“At 9.00 UTC, (around 4am W Australia time) we had a big drama on deck.  Mohsin was steering in around 15 knots of breeze and we were sailing downwind off the north west corner of Australia, under our huge cuban-fibre genniker, the G1. Suddenly, the halyard snapped about a foot below the top of the mast – sending the sail tumbling over the side in the dark,” reported Mark Covell onboard the A100 Majan this morning. “Mohsin, Marc and Sidney were on watch at the time,” he continues. “Quick thinking by Mohsin, meant little damage was done as he turned the boat down, slowing us right down, and shouted for Paul to come up on deck.  This was quickly followed by a call for ‘all hands on deck’ – meaning we all had to jump out of their bunks and come and help. It took about twenty minutes to haul the sail back on board – it’s big, heavy and the cuban-fibre weave makes it very slippery too, so hard to get a grip on.  Currently, it is half on the deck and half down below decks, as there’s not room to stow the whole sail on deck unfurled. We think it’s undamaged, and we have ‘moused’ a line in place to thread a new halyard when it gets light. The plan is to hoist the sail from the deck in the morning.  Normally – when it’s not in use this sail all nicely furled up into a big roll.  We unroll using a furling pulley system when we need it.  So hoisting it unfurled and loose will be quite interesting”.