Mike Golding Yacht Racing

Gamesa, Mike Golding’s IMOCA60 is in the pit lane in Ocean Village, Southampton, with Mucky, Gringo and Mikey working hard taking the boat apart in preparation for the 2012-2013 Vendée Globe. Having sailed now a third of a Vendée Globe course, it’s a good opportunity to have the boat stripped apart, checking for damage, wear, tear and where improvements can be made.

Boat Captain, Gringo told us, “The rig has come out specifically to look at doing some testing, similar to what we did in St Barts.  We are doing NDT – non destructive testing – of the carbon rigging, which means that the team are here from Future Fibres using ultrasound to scan and check the strength of the rig. It’s just like scanning for a baby! We scan along the mast and can see if there are any hairline cracks, voids, damages from impact, anything like that. It’s a pretty standard thing to do on a solid carbon rig: we do it on the hull every year as part of our insurance.

“Mikey has been servicing the winches and generally tidying and maintaining the boat, Mucky’s been creating things in his container for the sat comm and the engine has come out and is going off to be bench tested to make sure that it still pumps out the horsepower it should be rated to.”

No rest for the wicked!