Clipper 05-06 Round the World Yacht Race www.clipper-ventures.com - Übersicht Monday, 24th October 2005 Stopovers are always busy, but as we approach the end of this, the first major stopover/crew changeover of the 05-06 Race it is interesting to reflect on the past few days and the amount that has been achieved. The biggest story on arrival was the forestay failures on 4 boats. Glasgow’s had been the first to go, followed by Qingdao, Jersey and New York. The swift actions of Skippers and crews in all cases ensured that damage was minimised and that the boats were able to continue on to Salvador at very reasonable speeds. But this still left us with the question of why it had happened. With the phone lines red hot between Race HQ, the affected boats, our base in Salvador and the manufacturers in Cape Town we explored all possible causes and it was agreed that no matter what the fittings throughout the fleet all had to be replaced. Two riggers were dispatched from South Africa, spare fittings were couriered in from the States, and Clipper Finance Director Jeremy Knight managed to successfully bring around 50 kilos of assorted metal bits through UK airport security and Brazilian customs without close personal inspection. The fittings failed where the stud at the base of the forestay attached to the bow chainplate due to insufficient articulation of the joining toggle. This meant that as the forestay itself flexed, the stud at its base didn’t, resulting in a large amount of lateral leverage which was eventually sufficient to break the fitting. As well as replacing all the studs and toggles the riggers have also added another toggle to ensure full articulation in all directions and are doing final rig checks and set ups over the course of today. The other problem was the failure of the primary satellite communications systems on some of the boats. This had started with Westernaustralia shortly after leaving Liverpool, followed not long after by an intermittent problem on Glasgow. Although not a problem for safety as both boats had operational backup systems for communication with Race HQ, this was a major inconvenience as it prevented normal crew use of email and telephone facilities. Replacement units had been dispatched from the States to Portugal but unfortunately sat in customs for a week, eventually being released 3 hours after the boats had left. On the way to Brazil, first Singapore and then Cardiff suffered the same problem. From a distance the manufacturers were unable to figure out what was causing the normally rugged and reliable sets to fail so sent a technician to Salvador to meet the boats and fix the problem. After several long days of changing both hardware and software the systems on all boats are now fully up and running. The nice thing about coming back to somewhere Race after Race is the relationships one builds in places far away from home. Eduardo the sailmaker, Igor the local electronics expert and of course Dominique and his team – Sheila, Maira and Nicola - at CENAB have once again successfully dealt with any problem, big or small, and have further reinforced Salvador’s reputation as a worthy venue for major yacht races. And when we leave tomorrow its straight into the next event as they await the arrival of the first of the Mini-Transat fleet. And if the crew thought that conditions were cramped on the 68s…………… Copyright © 1996-2016 - SEGEL.DE