Medallia lights up for Pip’s best sail of the race

After a serious rip in her mainsail, Pip could be forgiven for being a bit down in the dumps. But that’s not how this skipper operates. Pip is elated after a great night’s sailing and is trucking along the rhumb line averaging 17 knots.

Pip said: “I have just had the best night’s sailing ever - it has been absolutely brilliant! After I repaired my mainsail, I went into the night under the masthead zero and the main then I had a wind shift and needed to change the sails to the J-zero, which was a massive change and created a huge mess afterwards (see photo of cockpit). It took me an hour to make all of the changes – it was just carnage, sails everywhere, I was sweating buckets it was so hot.

The mess in Medallia’s cockpit after a sail change

“Water was coming over the deck and it was pitch dark as there is no moon at the moment. Once the J-zero was up, oh my word, we were flying – absolutely flying – and since then we have been doing an average of 17-18 knots, sometimes in the 20s.

“Medallia has absolutely lit up and it is brilliant. It is amazing; it’s beautiful sunshine, awesome sailing, it makes every single part of you sing it is so good.”

Happy Pip onboard Medallia

As of 1pm UTC, Pip is up to 13th and in a good position on the North side of the fleet.