Aussie Moloney Scales Mast in Le Defi

by Team Cowes on 3 Dec 2003 Team Cowes is currently in second place in the Le Defi, as Australian skipper, Nick Moloney, was forced to scale the mast to fix the genoa.

The sail [crucial for next 1,000 miles of upwind sailing] ripped during Sunday night: ‘I have been up the mast a couple of times today to try and make repairs but every time I get up there I see a fleet of fishing boats ahead!’ Moloney called at 1545 GMT to report that his third sortie up the mast proved successful as Moloney managed to reach the edge of the sail from the first spreader and repair the tear.

The first 36 hours have proved to be another solo baptism of fire. ‘It is 100% torture on your emotions! Fatigue is certainly the biggest creator of the emotional roller coaster,’ Moloney reported.

Difficulties in polling compounds are frustrating the skippers in the race, information on the fleet's positions are proving irregular as the race organisers struggle to fix their technical problems in polling the fleet following a major communications cable under the Atlantic being cut in half!

Audio conference with Nick Moloney:

‘Not really got a clue where we are in fleet and have made some presumptions. I can see PRB on the horizon just a bit further east. No sight of Ecover but heard he got stuck on a fishing net in the night so lost some miles. Alex Thomson is a long way offshore - whether he has a problem or has just opted to sail out east, we don't know but he quite a long way offshore.

I am lucky to have Jo-J [Sébastien Josse / VMI] just a few miles behind me so I can gauge boat speed with him and know that I am in the right ball park.

‘We had good conditions last night - good consistent wind speed around 15 knots so managed to get some sleep which was a relief as I did not sleep at all in first 36 hours - too wound up and stressed. I think I got around 3-4 hours in 15-30 minute naps on my beanbag in the cockpit cuddy.

Fatigue is certainly the biggest creator of the emotional roller coaster. Yesterday was hell and really doing my head in compounded with the problems on board - the ripped sail plus a tank full of ballast that I didn't need. I found that an aft ballast valve had jammed open and the back tank was full so we were dragging our stern quite heavily.

Problem was I was on the wrong tack to get rid of all the water. It is 100% torture on your emotions! It's a big wake up call to be racing solo again and to suddenly be on your own makes you realise how reliant you are on that other person [when racing two-handed].

‘Today everything is different and its pretty difficult to complain now, good weather, quite cruisey, really, nice sunshine, light clouds, warm water. Although, ahead are tons of squalls waiting.

‘We are just south of Recife and basically trying to get round the eastern corner of Brazil - but at the moment the wind keeps moving round as well so instead of getting away from the coast I seem to be following it round.

I need to get offshore shore and start heading left a bit as we move north. I am trying to get some more weather info to pick the waypoint to enter the Doldrums - right now I am looking at around 29 degrees west but need more info. There appears to be a massive windless zone in the west so getting east is important.’

Le Defi positions 2.12.03 1400GMT:

Pos/Skippers Name/Boat Name/DTF

1st Jean Pierre Dick / Virbac / 3792.7

2nd Nick Moloney / TEAM COWES / 3800.9

3rd Vincent Riou / PRB / 3804.4

4th Sébastien Josse / VMI / 3804.7

5th Alex Thomson / AT Racing / 3808.6

6th Mike Golding / Ecover / 3815.8

7th Benoît LEQUIN / Wel.network / 3873.4
8th Benoît PARNAUDEAU / Colibri-Charente-Maritime / 3914.9

9th Anne LIARDET / Gonna Gitcha / 3929.5

10th Joe Seeten / Arcelor-Dunkerque / 3951.0

Team Cowes Le Défi Atlantique campaign is supported by Skandia and Cowes Waterfront

For Race Information go to www.defi-atlantique.org