‘The Sickening Sound Of Tearing Wood As We Were Hit By The Wave'

A freak wave wreaks havoc on Kass Schmitt and Rupert Holmes’ 36-ft Zest as they attempt to sail to Lanzarote

There may be a good time and place to lose a rig and a large chunk of deck, but 130 miles off the north-west corner of Spain in a full gale on a pitch black night is definitely not it. Still, it could have been worse...

Zest is a 36ft one-off design by Rob Humphreys, built of strip cedar epoxy and launched in 1992. I bought her in January 2013 with the intention of competing in that year’s Original Single handed Transatlantic Race, but was unable to complete all the necessary work in time for the start.

Instead, my partner Rupert Holmes and I set about on a programme to prepare me for the 2017 OSTAR. By the end of summer 2015 we had cruised and raced her nearly 12,000 miles, mostly double-handed.

We set off from Cowes towards Lanzarote on 13 October. We were expecting an Atlantic low pressure to arrive around day 5, but the models were not agreeing on its path, so our passage plan provided for a number of contingencies with options to put into ports in Brittany, northern Spain or Portugal if needed.

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