Reaction to the damage that Kingfisher sustained
by Philippe Jeantot 2 Feb 2001 15:41 GMT
Photo & Illustration ©: kingfisherchallenges.com
The Vendée Globe Race HQ were shocked to read the announcement from Kingfisher Challenges this morning that Ellen MacArthur (Kingfisher) had collided with a submerged object two days ago without doubt a container. "I was sailing along, the sun was starting to set, and everything was fine, conditions were quite stable, and then all of a sudden there was the most almighty crunching sound and the boat felt like she had hit land. As I glanced behind the boat to see what I had hit I saw part of the rudder and the daggerboard floating away. It was a gut wrenching moment. I imagined I might have ripped the bottom of the boat out, the noise was so loud. So I immediately ran through the boat, checking in all the watertight compartments that there was no water in there. I spent a great deal of time getting the broken daggerboard out and then replacing it with the starboard one."
Kingfisher has two lateral daggerboards at mast level, which are essential for upwind sailing conditions. These are fortunately interchangeable. The great difficulty for Ellen was to get the broken one out, as it appeared to have jammed, and then transfer the starboard one across. Throughout this arduous operation Ellen continued to head upwind so as lose as little ground as possible. Trying to manhandle a daggerboard twice her height and 1.5 times her weight, with the hull on a 20° gradient and slamming into each wave, was no mean feat. It has drawn on all her available energy & emotion.
At the other end of her ordeal now, Ellen remarked: "I went beyond what I thought were my limits, but after all the work was done at the end of the day, Kingfisher was back sailing at her maximum. I've nearly got her racing to her full potential. The damaged rudder is less effective but I can't do anything much about that. Now, I'm back in the race. This incident has lost me 40 miles and there's still another 2400 to go to the finish."
'Unidentified Floating Objects' are more and more numerous these days. Roland Jourdain (Sill Matines La Potagere) made his own insightful comment on this: "I don't know how true this story is but it's a big debate, whether the container ships just deliberately jet their cargo into the water to retain their balance in bad weather." Ellen's collision was one of those incidents nobody could possible predict, another blow dealt by the sea.
Meanwhile the race continues. Michel Desjoyeaux (PRB) maintains his lead, at 78 miles this morning, and is looking ahead at the next weather system. "Here you have your hands tied, it's simply a question of going upwind. Right now I'm focusing on my tactical position compared to where my friends are on the water. I prefer for the moment to get myself to the right, to protect my right side."
Jourdain echoes his sentiments about this type of monotonous navigation: "The boat just crashes into every wave, but the inaction is weighing heavier on my mind. None of us can escape the fact that our boats have sailed more than 20000 miles and we're all paranoid about something breaking. It's an uncomfortable feeling" For him it is the anxiety ovr his mast track repair and the fact that he frequently has the main sail set at the first reefing level - the point where his repair is in these 20 knot winds.
Dominique Wavre (Union Bancaire Privée) has been watching Thomas Coville (Sodebo) creep back and even slip ahead by 4 miles in the rankings as he himself tries to remain calm in the light airs he has been plagued with. "I've covered less than 42 miles in the last 24 hours. It's a kind of extension of the Doldrums. I hit a brick wall and stopped, sails flapping. There's nothing here but the swell. I have to be so patient to really keep the boat going if I want to get out of this hole." Next up, the Doldrums. Wavre is finding it hard to think about the finish, let alone make an ETA for the Equator at his current speed.
Catherine Chabaud (Whirlpool) is having her endurance tested as well. She may be recharged to see the pair ahead slowing right down, but is finding the navigation uncomfortable: "I haven't slept much last night. During the squalls, the wind changes direction and intensity, and I need to keep up the manoeuvres and stock some freshwater too." She is making progress with the repairs to her water-maker in the meantime.
Mike Golding (Team Group 4) is holding a slim 3 mile advantage over Josh Hall (EBP/Gartmore) again, and sitting in the East of his fellow Brit. He seems to be finally rid of his own water problems now as in the nightly downpour he stocked up more than enough to get him home. One minor incident overnight, though, was that the bottom two car slides on the luff of the mainsail broke. While he is looking to make his last tack in the Southern Atlantic today, Hall is looking forward to pulling out the North Atlantic charts home waters at last.
Russian skipper, Fedor Konyoukhov (Modern Univeersity for the Humanities), has arrived in Sydney, Australia, today at 1400hrs local time. In good spirits, he was still sad to now be at the end of his global challenge.
It is still too early to announce a more precise arrival time of the winner in Les Sables d'Olonne. Only when they leading boat has got through the last weather hurdle in the shape of the Azores anticyclone, will we be able to confirm an arrival date. We are still resting on our loose prediction that the winner will arrive in the bay of Les Sables from the 10th February.
