Skandia goes up a notch – Hellomoto breaks gear

by Event Media on 4 Dec 2004 Day 27 of the single-handed around the world Vendee Globe and Australian Nick Moloney has maneuvered SKANDIA up into ninth place, further east than UUDS and ARCELOR behind him, but nearly 200 miles north of them since they gybed south for a period last night.

TEMENOS and VIRBAC are 200 nautical miles south of Nick and may be able to hook on to next weather system. Leaders in transitionary weather have temporarily slowed, BONDUELLE now has a tiny five mile lead over PRB.

Sailing for most of the past 24 hours with double-reefed mainsail and solent headsail, with 30 to 40 knots of wind propelling Nick from behind. He has recorded his biggest 24 hour distance so far, but the breeze is now starting to drop off. There are tactically complicated times ahead with Cape Town still on the bow.

The question is whether Nick can hang on to the north westerly breeze as the guys behind now sail in southerly wind.

Disaster for Hugo Boss as her skipper, rookie Alex Thomson, has had his first Vendée Globe race curtailed early, a broken Gooseneck forcing him to head towards Cape Town – its possible between now and arriving there, some 1000 miles away still, that he will find a solution to continue, but the damage is significant, and certainly ends his hopes of being in the front pack.

Nick was gutted to hear of Alex’s problems, and spoke to him yesterday afternoon to check on his morale – true to form, Alex was able to show a positive side to his misadventure, but it’s not over. Amazing what DIY solutions are found by sailors at sea.

Conrad Humphrey’s has a tough day, forced to lower mainsail for nearly 12 hours yesterday on Hellomoto for repair to main and broken battens. Now there is some severe wear on the PBO cap shrouds, which he will need to go up mast to resolve in some way. His confidence is seriously knocked - ‘amazing how 24 hours can make a big impact on your well-being.

To spend 12 hours stitching a sail back together, gives you some thinking time I can tell you,’ he said from the yacht.

So far it had been a relatively short damage list. By this same stage in the race four years ago, three boats had already retired for various reasons Tolkein, de Radigues and Stamm, out of the 24 boat fleet.

Yves Parlier was about to have a huge Southern Ocean wipeout and dismasting after days of un relentless high pace - too high - some were arguing at the time.

In this race, Alex’s major damage is the first. So far, no boat has had to actually retire from the race. Alex will remain in the race until he reaches land and maybe he won’t be stopping anyway.

SKANDIA meanwhile, has passed the Meridian, and sailed into the eastern longitudes yesterday. Now rather than counting down western degrees, Nick will be counting up, as he heads east towards the longitudes of his homeland Australia.

First though he must get further south to pass the first Cape of this three Cape race – the Cape of Good Hope .tactically its very complex, how on earth to get south is still the big question for Nick’s pack.

The mood amongst the leading five skippers has distinctly changed. Small voices on the end of the phone, crashing waves in the background, skippers wanting to stay inside as much as possible, throttling back the boat to preserve man and machine. The Southern Ocean has arrived for the leaders.


EXTRACTS OF AUDIO CONFERENCES WITH NICK: courtesy of Geolink/Iridium

’Breeze and seastate dropping off still on the easterly gybe heading at about 110 to 115 not bad. Heading south of Cape Town, and I’m trying to stay in the breeze. The models really conflict. There is a chance I will hold this breeze that I have here. Yesterday they said the reverse. Another model at 1130, I’ll know more then.

’My morale has been pretty good I’ve had good speed, a bit bumpy and a bit stressful at times. Had a game plan, and things have gone well for me, not too much trouble with the manoeuvres. Been resting ok, need to eat a little bit more.

’Each manoeuvre [sail change as the wind changes] takes about 40 minutes, it’s pretty wet, you are going as fast as you can. You try and sort everything beforehand. With this northerly flow it still feels quite warm, wouldn’t say that I’m cold yet.

Curious about Conrad’s problems. This is such an emotional rollercoaster.’

SKANDIA DATA LOG 0930 GMT: data communicated to on Thrane MiniC via BT Business Broadband

From the official rankings: LAT 34 02N / LONG 6 22: 600 miles of Cape Town.

WIND: north westerly 20-25 knots.

POSITIONS 1000 GMT 3rd DECEMBER 2004

1. BONDUELLE, 47 28.00' S / 29 18.36' E, 16543.0 distance to finish

2. PRB,46 50.12' S / 29 39.40' E, 16548.2

3. SILL, 44 43.36' S / 22 58.08' E, 16853.5

10. SKANDIA, 34 02.28' S / 6 22.44' E, 17851.4

For full information go to http://www.nickmoloney.com