony and Ñeti repaired the outrigger with that. These patches have different weights and resin mixture is already calculated for you, it's excellent, a Spanish product very well done."

Watch Team Mapfre repair

Team Brunel also had to put on their boatbuilding repair skills to practise with some more repairs just a few days before reaching Cape Town.

See video

Situations like the ones experienced by these teams are merely the tip of the iceberg compared to what awaits them in the next seven months. With this in mind, the teams and the boatyard of the Volvo Ocean Race have already ordered a new batch of Composite Patches to replace the units that have used so far.

In an extreme competition like the Volvo Ocean Race, every minute matters. Crews must deal with the unexpected at any time, in any place of the world and under any weather condition. It is crucial for them to trust a repair system which allows them overcome difficult situations and keep going.

They all trust Composite Patch.