Giacarlo Pedote has arrived in Guadeloupe and closes his Route du Rhum in sixteenth position in the Imoca 60, with a time of 13 days 16 hours 32 minutes and 50 seconds. And 3,543 miles later, she says the balance is “half.” Yes, there is a little bitterness, in his words. On the second day he lost a headsail, the J2, precious due to the wind conditions he faced and this damage compromised his race. Could she have gone differently if the damage hadn’t occurred? Maybe yes. “Sailing is a sport that uses mechanical means and you have to accept it”, Giancarlo’s philosophy. That he didn’t give up, he fought and, like all regattas, he will also treasure this experience. One more step towards the Vendée Globe 2024.
That damned sail
She lost the J2 – the headsail mounted on a furler – on the second day of racing. “It was night when the sail exploded in two – he says -. She broke cleanly. I was inside the boat. There were about twenty knots of wind. The wind was strong, but it wasn’t the first time I’d sailed in these conditions. After hearing a suspicious noise, I went out to the cockpit to check what had happened and found myself faced with a piece of sail hanging from the mast and another that fell into the sea. I pulled on the tiller to slow the boat and picked up the bottom piece of sail. The operation required a lot of energy, it is a sail that measures around 100 square meters in total. My arms were congested and when I finished, I won’t deny that I cried in pain.”
He continued with the J3, but it wasn’t the same. “A genoa half the size. It wasn’t easy because the upwind conditions required the use of the J2 until the last front was passed. Because of this situation, when I passed the Azores, I didn’t feel like heading west. I tried cutting the ridge to the south, but that didn’t turn out to be a good option.
The glass half full
“I’m satisfied with the second part of the race, sailing upwind. I had good speed and despite the delay I managed to catch up with the group. I managed to find some interesting sail configurations,” says Giacarlo. “I would have liked to have done better, but sailing is a mechanical sport and you have to accept it”. And then, looking ahead: “When we compete, most of the time we find ourselves in difficult situations. For me, racing is not about having fun, but rather about doing well. Of course, there are times when the boat is doing well and it’s spectacular, but most of the time you have to be careful and calculating and that takes precedence over everything else. I have a mixed balance of this Route du Rhum. The breakage of the J2 compromised my race and I have to reflect on the different options I have taken in order to improve further”.