Robert Stanjek hopes to move on from ‘disaster’ for Guyot environnement in Leg 3 of The Ocean Race

GUYOT environnement – Team Europe team member Robert Stanjek admits pulling out of Leg 3 of The Ocean Race was a ‘disaster.’

The team and the German crew-mate were anticipating the “longest downwind leg of my life,” which would have been the first time he had rounded Cape Horn.

However after little more than three days into the leg, the team’s skipper Benjamin Dutreux decided to pull out when parts of the hull were delaminating under the repeated exposure to forceful waves.

“At the very beginning, it felt super scary,” said Stanjek. “Like, the noise was very crispy and when you see a big floor panel moving up and down almost eight centimetres, that’s pretty scary. And you don’t even know how the outer skin of the hull is looking.

“We put a lot of heavy equipment on this panel to put some pressure on it, to stop it moving up and down. But we worried, what would happen if it all opened up? I don’t know if the pumps would have managed to work against it [the water ingress], and if things could have gone really wrong for the boat.”

The crew prepared their boat for the worst case scenario, readying lifejackets nd survival suits, and plans were made for repairs in Cape Town when it became apparent that the boat would remain seaworthy.

After abandoning the leg, Stanjek has enjoyed time at home.

. “The kids are a good distraction, they help you take your mind away from things. There’s not much time for living in the past,” he explained. “So I got over it, but I remember, for the first six or seven days I was home, I didn’t once look at the tracker. It was, still is, very painful. I mean, we are missing a very important piece of this circumnavigation. The chances to go to that part of the world don’t come along that often.”

Looking ahead to the rest of the race, he added: “I’m pretty sure if we manage to bring in some solid results, this disaster will wash away a little bit. Not just for us, but for our partners, for the tech team, for the sports team.

“Everybody is a little bit disappointed, but I think this race is also about whether you can do some solid, successful single legs as we [did] on the overall scoreboard. We are all very much looking forward to the coming legs, we’re motivated and focusing on the strong sides of the team. We have analysed our mistakes and we have worked out ways of improving. We have good sailors on the team, we have less hours of wear on the sails, the boat is fixed and back together. Let’s bring it on!”

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