Month: November 2011

LOOKING BACK

I probably spend too much time looking back. I have a large collection of yachting books. My particular favorites are log books, unedited first hand accounts of events.

Here we see that “Fleur de Lys” the smallest boat in the 1905 transatlantic race, finished in 14 days. On “Snow Lion” in 2011 it took us the better part of 16 days.

YOU CAN’T PLACE IF YOU DON’T FINISH

The Spanish team finished last night in Capetown, SA, There were six boats that started the race and now two still racing. The Spanish may well have throttled back once they were no longer being pressed by Puma, who lost their mast on November 21st.
On the other hand, with half of the fleet withdrawn from this first leg, there is plenty of opportunity for the points to be recouped. It is still a long way around.

MEN OF A CERTAIN AGE

I have a passion for sailing, I don’t think that is a secret. It is a time consuming sport, leaving little for other pursuits. I really found shotguns later in life, I have almost always owned a gun, but never took the time to understand the sport of guns. I was introduced to shotgun sports by Jimmy Gublemann, with whom I attended St. George’s School, where we played hockey and sailed, continuing ever since. Jimmy can make anything fun.

We are the same age, we are grandparents to two grandchildren each, and have the same aches and pains like anyone else our age; including failing eyesight. Shooting is 99% eyes; hence our scores have adjusted about equally; worse than we remember.

Today, I spent a great relaxing day shooting clay targets with Jimmy, his son Bingo, and a group of sailors. November’s weather has been kind to us in the Northeast, today was no exception with the temperature above 60 and blue skies and high clouds.

HOW WELL DO YOU HANDLE ADVERSITY?

We all like to win, but in the words of “Highlander”: “there can be only one”. It is really about how well you deal with losing. Adversity is a normal event in life, how well you handle it will make all the difference.
Above it is “Puma”, The image below is the replacement bow section being fashioned for “Team Sanya”. We had our own mishap in the 2010 Bermuda race, A few minutes after the start, the clew of the mainsail failed, leaving us to watch our class sailing away. We ended up 2nd in class after the crew worked for 40 hours sewing.

JULES VERNE TROPHY

Thanksgiving Day, the United States is taking pause, Banque Populaire V with Brian Thompson aboard left Ushant just over 2 days ago is already off the coast of Africa; just ahead of the present record holder Groupama, Stan Honey had been the navigator for that record setting passage

I sailed with Brian a couple of years ago in the middle sea race, on a monohull, slow compared to the 42-45 knots of boat speed Banque Populaire is reporting presently.

MAN OVERBOARD

First of all, that a video camera was in use is a symptom of the world today. wow. I too have experienced being under a turtled boat and tangled in lines and rigging. It is the event that made me realize that a sheath knife accessible with either hand is essential, not a folding knife.

Have a safe and happy thanksgiving. I guess thanksgiving is a holiday where we reflect on family and friends. I hope you are all able to have a moment of reflection.

PUMA DISMASTED

This is the monday of Thanksgiving week. We are accustomed to not much happening during this time. I do not believe I am revealing anything with these photos as the design has proved not to be good enough. It will be interesting to know why this mast and that of Abu Dhabi broke. Both came down in three pieces in similar conditions.

Considering that there were no mast failures in the last race; it is interesting that in a much smaller fleet the percentage failure is quite high.

Thanks to Jack C who alerted me to these events.

The PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG team has suffered a broken mast on the first leg of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12, which began 17 days ago from Alicante, Spain. The crew are unhurt.
The rig onboard PUMA’s Mar Mostro failed at around 15:00 UTC in the southern Atlantic Ocean, about 2,150 nautical miles from Cape Town, South Africa.
Skipper Ken read reported: “We were sailing on a port tack, beam reaching in 22-23 knots of breeze, heading east northeast with eight to 10 foot waves when the mast failed. There were no warning signs.
“There was no panic onboard, and all crew are safe and well.
“Thanks to amazing seamanship, the three pieces of the mast and all of the sails were recovered. We haven’t suspended racing at this point and are weighing are options.
“At this point we are not using our engine, but are taking some time to clear our heads and evaluate next steps. Our plans may include heading to the island of Tristan da Cunha – about 700 nautical miles from us, nearly on the way to Cape Town.
“This is the saddest and most disappointed 11 people on earth. We were in a comfortable second position, traveling south to get into the final front and head across the southern Atlantic towards Cape Town.
“We were planning to be there in five days. At this stage, my goal is to make sure we get this crew back safely and we will look at options as to how to get back in this race.”
The Brazilian search and rescue organization have been informed and are on standby to assist if necessary.
PUMA Ocean Racing’s shore team is working on a recovery plan to ensure the yacht can rejoin the race as soon as practically possible and will work closely with Volvo Ocean Race to determine the cause of the dismasting.
Volvo Ocean Race control is in constant contact with the team to establish the full extent of the damage and ensure the crew are given full support to enable them to deal with the situation.
The causes of the dismasting are not known at this stage. However, the rig is of a different origin and manufacture to that of Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing’s Azzam which suffered a failure earlier during Leg 1