ECOVER leads with 550 miles to go

by MPR on 23 Aug 2001 ECOVER IN THE EDS ATLANTIC CHALLENGE
DAILY REPORT NO: 40 (Day 9) Leg 5
DATE:

The latest position report (07:44:19 GMT) puts Mike Golding and his crew on
board ECOVER in first place on the leader board - always a good feeling.
But it is still very close out there for the leading trio - with 550 miles
to the finish the Italian boat Fila is only 4 miles behind and Kingfisher
48 miles back. Yesterday the Fila team sustained damage to their mainsail
and were forced to ease off the pace as they effected repairs - replacing
the torn section of the main with a web of Vectran lines. Amazingly they
were rapidly back up to almost full pace and it was the early hours before
ECOVER was able to pass them and take up the lead position.

Commanders Weather forecasts 'Big changes for the EDS fleet over the next
24-36 hours as the wind switch will heading for the off position. Large
low SW of Iceland will continue to produce W-SW and SW winds up to 20-30
knots for the leading boats. This breeze will diminish significantly during
tonight. Weak low pressure, currently NE of the Azores, will move N-NE and
through the middle of the EDS fleet Thursday night. This low will track
near or just east of 10W. The leading boats will see the SW winds diminish
and back into the E and SE tonight into Thursday. Wind speeds will only be
around 10 knots'.

This report from Mike Golding and Richard Tolkien:

'We are riding an earthquake on ECOVER right now. On deck its a different
story - more like an earthquake at Niagara Falls. The speeds are good but
the conditions are as hard on everyone as is possible on a Open 60 yacht.
It's stressful, violent and wet - very very wet! A fire hose on water
streams into the cockpit from the leeward chain plate and two feet of
water frequently surges the full length of the deck on to leap of the ramp
created by the coachroof. Needless to say every drop ends up on the helm or
his partner.

Fun though this kind of surfing maybe, after 40hrs the stresses and strains
of it begin to show. People are tired but get little rest as trying to
sleep requires enough imagination to forget where you are and what your
doing. Not easy when your world is being literally being shaken to the
core.


Still, even after the miles I have sailed with the boat I am in awe at the
amazing power of it. Speed which would seem impossibly out of control to an
outside observer is often accompanied by a feather light helm and
extraordinary directional stability. Many time during the night I realised
that I was not looking at instruments but feeling my way through the
turmoil often at more than 27kts and always in a complete whiteout of spume
and spray.

Now above all other times we need to dig deep into reserves of energy.
Making the right decisions as to when to change up to a larger sail plan is
key to performance right now. Fila to our North have just a little more
pressure than us - we have to do everything to prevent small losses from
being any more than that. Kingfisher are lurking just behind and waiting
for an opportunity to pass.

Soon we will be gybing and heading SE again, then the breeze and seas will
begin to fall and we will be faced with lighter conditions as we approach
St Malo. Its a shame, it seems that we are going to miss an opportunity at
the 24hr record. Each time the wind has been right a gybe has been needed
and we have been unable to maintain a direct heading that would allow us to
have a go.

This morning despite conditions it was time for me at least to set and
example and have a wash and brush up. As time goes on it's easy to fall
into an animalistic survivalist mode of living, steering, sleeping ,eating
and no more, I for one just needed to feel a little more human. Ready to
seize another day!!'
Mike

PS from Richard

'Mike mentions the lightness of helm: I've sailed on a lot of boats, but to
surf at 27kts hardly being able to see where your going because of the
solid water cascading down the deck, with the tiller almost guiding you
where to steer. In trim, the boat is astonishingly light on the helm. The
beamier Open 60's like ECOVER are certainly more powerful downwind , which
no doubt helps account from three or maybe four - we've slightly lost count
- 400 + mile days in the last week. But at the end of the day it's man as
well as machine and strong determination is being shown throughout the
fleet as we race into the western approaches. Each three hours the new
position reports mark the achievement or relative shortcoming of the
previous watch. Success is measured by one or two miles being gained on
Fila or taken out of Kingfisher, all this when in a three hour watch the
boat can be covering more than 60 miles. Inevitably some of our thoughts
turn to the delights of St Malo -baths refreshments etc, but mostly we
continue to focus on the task at hand of overhauling Fila and keeping ahead
of Kingfisher.