Melbourne to Rio
Tuesday, March 28th, 2006Here’s a bit of an inside view into Movistar… very
interesting
–
Melbourne to Rio
I knew it would be a long one but……….. We left Melbourne on
Feb 12th. I am now sitting on the beach in Buzious which is 2 hours
north of Rio de Janeiro on March 22nd! This race has always had
it’s stories but this last month or so has had enough to fill a
book!As soon as we got outside the entrance to Port Phillip Bay we were
in a 20-25 knot south west front which we knew could get us all the
way to Wellington for our 48 hour stopover. There is some great
footage of the boats sending it down waves like the giant surf
boats that they are. (I hope one day to see some footage sailing in
40 knots where I will really question my sanity…..).We had confidence in our boat in terms of structural integrity and
also our rams so it was time to keep the pedal firmly pressed to
the floor. We basically went head to head with the race leaders ABN
One and had an intense last 24 hours being in site of each other
and basically match racing the last 3 hours with us managing to
hang on to win by half a boat length. A great result for us as we
knew our speed was reduced by large turbulence on the underside of
the boat. You could feel the boat vibrate and struggle at speed
(20+ knots) - kind of like leaving your window down at 120 km/hr on
the freeway.NZ was always to be an unassisted stopover where no outside help is
used to help repair the boat. Obviously this was out of the
question for us as a quick dive underneath the boat showed
extensive damage to the cover plates and wedges around the keel.
This was the same problem which knocked the Pirates out of Leg 1
and a problem that has plagued us over the past 6 months. So our
boat was lifted out of the water for 2 days and yet again Movistar
was in repair mode again trying to make another deadline and in the
process incurring a 2 hour penalty. This meant that we had to start
2 hours after the rest of the fleet at the restart of the race from
Wellington. However, yet again, we did ineffective repairs and set
off from NZ en route to Rio via the Southern Ocean.Luckily most of the way was moderate racing in 20-25 knots - just
perfect for big miles and much less stress on boats and people.
Halfway through the leg we yet again started to feel turbulence
beneath the boat. We thought that we were losing our external
laminates and maybe small parts of the cover plates. Yet again ABN
one had stretched out a 40 mile lead approaching Cape Horn. We were
happy with this as we were hampered by the drag beneath the boat
but would still round the horn in 2nd place. When we were roughly
500 km from the horn at around 3 am when we encountered yet another
disaster on board. At the time, Pepe our bowman, was putting the
kettle on when the entire door assembly and wedges ripped off the
bottom of the boat and sent water gushing up inside the hull. I was
nicely tucked in my sleeping bag thinking of better days to come
when I was rudely awoken by Pepe telling me to get the pumps. There
was no need for questions as his voice conveyed the exact urgency
of the situation.I had several crucial decisions to make within the 1st 10 seconds
of waking up. I decided to get dressed in my on-deck clothes. I was
only sleeping in a base layer which would give me reduced time and
danger of hyperthermia if the situation worsened. I keep all my
clothes within reach whilst sailing and managed to get these on at
record pace whilst sending 2 guys to get my electrical tools and
the 2 high output electric pumps. They had been moved from where I
had requested during an earlier meeting for essential equipment to
be located so it took a little longer for the guys to find them. By
the time that I was clothed (about 2 minutes after discovering the
problem), the water was already around my feet at the back of the
boat. The guys on watch were already closing the water tight doors
and trying to slow the boat down. The problems down below were
getting extremely serious and almost uncontrollable.Pepe was standing on the lid trying to reduce the influx of water.
I was now in the mid section of the boat in around 2 feet of water.
I had to haul it to get the pumps going as already the engines were
half submerged, with the batteries being completely underwater.
