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Golden Globe Race: Igor Zaretsky's breakdown

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The week turned out to be difficult for the participants of the Golden Globe Race single round-the-world regatta.

The number of participants was reduced to 12.

First Nabil Amra, a Palestinian yachtsman, lost his steering wheel and then Istvan Kopar, an American, suffered a similar situation. Both went to land for repairs - Nabil to the island of Tenerife, Istvan to Cape Verde.

Interestingly, both sailors have the same brand of helmsman - Windpilot. There is a short video on the Windpilot blog about how the autosteering system worked on Kopar's boat, the Tradewind 35:

Note that it is the Windpilot on board «Esmeralda», the boat of the only Russian circumnavigator Igor Zaretsky.

However, Zaretsky had no problems with the autorudder yet. But the boom carriage caused some troubles.

On the 17th of July it tore the epaulette stopper, flew off and fell apart. The wind conditions did not allow for immediate repair, and the pilot lost his mainsail for a day and replaced it with a storm trimel.

The breakdown slowed Zaretsky down. He moved from seventh to ninth place and was unable to regain his position as the fleet had just entered the equatorial calm zone. The calm calm on the one hand helped the yachtsman to make necessary repairs, but on the other hand deprived him of an opportunity to catch up quickly. The fleet in Doldrums was led by the permanent leader of GGR, Philippe Pesce.

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