Radio Chat Extracts:
Dominique Wavre (Union Bancaire Privée) : "I've covered less than 42 miles in the last 24 hours. I'm totally becalmed. It's a kind of extension of the Doldrums, a high pressure system. I hit a brick wall and stopped. There's nothing here but the swell. Psychologically, the finish seems such a long way off when you are stuck here and your friends have shot off ahead. We'll make some progress and then cross the Doldrums at slower speed again. You have to be so patient to really keep the boat going well."
Catherine Chabaud (Whirlpool) : "I haven't slept a lot last night. During the squalls, the wind changes direction and intensity , and I need to stock some freshwater. After the squalls there is usually no wind. Last night I was woken up two times because of that. I would like to come back on Thomas and Dominique, and I am looking at Auguin's timings. My objective is to finish quicker than him, and at the moment it is still good. Today is meant to be a good day for Christophe, so he is going to pass me but after he is going to be stuck in the Doldrums. Thomas hasn't got any intermediary sails, not good for going upwind. Water wise, I haven't got enough to finish, I have reduced to 2 litres per day when I normally drink 5 per day."
Michel Desjoyeaux (PRB): "With what has happened to Ellen, it's tough, there's no instrument to detect these objects, it's really such a lottery out here, you have to cross your fingers. At the least she has been able to repair the damage. Of course I wouldn't want that to happen to me! We'll soon be in whale country, nearing the Azores. You can't see them very well when it's wavy, but in light airs you can hear them and then you realise that there's quit a lot of animals under the sea. Right now I'm focusing on my tactical position compared to where my friends are on the water. I prefer for the moment to get myself to the right, to protect my right side."
Roland Jourdain (Sill Matines la Potagère) : "It's noisy when the boat crashes on each wave, but the inaction is weighing heavier on my mind. With PRB & Kingfisher, we're the best boats upwind. Thiercelin will find it harder but none of us can escape the fact that our boats have sailed more than 20000 miles and we're all paranoid about something breaking. Bravo Ellen! To have hit a container, break a daggerboard & damage a rudder and to be up where she is in the fleet still! It's a big debate, whether the container ships just deliberately jet their cargo into the water to retain their balance. I hope to get an opportunity to get ahead perhaps my rivals will slow up, that is the ideal situation. The difficulty will be that the anticyclone is centred in my North. The good thing will be that there will be less wind in the East."
Patrice Carpentier (VM Matériaux) : "On a planetary scale, it's not surprising to find rubbish in the water. I understand the fact that Ellen didn't want to tell everyone, sometimes skippers want to speak about their problems as soon as they happen, some prefer to keep them for themselves. This kind of risk happens more and more as maritime traffic increases. Also there are more whales. Bravo if she managed to repair. Her rudders are symmetrical so she was able to invert them. We are in an idyllic area, but it's hard to make the boat move in the swell and in light winds. It's amusing to see all these little groups. Only Catherine is alone."
Latest Ranking* polled at 0800hrs (UT):
Boat Skipper Lat Long Hd Av.Sp DTF
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1 PRB Michel Desjoyeaux 17°36'N 32°47'W 356 10.9 2323
2 Kingfisher Ellen MacArthur 15°58'N 32°38'W 359 10.6 +78
3 Sill Matines Roland Jourdain 11°41'N 35°58'W 7 10.7 +389
4 Active Wear Marc Thiercelin 08°45'N 32°28'W 333 9.8 +455
5 Sodebo Savourons Thomas Coville 01°40'S 30°28'W 18 3.6 +984
6 Union Bancaire Privée Dominique Wavre 01°41'S 31°06'W 21 2.8 +998
7 Whirlpool Catherine Chabaud 12°32'S 34°16'W 354 5.9 +1716
8 Team Group 4 Mike Golding 23°27'S 33°10'W 40 9.6 +2333
9 EBP-Défi PME-Gartmore Josh Hall 22°41'S 36°33'W 57 10.4 +2336
10 Voilà.fr Bernard Gallay 28°38'S 37°08'W 36 4.5 +2696
11 VM Matériaux Patrice Carpentier 29°59'S 37°22'W 64 5.9 +2773
12 Nord Pas de Calais Joe Seeten 31°21'S 36°46'W 341 6.3 +2842
13 Aquarelle.com Simone Bianchetti 53°57'S 59°59'W 59 7.3 +4515
14 Aquitaine Innovations Yves Parlier 55°13'S 94°21'W 58 7.6 +5720
15 DDP - 60ème Sud Didier Munduteguy 55°14'S 113°56'W 123 3 +6351
16 Wind Pasquale de Gregorio 53°09'S 138°29'W 67 7.6 +7162
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KINGFISHER ORDER OF EVENTS IN SUMMARY
Tuesday evening an hour before sunset : Kingfisher collides with unknown object, boat stops, port daggerboard destroyed leaving remains jammed in board box in deck. Tip of rudder broken off.