Fortunately, the batteries are in watertight bags so we had some
time before we lost power. I tried to plug the pumps in the
midsection of the boat as it was the driest for the electrical
connection, but the circuit breakers kept tripping due any number
of reasons……. The only thing that I could think of was to go
forward and wire the pumps directly to the batteries, so the pumps
would run on right until the end. It seemed a bit stupid at the
time, as the forward compartment where the generator was located,
was knee deep in water. The big problem was that as the boat rolled
on the waves, it was creating a huge washing machine effect down
below. Unfortunately for me to do this quick rewire involved
connecting wires to live terminals. Normally this is not a problem
when insulted pliers are used and you are not standing in knee deep
water! I did have my insulated pliers but of course dropped them
almost immediately, never to be seen again! I then had to use my
Gerber (like a Swiss army knife) which has zero insulation. Quite a
comedy if you had seen it, but if you could hear my cursing you
would realise that I was not laughing.After quite a few jolts from the batteries, we got the pumps up and
rolling. Pepe said the water level inside the boat got to within 2
inches of the level of the hole where the water comes in. It is a
little hard to explain but basically we 6-10 tonne of water inside
and only 1 or 2 tonne more and we could not have saved the boat.
Perhaps it may have happened if we were 30 seconds slower at a
guess. The pumps quickly got the situation under control as we
restricted the incoming water. Half of the guys were on deck with
all of our survival gear ready to go. Our distress calls/emails had
been made. Both the Pirates and Ericsson were changing course for a
later life raft pickup. All the guys on board worked well and
really brought a spiraling out of control situation back to
safety.I only lost my temper once it was all over and things were safe. I
let out a swear word at the top of my lungs. Why? A number of
reasons:I knew we could not win the race
we were now safe at last
the problem was one myself and other had recognised which our team
never fixed to satisfaction and it almost put is in a life
raft
I was completely over trying to keep this heap of **** boat in one
piece time and time again!
We did the next 500km with a storm sail to keep the speed low. We
were stuck in 10 metre seas with 50 knot squalls and still in some
bother until we got around The Horn. What a couple of days - now I
have even more grey hairs.We sailed into Ushuaia, in Southern Argentina to make repairs. Some
of our shore team flew in and also some America’s Cup boat
builders. They worked non-stop for 56 hours to lock our keel in the
centre and make it watertight. Unfortunately, with being able to
cant the keel, the boat is 20-25% slower but at least we would make
it to Rio. The Chilean navy sent a patrol boat to escort us around
The Horn, a nice gesture and also gave some relief on board the
boat to know that we has a friend there to help if needed.In Ushuaia, the sailing team had a meeting in which once and for
all, it was expressed that these problems should have previously
been fixed properly. Since then, the axe has fallen on several
peoples jobs. It seems strange that it took this amount of grief to
effect changes that were requested up to 8 months earlier. For me
it is not a case of “I told you so”. I am just disappointed that I
was not stronger when I was having my different opinions to some
engineers and marine experts. Never again will I let it slide. I
took the easy way out with these guys telling me it was OK when my
gut feeling was clearly telling me that it was not. The trip from
Ushuaia to Rio was almost as bad with 40-45 knot tail winds and
then our keel pin became loose. Hopefully I will write about that
later but one thing is for sure, it was not a boring trip.Hence I am now sitting on a beach in very beautiful surrounds. I
have 2 days off and really needed to get away from the boat. I was
so desperate to get home to Megs and the animals but the time just
did not permit it. Funny how an experience like this effects
people. I learnt a lot more about myself. I can even remember
thinking at the time just how clear everything was, from weighing
up personal risk, boat risk and risk to the rest of the guys. Very
calculated and a very unique experience. Obviously not what you
want to have but it does put other on board problems into
perspective.One thing that I have noticed is a lot of other people’s comments
on the boats and the situations that occurred for us. These people,
regardless of if they are measurers or builders or designers, do
not appear to have the full picture and as yet maybe do not have
enough overall understanding of these boats. I have been full on
into this project since the week after the Athens Olympics. I
believe that I am completely in the position to weigh up the risks
and to provide an accurate description of the situations that have
eventuated and the factors that have lead to them. An example of
what I am trying to get at is that it has been stated that our boat
could not sink because of the watertight bulkheads - WRONG! Perhaps
people should remember the Titanic…… Our watertight doors are
designed to handle water coming in from a frontal collisions with
icebergs/containers/ trees etc. Sadly, ours were not designed for
an internal water problem where the water would knock open the door
like a knife through butter. This all sounds so simple now but it
has escaped the best minds in the industry but I hope no more. What
a challenge this campaign has been so far through
political/management problems, structural issues, crew issues and
almost losing the boat on several occasions. It has definitely been
the hard road - much different to my first trip around the
planet!Chris
