Cayard: Pimp my ride

Paul Cayard, skipper on Pirates of the Caribbean, have the power of the word. Here is his last update. Photo: Oscar Kilhborg.
We are in the middle of a work week on the boat. The mast is down, the keel is off and the boat is in the shed. The later fact has been a great move as it has been raining a lot this week. Following the 2000 miler and the trip to Holland and back, we got enough time in the boat to know what things we wanted to change. We lined up 14 boat builders from around the world,
rented a shed, got the parts lined up and hit it hard last Thursday. Code name for the project is "Pimp my ride". Special edition T-Shirts are being made. The boat should come out of the shed this weekend and we will start sailing on Monday.
We have 15 outside contractors working on the boat this week plus our own shore team. We have four boat builders from Switzerland who work on Alinghi, we call them the Ski Team, we have four guys from Green Marine in the UK, we have 3 guys from the USA, and 5 painters from England. All these guys do is work, eat, work, sleep and work. Mark Rehana has been taking good care of them with the food. This is proving once again to be a big plus to have not just an in-house cook but to have Mark Rehana and his able assistant, Jo. They are simply the best!
Three of our competitors are also working on their boats this week. Both ABN AMRO boats and Ericsson are out of the water. Brasil 1 arrived today from their training base in Portugal. Volvo event management is setting up the race village near the club. Things are heating up in Sanxenxo.
-- Paul Cayard, Pirates of the Caribbean