Alex Thomson Racing have been working around the clock to manage the repairs to the VO70 (see previous story here). Progress is steadily being made to both the hull and rigging.

The hull: Significant progress inside Hugo Boss today. The outer carbon skin has been successfully laminated so the new hull section is fixed in place, and the high-density core is being fitted, ready for the carbon inner skin to be applied tomorrow.

The rigging: A fairly big day for the riggers today as “two becomes one”. The two sections of the mast – with their new inner sleeves glued into place – are joined together by the addition of two outer shells which will clamp around the inner sleeves, thus giving us a whole rig once again. It’s imperative to ensure that all the mousing lines are properly attached at this stage. There is no chance of threading them through again once it’s complete.

Splicing: Continued good progress – so much so that the splicers have started to work on the spare ropes that Alex will take with him, rather than just the ones that had to be replaced.

Overall, the team remains confident that the boat will be in the water and provisional arrangements have been made for cranes and/or lorries to enable us to get the boat back in the water on 31 October, ready for an intensive week of sailing and fine-tuning before the race start.