Immediate action : verification of safety of boat, watertightness, all ok. Keel hydraulics checked, boat tacked to east to check damage (lift out of water), photo of rudder sent back to Design Team.
Design Team consultation : all aspects of safety verified, and Ellen develops her plan of action.
Tuesday as nightfall approaches : tack the boat to the south-east (away from the finish) after a three hour battle with ropes, winches, pulleys and brute force, Ellen succeeds in removing the remains of the port daggerboard that was jammed (due to the impact pushing it backwards in its box). What was left of the board below the hull was flailing around in the water and putting the brakes on the boat completely. Removal of this allowed KINGFISHER to regain her speed, but not her height as without a daggerboard she was slipping sideways. To counteract this, Ellen de-powered (less sail, or sail tension) the boat and swung the keel back towards the middle so that its surface would have a great effect - slower, but a better heading. This was the situation for the whole of Tuesday night and most of Wednesday.
Tuesday night : Ellen spent most of the night, either reliving the moment of impact [Ellen : "I could not get the tearing of carbon sound out of my head"], or preparing her tools, ropes, pulleys for the work of using the starboard daggerboard. With over a thousand miles to go on this tack, the
objective was to find a way of reversing the starboard daggerboard and all its pulley systems and putting it in port side.
Wednesday morning first light : for 5 hours Ellen attempted to remove the starboard daggerboard. All the time there was water pouring over the deck as Kingfisher continued to beat in to 20 knots of Trade Wind swell. One very soaked skipper battling away with this huge dagger board. After several hours of trying everything she could think of, she failed to manipulate the huge board [twice her height and 1 times her body weight] and get it on to the deck - which she had to do before working on it so it could go, with its control lines for pulling it up an down, in the port side. A totally distraught Ellen, desperate to stop losing any further miles, called once again to her design team. Re-motivated, she set about a second time and a very physical hour later she finally succeeded to free the starboard board.
Wednesday afternoon : then began the real DIY work - to drill, tap, and fit the pulley and ropes required to pull these big boards up and down once in the slot in the deck - having turned the starboard board upside down, she then had to make it ready to be able to be used the other way up. The final operation was then to man handle it on a deck that never stopped moving for more than a few seconds the whole time, and get it in to the snug hole the other side of the deck.
Late evening : Success. Kingfisher, apart from a relatively superficial damage to the port rudder, was back at close to 100%. Ellen had extended her limits once more, but was totally exhausted, mentally and physically. She collapsed on her seat, and struggled to even get the words out.
Wednesday night there was not much let up, as the wind strength changed enough to keep her on deck for much of the night, putting reefs in and out to keep KINGFISHER at 100%. The pre-existing sleep deprivation condition was not improving. Thursday became as much of a day of rest as possible - but
she is still very very tired, and recuperation is critical for her to be able to continue at the front of this fleet. The distance ahead of PRB stopped increasing by any significant amount as soon as she had the boat back on its daggerboard.
Speculation by race organisation that the state of Ellen's sails could be to blame for Mich's lead extension was therefore very misplaced. There are still many miles to go, but so far the North 3DL sails onboard Kingfisher have performed absolutely to expectations, Ellen recently reporting that the shape of both Solent and Genoa looked almost new even after 20,000 miles - without any need to have carried a replacement sail around the world.
We can also now reveal that 10 days ago, after some 18 hours of hard graft, Ellen managed to complete what had seemed an impossible repair to the 3DL gennaker sail damaged when the halyard broke dumping the sail in to the Southern Ocean. The repair, aided by the ability to more easily stick together the 'plastic' 3DL film, and by the alignment aided by the lines of thread in the sail, may not have been possible with another form of cloth. The gennaker was used in anger in the approach to the Equator, and whilst it is not the prettiest of repairs, it means that with the exception of the minor rudder damage, KINGFISHER is continuing to sail very much at maximum
potential. Thanks to the preparation detail, design features built in to boards and crash boxes, and the extraordinary efforts of her skipper to care and maintain for every element of this complex racing machine.
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LAST TACK IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE
An upbeat Mike Golding called his Shore Team this morning to report all well on board Team Group 4 despite a minor drama during the night when the bottom two car slides on the luff of the mainsail broke. "We were reaching quite fast when I noticed that one of the car slides on the luff of the
mainsail had broken", said Golding. "I stepped up to the mast to fix it, just as another one broke right in front of my eyes. I now have a reef in and webbing round the mast. It's not ideal, but it could have been a lot worse if I hadn't fixed it right away".
Golding said that Team Group 4 would tack in the next 18-20 hours - the last tack in the Southern Hemisphere. He is managing to keep ahead of Josh Hall and hopes to cut his distance to 7th placed Whirlpool to 500 miles before he crosses the Equator.
Golding's fresh water problems seem to be over for the time being. Last night he had even more rain than he is able to store and he is able to wash regularly - a refreshing change to just a few days ago when he was down to his last few litres of drinking water.
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