Translated9 Cape Horn victim. Damaged hull, grounded in the Falklands

Cape Horn struck again. “We are out.” That’s the dramatic message sent by Translated 9, the Italian boat that is stranded with its hull ripped open in the Falklands after facing a storm with 7-meter-high waves after crossing Cape Horn.

Why Translated9 withdrew

The Swan 65 Translated 9 was participating in the Ocean Globe Race, the crewed round-the-world race in stages without electronic instruments where it was leading after the first two legs. But the third, the one at Cape Horn, was fatal.

January 14 marked the start of the third of the Don McIntyre-organized regatta, the toughest one from Auckland (New Zealand) to Punta del Este (Uruguay), passing Cape Horn, which has not belied its name. While Translated was in second position (but first on corrected time), behind Marie Tabarly’s Pen Duick VI, the boat started taking on water consequent to two hull damages.

One, the one at the rudder, was found to be unrepairable under sail and Translated had to head for the Falkland-Malvinas Islands.

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Once they reached the calm waters of the remote islands disputed by Argentines and Britons, the irreversible happened. The damage to the hull is not repairable by the crew, so the boat must be winged, which involves interventions from the outside. But the Ocean Globe Race rules that retrace the original Whitbread of ’73/74 prevent receiving outside help. Translated thus had to withdraw from the third stage.

The “Malingri-Gate”

This is not the first time that the Swan 65 Translated9 has made waves. At the end of the second leg, in Auckland, Vittorio Malingri, until then of the boat’s skipper, had to disembark to reduce the penalty imposed on the boat. The famous sailor had taken the sails to be repaired in the sailmaker’s shop in contravention of the regulations that allowed repairs only on board.

Translated9: “We will start over.”

In the dramatic message posted by Translated9 owner Marco Trombetti, it is announced that he is withdrawing from the third leg to repair the boat and prepare for the fourth and final leg, from Punta del Este to Southampton (UK) . Translated9 does not give up.