It was initially suspected that Green Dragon, who snapped their boom in a 48-knot gust just three days out of Cape Town, discussed stopping at Mauritius to pick up a spare only to drop the idea in favour of a jury rig.
However, Walker confirmed that plans were so advanced they had even received clearance from authorities at the island of Diego Garcia to fly in their replacement boom from Amsterdam.
It was only when the island refused permission for the boat to dock that the idea was scrapped altogether and the team proceeded to a hard-fought seventh place finish.
"Our immediate reaction was that we needed a spare boom," said Walker, whose team sustained the damage some 1,500 nautical miles from Mauritius and a further 2,000 miles from Cochin. "We made a plan to go to Diego Garcia, the British Island where the Americans hang out (the United States have a military base on the depopulated island).
"We organised flying the boom to Diego Garcia. The Americans were very helpful, they said we could bring the boom to Diego Garcia but said ‘you can't bring the boat'. We decided we were actually sailing pretty well without it."
So well, in fact, that the team was fourth with just 24 hours remaining and only fell three places in the final cut and thrust up the coast of India. Despite the set-back, Walker insisted he had one of the stronger boats in the fleet.
Walking the weight/reliability tightrope
His keel bulb prior to the race start in Alicante weighed in at approximately 6,960 kilograms, making it the second lightest in the field behind Team Russia. It meant the team had put more weight in the structure of the boat, unlike the Ericsson boats and Telefonica Blue, which all had the 7,400 kilogram maximum, while Telefonica Black (7,359) and PUMA (7,362) were all close to the limit.
Generally speaking, a heavier keel bulb equals more stability in the breeze and that means a faster boat. But cutting weight from the structure of the boat to pile into the keel bulb always comes at a cost.
Walker went on to draw a parallel between the weights of those bulbs and the structural damage twice endured by PUMA, and the broken port daggerboards belonging to both Telefonica boats. In the instances of Telefonica Black and Blue, the team has yet to rule out collisions as the cause rather than structural failure.
Walker said: "There is always a trade in how strong you make things and how much they weigh. We built our boat pretty strong and we have paid in our keel weight. PUMA have built their boat pretty light and have a big, heavy keel bulb and they had structural problems at times.
"Telefonica, you can see them walking around with daggerboards in one arm. Clearly they are a lot lighter than ours. We need three guys to pick ours up. You make choices. You build it stronger and make it more reliable or you push the envelope. It's the team who treads that line and manages that the best that will get the best result."
A small problem grows
Walker refused to blame the damage for their seventh place finish on leg two, but admitted he was not sure what caused the boom to break in the first place.
He said: "In sailing very often you start with a small problem and it turns into a big problem. When we left Cape Town as soon as we hit the Agulhas Current we couldn't get the mainsail down to reef. Most gusts had been in 30s and then we got hit by one at 48 knots and we still had a full main.
"We had a bit on and the boom snapped. I don't think the boom should have snapped. We are still trying to work out why it snapped. It's a race boat, you have to know when to back off, you have to look after your gear. We were right on the edge.
"I don't think it was a handling error, we were just reaching along. You don't know whether it's a design or construction issue or maybe we damaged the boom at some point over the last three months."
Regardless, the team was eager to put the seventh place result firmly behind them. After finishing in the early evening yesterday, Walker had to rush from the press conference to join his teammates who were heading out for a test sail. They'd barely spent 12 hours ashore and hadn't yet fitted the new boom. Maybe they don't need it after all.