The Oryx Quest 2005 www.oryxquest.com - zur Übersicht 23.02.2005 Geronimo update Just as dawn was breaking, the massive trimaran Geronimo made landfall in Fremantle, Western Australia, to begin the work necessary to repair damage the boat sustained five days ago when it was pounding upwind in the southeast trades. Before reaching land skipper Olivier de Kersauson touched on how difficult it is going to be to get the boat repaired in time to still reindex competitive in the race. “Time is running through our fingers like sand”, he said. “This persuasive and realistic image is all too real out on the water. The other Oryx Quest competitors are now galloping away at some speed, and every hour that passes makes the race against the pitiless clock even more of a challenge.” The boat docked around 4 a.m. local time and work started immediately. Here is an update from Australia. Will Oxlee navigiert Doha durch iceberg country ”Thanks to the skill and fantastic commitment of the Fremantle Sailing Club and its members who provided Geronimo’s crew with five RIB’s and the club’s tug, the massive Capgemini/Schneider Electric trimaran has been towed safely into the marina and finally moored alongside a 40-metre stretch of quayside at the centre of the club. Thanks to the enormous amount of human, technical and logistics resources put in place by the Milner boatyard and the Swiss composite materials (carbon fibre) specialist Patrice Allaz, work began immediately on the cracked starboard crossbeam that forced Geronimo off her racing track and into the Australian port for an enforced stopover. By 5 a.m. (local time): The crossbeam had already been dried by the three Australian technicians, with assistance from most of Geronimo’s crew, including Olivier de Kersauson’s mate Didier Ragot. By 6 a.m.: Using a vacuum pump, the gaping hole in the crossbeam was dry. By 7 a.m.: The technical team had begun to strip away the outer layers, opening and enlarging the hole to conduct a minute examination of the damaged fabric. Using an ultrasound scanner, Patrice Allaz scanned the area to measure the extent of the damage and, more particularly, any sign of delamination. By 10 a.m.: The diagnosis was complete: “Without a shadow of a doubt, Geronimo has had a violent collision with a solid object – probably a tree trunk – which has had the effect of penetrating the arch of the starboard crossbeam right through to the pure carbon fibre core (4-5 cm thick). The outer fairing is burst, crushed and split over an area 30 cm wide and 60 cm high”, explained Patrice Allaz. By 12:00: The repair work had been scheduled: rebuild the inner skin, replace and profile the Airex foam, cure the carbon fibre (plus polymerisation) and finally, assuming all goes well during these demanding initial phases, rebuild the external skin of the crossbeam. It’s a big and demanding job and no one can yet be sure how long it will take. Stand by the Oryx Quest 2005 website for more updates as we receive them. --- Brian Hancock brian.hancock@qisel.com www.oryxquest.com Iceberg country This is the part of the race where it all gets interesting. At the 07:00 GMT poll on Wednesday morning Doha 2006 was deep in iceberg country sailing at 53 degree south. They had been deeper during the night, but around 22:00 GMT on Tuesday they turned north, perhaps as a matter of prudence. Below decks navigator Will Oxlee has spent most of the night monitoring the radar, looking for solid water. It’s not an easy task as he points out in his daily log. “It is pitch black outside. We are hurtling along at 30 knots, and it is freezing!” he wrote. “I am huddled down below at the nav station staring bleary eyed at the radar screen. We are at 53 30 south, around 1200 kilometers due south of Tasmania. The water temperature is 5.4 degrees Celsius and we are just north of the Antarctic convergence zone. The best information we have suggests that there is no ice in this part of the world, but with the water temperature below 6 you need to be really careful.” Oxlee’s use of the word ‘careful’ is a massive understatement; hitting an iceberg at 25 knots is no different from driving a Ferrari into a brick wall at speed. The damage will be catastrophic. The options for the crew, however, are limited. There are only two ways to pick up ice; a good radar, or a good spotter on the bow of the boat, but neither method is 100% reliable. The spotters have a hard time differentiating between a cresting wave and a chunk of ice. They look the same, especially to a tired crewmember whose imagination is on an adrenaline charged high. Icebergs themselves are not a huge worry. It’s the small pieces that break off the berg that present the most danger to a sailboat. These chunks of ice, usually the size of a small car, break off the index berg and float on the surface of the water, sometimes above the surface, sometimes below. They are very hard to see with the naked ey! e during the day, and all but impossible to see at night. The ! radar al so has a hard time picking them out so it becomes a game of Russian Roulette, something best left for Las Vegas, and likely not something these sailors signed up for. Will Oxlee has a lot of responsibility riding on his shoulders and he uses his instruments to their full capability. The radar has an alarm that can be set to go off if anything comes within a pre-set range of the