05.06.2004
Skandia: PUNISHING CONDITIONS IN THE NORTH ....
Twenty years ago, Skandia pioneered MultiManager investment within long-term savings products - and we are now bringing the same pioneering spirit to our sponsorship of Nick Moloney.
Supporting the Skandia MultiManager campaign are three of Skandia's leading international fund management partners - Invesco Perpetual, Gartmore Investment Managers and Merrill Lynch Investment Managers.
IN BRIEF:
* Nick's move south yesterday may have cost him miles on the leaders but it could have save him damage and costly down-time in the long run.
* Overnight the Transat fleet was shocked to learn about the dismasting of previous leader VIRBAC. The French yacht rolled though 360 degrees in 50-knot winds and violent six to seven metre seas. Skipper Jean Pierre Dick is unharmed.
* I feel a bit guilty for doing it easy down here for now while the lads in the north have been getting hammered.
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IN DETAIL :
"I was really sorry to hear the news about Jean Pierre," said Nick. "Once again, he is a long way from anywhere."
The Transat was his qualification passage for the Vendée Globe after he also dismasted in the Defi Atlantique lastDecember; the solo race back to Europe after the two-handed Transat Jacques Vabre to Brazil. "The toughest part for him, I guess, is that he knows the boat is great and fast, he just needs to keep it together. I hope this does not have too big a knock-on effect for his Vendée Globe hopes."
Around Jean Pierre, other skippers are reporting horrendous conditions. "The boat is taking such a punishing - jumping off waves and the rig flying around - it's crazy, you just want to get out of here," said HELLOMOTO's Condrad Humphreys.
New Open 60 leader Mike Golding, 210 miles ahead of SKANDIA at 0904 GMT, was also in survival mode. "The reality of these conditions is to stay in tact and safe...you go into protection mode. You stay below only go on deck when you have to," he said from ECOVER earlier today.
"I feel a bit guilty for doing it easy down here for now while the lads in the north have been getting hammered. I guess the will see the fruits of their efforts soon when they start fast reaching," commented Nick.
However he is confident he has made the right tactical choice: "No one wants to drag themselves through those conditions. I can get right back into the game if I can get some nice reaching conditions, I can easily be doing two (miles) to their one."
"From my location the sky is very grey but visibility is pretty good. I'm getting small squalls, shifting and increasing wind. The sea way is still confused and it,s also starting to get a little chilly. "I am just on the edge of a sail change which is frustrating. Every time you go for it the wind builds or dies, putting the sail you currently have up in perfect range. I tacked a few times this morning but the shifts are short lived. The port tack is now favoured but I have decided to stick with the southerly tack awaiting the south winds ahead of the next depression."
The stable conditions have allowed Nick to work through small issues onboard ("I'm probably solving pretty well") plus investing some hours in the sleep bank and logging his heart rates for the QinetiQ programme.
Before signing off, he added: "All is well onboard. My boat is great, well organized and comfortable. I feel good."
IMOCA POSITIONS 0900 GMT
NAME / SKIPPER / LAT / LONG / DIST
1. ECOVER / Golding / 52 48.51'N / 33 23.74'W / 1618 to finish
2. PINDAR ALPHAGRAPHICS / Sanderson / 54 31.54'N / 33 47.50'W / 1.89 behind leader
3. PRB / RIOU / 53 49.19'N / 33 27.14'W / 6.42 behind leader
4. CHEMINÉES P - AMOR LUX / 53 45.25 / 32 48.30'W /28.63 behind leader
5. TEMENOS / Wavre / 52 58.62'N / 32 14.96'W / 42.59 behind leader
6. VIRBAC / Dick / 54 58.09'N / 31 08.12'W / 97.53 from leader DISMASTED
10. SKANDIA / Moloney / 47 32.37'N / 27 32.37'W / 210.37 behind leader
QINETIQ FACT OF THE DAY : MAL DE MER
The motion of a sailing vessel can produce a variety of detrimental effects on human comfort, health and performance. The underlying low frequency motion can cause sea sickness in susceptible individuals (indeed the word ‘nausea’ is derived from the Greek word for sea).
Motion sickness is thought to arise from conflict between information received primarily from the visual and vestibular (balance) senses and the information expected by the brain based on past experience. This is known as sensory conflict (rearrangement) theory.
By far the best treatment for motion sickness is to build up natural habituation to the motion that causes sickness, in the same way that sailors get their 'sea-legs'. Frequent exposure to the motion that usually results in sickness produces a decline in the severity and development of symptoms, sometimes to the point where an individual suffers no-ill effects whatsoever
For more information on Motion Sickness:
http://www.nickmoloney.com/uk/default.asp?ms=content&m=displayarticle&id=11389
Further information see http://www.qinetiq.com
PERFORMANCE PARTNER OF THE DAY : MARLOW ROPES
Official Rope Supplier to Nick and the Offshore Challenges Sailing Team
http://www.nickmoloney.com/marlow
For more information visit http://www.nickmoloney.com or contact :
Helen King
hk@offshorechallenges.com
T : +44(0)870 063 0210
M : +44(0)7870 678360
NOTES :
* Nick Moloney is one of an impressive group of Skandia Set Sail athletes.
* Skandia Set Sail is a global sponsorship programme that aims to offer people more opportunities to participate in the sport on a broader level. The objectives of the Skandia Set Sail Campaign are to make sailing more accessible, grow the sport's reach and enrich peoples' lives through the sport. The Skandia Set Sail portfolio is divided into three groups; events, teams and athletes.
* The portfolio includes the title sponsorships of Skandia Cowes Week, the world's oldest and largest regatta on the Isle of Wight, UK (title sponsors for 10 years in 2004) and Skandia Geelong Week in Victoria, Australia - now twinned with Skandia Cowes Week; UK sailors Iain Percy and Steve Mitchell in their Athens Star campaign; Sam Davies, the up and coming single-handed yachtswoman and her Figaro campaign; Austrian 470 sailors, Sylvia Vogl and Carolina Flatscher; the Skandia Brown Cup, the Scottish Schools Sailing Championship; Skandia Cowes Youth Week, a leading international match racing championship, the Skandia Yachting Academy (in association with Kit Hobday's Bear of Britain) and the Skandia Maxi, Australia's biggest ocean racing yacht and line-honours winner of the 2003 Sydney-Hobart Race.
* Sail 4 Cancer is the official charity of the Skandia Set Sail programme.
* For further information contact http://www.skandiasetsail.com
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