Rolex Sydney Hobart- Tough Stuff Down the Tassie Coast
by Crosbie Lorimer on 29 Dec 2014
Clearing up on Giacomo, with the remnants of the mast in the background. Crosbie Lorimer
http://www.crosbielorimer.com
By eight a.m. this morning (Monday) eighteen boats were finished, amongst them several of the 50 footers arriving in a group just before 8am. The consistent theme amongst all those we interviewed was the strength of wind late yesterday on the run down the Tasmanian coast.
Paul Clitheroe (Balance), Steve McConaghy (OneSails Racing) and Tony Kirby (Patrice) all said that the nor’west breeze built well beyond the expected 30 knots late yesterday, most saying that they saw 40 knots on the instruments several times.
Combined with a short sea, the conditions - described as ‘fierce to frightening’ by Tony Kirby - made for some very testing downwind sailing, with the biggest issue seeming to be when to take down their asymmetric spinnakers or whether to hope that the breeze would abate, which it didn’t.
Patrice holds top spot in IRC Div 1 and may perhaps have gained some advantage over others in her division by following the rhumbline more closely all down the Tasmanian coast yesterday.
That tactic calls for cool nerves when experiencing a strong following wind as more gybes are required and thus the chances of a major wipe out (or worse) in such conditions increase. Looking at the Tracker, Patrice completed at least twelve gybes from the north end of Tasmania to Tasman Island, compared with five or six for most of her rivals.
Dowsing a large kite in short seas and a building breeze is a major challenge at the best of times, but when you hit a shark while running at these speeds, things can go horribly pear shaped. Patrice experienced exactly that scenario yesterday afternoon.
As it happened the boat came through the encounter relatively unscathed, which is more than can be said for One Sails Racing which snapped one of its rudders (cause uncertain, perhaps the infamous Sunfish?) whilst sailing at high speed.
(Watch out for Tony Kirby’s description of the shark encounter and Steve McConaghy describing OneSails Racing rudder loss in a video interview coming up on Sail-World later).
At 10.30 am on Monday the IRC overall handicap standings had changed again with Wild Rose displacing After Midnight on the leader board, followed by Peter Kurts’ Love and War (winner in 2006) and Sean Langman’s Maluka of Kermandie.
The big question now is whether the smaller and slower boats are going to be able to hold onto their overall positions, given the forecast westerlies later this afternoon, with the transition showing an easing of wind speeds before the building westerlies come into play late tonight. That direction also means an upwind course across Storm Bay and up the Derwent River.
And that of course assumes that each boat holds it together to the finish; Jenifer Wells, the navigator aboard Wild Rose, spoke to the media centre at midday today, describing a wild broach in more than 30 knots of wind that caused them to break their steering cable. It says something of the crew work on the boat that they dowsed the spinnaker, set up the emergency steering, had the cable mended in 12 minutes and were back on track for Tasman Island.
Jim Delegat’s Volvo 70 Giacomo, which was dismasted yesterday, motored into Constitution Dock at midday.
A philosophical Delegat described the dismasting as deeply disappointing and was not speculating as to the cause. He did however say that he and the crew had reflected on the event as they were motoring in to Hobart and there were comfortable that they were not overpowered at the time of the dismasting.
The mast fell forward – it broke at about 4 metres above deck level - and as the on-deck watch were at the back of the boat no-one was injured; they were also able to get the power tools on deck quickly to cut away the rig, which they completed in about an hour.
Crew member Martin ‘Irish’ Hannon said that once the boat was stabilized they set up a jury rig
by pivoting the boom upward from the gooseneck, securing it from the clew at three angles
and hoisting the storm jib forward
'I have no idea what sort of jury rig you describe that as' said Hannon with a laugh.
A strong northerly has built over the late morning here in Hobart, clouds are rolling in across the Derwent River and a short and sharp storm with high winds has just passed.
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