boat. If the alarm is set for 2 miles and a ship or iceberg crosses into the range, a loud alarm will sound, but like most electronics, they are not totally reliable as Oxlee describes in his log. “Every so often the roaring of the water past my frigid hollow is interrupted by the insistent beeping of a target triggering off the guard alarm on the radar. So far the echo’s have just been rain squalls, but each time I carefully watch the screen to see how often the echo is repasted. As a rule you ignore things until they repaste at least three times. Often an especially large wave will ! show up as it rears up some miles ahead of us, but these echo’s don't last for long. The rain squalls paste repeatedly, but they tend to have ragged edges and change shape over time as you watch the screen. Ships, of which we have seen none for days, paste as a solid, distinct echo. Icebergs...well here’s confession time. I have never actually seen an iceberg echo on a radar screen in the wide ocean. I've seen them in places like Glacier Bay in Alaska, but not down here. So what the heck am I looking for as I stare at the screen. A consistent target a bit like a ship I guess, but perhaps larger.” Sailors transiting these frigid water do have some tools at their disposal. Satellite images are able to pick up large pieces of ice from outer space. They can discern currents by the way bergs are grouped in a certain way, and this information is passed along to mariners. It’s fuzzy information at best, but at least the big bergs can be seen. The rule of thumb! for sailors in the region is to always pass an iceberg to windward. The pieces that break off the index berg drift to leeward and it’s dangerous waters, say nothing of the wind shadow that cast by larger ice. Then there are other boats in the region. Shipping in almost non-existent, but there are some fishing vessels that report ice, and there are other sailors that use the same waters as their play ground. Another giant catamaran, Orange II, is currently attempting to set an around-the-world speed record. The boat is presently 3,000 miles ahead of Doha 2006 on a similar course and has not reported seeing any ice. That’s all good news. Perhaps the most important tool the sailors have at their disposal is a simple thermometer. Melting ice lowers the temperature of the water, and if the temperature starts to drop quickly, or if it stays consistently below 5 degrees Celsius, then the lookouts need to be posted and the radar fine tuned to filter out clutter. So what do you do if you are the navigator on a yachts hurtling through d! angerous waters? Will Oxlee is no stranger to this area and knows that much of what happens comes down to luck. He has his ways of taking his mind off the problems at hand. His log continues; “For now, I sit here and watch our rapid progress across the electronic admiralty charts on MaxSea while keeping one beady eye on the radar. The nav station is in the starboard hull on Doha 2006. As we are on port gybe at the moment this is the low hull and all the sailing is done from the port hull, so it is pretty quiet in my part of the boat. That is if you ignore the incessant roar of water hurtling past just inches from me. Occasionally, for a change from the sound of rushing water, I put my iPod headphones on and listen to some chilled out music. Quite appropriate really.” While Oxlee chills out, Olivier de Kersauson and his crew on Geronimo are hard at work in Fremantle. The clock is ticking. Read Will Oxlee’s full log under crew logs or check out! Doha 2006’s official website – www.maxicatdoha.com --- Brian Hancock brian.hancock@qisel.com www.oryxquest.com PRESS RELEASE of 02/23/2005 Relieved to have made it to port Having arrived at the port of Fremantle at 2:40 a.m. local time, the crew of Geronimo and the support team assembled on shore wasted no time in arriving at the conclusion that the impact had caused a great deal of damage to the trimaran's crossbeam. Vision with a solid object – probably a tree trunk – which has had the effect of penetrating the arch of the starboard crossbeam right through to the pure carbon fibre core (4-5 cm thick). The outer fairing is burst, crushed and split over an area 30 cm wide and 60 cm high”, explained Fabrice Allaz. Olivier de Kersauson believes that the impact could have happened when Geronimo was sailing upwind towards the centre of the anticyclone, “surely debris from the Tsunami disaster”. The repair schedule has now been drawn up. It involves rebuilding the inner skin, replacing and profiling the Airex foam, curing the carbon fibre (plus polymerisation) and finally, assuming all goes well during these demanding initial phases, rebuilding the external sk in of the crossbeam. The Capgemini/Schneider Electric crew is closely involved with the work and is using the opportunity to give the boat a thorough check-up. “We haven't actually completed the diagnosis yet“, explains Olivier de Kersauson. “We know we have the human and technical resources we need to make the repairs, but we have to approach it carefully and thoughtfully”. The decision on whether or not to rejoin the race will be taken in the coming hours. As Geronimo's skipper stresses: “When we set sail again, it's for the southern ocean, not a cruise”. This information letter has been sent to you by the Rivacom agency www.rivacom.fr Copyright © 1996-2016 - SEGEL.DE