Oceanracing 2006 - VELUX 5 Oceans

Velux 5 Oceans - Alone-Round the World Yacht Race
www.velux5oceans.com - Übersicht

11.12.2006
DALTON headSAIL FLAPPING

Graham Dalton spoke to David Adams, Race Director late last night UTC and reported that he had a torn headsail. The situation onboard is not dissimilar to the tear in HUGO BOSS' headsail which forced Thomson into Gijon, Spain at the start of the race. The headsail is ripped at the head and furled at the foot , while the head is flapping fiercely in the wind. Dalthon, onboard a SOUTHERN MAN is experiencing North Westerly winds of 25-35 knots, and is being bombarded with line squalls.

Foto: www.w-w-i.com/velux_5_oceans

A line squall is a series winds that hit like dominos tumbling. The skipper will be able to see a front of weather coming, rain, messy seas and big wind gusts, which then explodes all over the boat and then dissipates. This is then perpetually repeated. Dalton can expect to be trapped in these conditions for the next 24 hours until he sails into a high pressure system that will enable him to effect repairs. He will not be able to avoid the high pressure due to his reduced sail area. He is currently sailing under storm jib, with his runners on to stabilise the mast. Dalton described the conditions as "really cold and ****ing miserable." Dalton is still planning to make a pitstop in the Kerguelen Islands to pick up some more fuel.

Unai Bazurko aboard PAKEA in a telephone call to race headquarters today said that all was well onboard. He is planning to take a more Northern route across the Indian Ocean and has elected to not sail any further south than 42 degrees South. This will mean that he will sail a slightly longer course but he has decided to take this option to preserve his delaminating port rudder. David Adam's thinks this could be because it is 20 degrees C where he is as opposed to 5 degrees C where Dalton and Knox Johnston are - lets face when life is as inhospitable as life on a solo wave is it's always better to have a bit warmth when possible.

1500 hours UTC 9th December. Sir Robin Knox Johnston, onboard SAGA INSURANCE is surviving in 5 degrees C and experiencing some nasty weather conditions. He sent Race HQ the following update;
"This is the nastiest squall to date but it did not look any different to its predecessors. The boat is heeled over 60 degrees. The wind's moaning is drowned by the clatter and crashing of sails that are luffed by the wind. The helm is hard over but she is not going to obey. I am hanging onto a winch in the cockpit, looking forward, and avoiding looking back into the wind from where a stinging hail storm is coming that feels as if it would flay the skin off your face, thanks goodness for the protection of a beard. Even so I can see the surface of the sea slightly flattened and white with hail and spindrift. I glanced at the wind strength. 55 knots! Unsurprisingly the auto pilot has given up. It could do no more. It had put the rudder hard over to counter the huge forces created by the sails but the boat was not going to respond. With all the sails flapping there was nothing to be done until the gust passed. In the meantime I hung grimly onto my winch. The squall passed after what seemed an age but was probably no more than a couple of minutes. The pelting hail eased, the boat began to come more upright and responded to the helm. Then she swung down wind and we were under some sort of control again.

That was the most powerful squall so far in a day of repeated squalls yesterday, and if they were going to continue at that strength the large headsail had to go, it was too powerful. I went forward, hoisted the storm jib and then rolled up the Solent sail. We felt less ardent. The surges with the gusts were less urgent. I wondered at what point the gale would cease to build or whether I would end up having to drop the indexsail and ease right down to just the storm jib, but we were not there yet.

This is not efficient sailing because if you have the boat set for the squalls, you are underpowered in between them. But since they are coming at hourly intervals or less, there is little point in constant changing sail as it takes a good 15 minutes to change from, say, the Jib to the Solent. A reef in the indexsail, if it were possible, takes about the same.

Speed was down a bit. A pity, but the boat felt more comfortable and she was much less liable to luff up like that again when the potential for damage is huge. This race is about getting to the finish line. If you can get there faster than the others that is the bonus, but first you have to finish. The Southern Ocean is the toughest test of a man and boat there is. To come through it when it is in this sort of mood you have to forget racing and just go into a survival routine. Get the boat so she feels comfortable and not over pressed and wait for conditions to improve without sustaining damage. Damage takes time to rectify and that is when races are lost.

Looking at the seas I realised that 38 years ago I would have been under a tiny storm jib and had nearly 700 feet of warp streamed out astern in those conditions. It's the difference of the type of boat and size. Saga Insurance is the same weight but so much faster she can run with the waves, Suhaili could never do that so there was no choice but to get her stable to the waves and just wait the bad weather out. In fact that as when I used to get my best sleep as there was nothing else I could do.

We passed about 50 miles south of Marion Island during the night, the 5th time I have passed it but never seen it. The South Africans have a base there. The squalls eased over night, but this morning the barometer is falling and the wind is increasing from the North West, a good direction as I can steer due east which suits me at the moment.

It was showing 21 knots an hour ago, it's now showing 30 knots and its time to reduce sail in case we get another squall. In a way these strong winds are a good thing as I don't need much indexsail and I can still only set it from the 3rd reef even after spending all day working on it on deck on Friday so I am not missing anything. There is more work to do there but it will have to wait for easier weather, but that is what I mean about damage. Whilst I sort out the problems with the indexsail I shall be going slower than I could. It was all down for 8 hours on Friday.

Still, no hail so far this morning which makes a bonus. I don't like skidding on the deck as I did the other morning when it was covered with the stuff. I actually closed the access hatch last night for the first time and debated putting on the cabin heater but as it uses diesel, which I am short of for the generator, I did some deep breathing exercises to warm up instead. No fresh water in the sail to-day, there's too much sea spray got there. I still have 12 gallons of fresh water. I have still been unable to find any more coffee, so am now moving onto beef tea as an alternative. Plenty of real tea left thank goodness. My supplies were based on an arrival about now, so there are bound to be shortages in some commodities as we crawl our way towards Fremantle. Excuse me, we have just had a surge to 23 knots of boat speed, time to reduce sail. RKJ"