'A whole ocean to sail in and we hit a Fish.’

by Jennifer McGuigan on 8 Jul 2006 1850 nm is a long way in any race and that’s how far the inaugural Queensland Government South Pacific Boomerang race is on the Melbourne Vanuatu leg. For Just a Minor Hickup (JaMHu) it was much shorter than that.

As Robyn Brookes (BOOTS) said in her recent email, Just a Minor Hickup were possibly the best prepared boat in the race and skipper Peter Coleman had been part of the working group that made the whole race possible. Imagine then the disappointment of having your race stopped short only six hours after you started through Port Phillip heads.

‘We started, we were absolutely flying, we were on fire,’ tells Coleman ‘then we went from hero to zero in 2 seconds. We were doing about 12 or 13 knots.’

Having started their watch system Coleman had headed downstairs and his first thought was that they had lost the rig. The new bigger rig had only recently been implemented on the boat but it was still in place. They knew they had hit something but had no idea what and had done so with the canting keel fully extended.

They got moving again and continued for another four to five hours before deciding to centre the keel. That’s when they knew they were in trouble, Coleman’s thought was that they had twisted the bearings and that they might be in danger of losing the keel altogether.

Dropping the sails and motoring into the wind they kept trying to release the valves to no avail. It was at this time that Coleman considered making a Pan Pan call, (emergency that is not immediately life threatening.)

For a long time nothing happened but then the keel started moving, flopping and ‘swinging wildly.’

When asked how they were feeling at this time Coleman talks about all the training and preparation kicking in ‘everything was in place, just spot on, the grab bag was ready and we were ready to go if we had to.’

Next they tried to set up the blocking mechanism, something they have never tried at sea before, only to find it was a virtually impossible task. When they had the keel only flopping through about twelve inches they motored into Westernport bay and after a brief stop for some much needed sleep tied up at Stony Point and locked the keel into a straight position before motoring back to Brighton to meet Customs.

They have since pulled the hydraulic rams out of the boat and sent them back to the manufacturer and on Tuesday had clear enough water to see the keel was damaged right on the nose of the bulb. ‘We sent a professional diver down someone who does this all the time and he said it was definitely a Sunfish*.’ Coleman says ‘in fact he brought up some Sunfish skin from the keel.’

The crew are disappointed as they felt they were in a good position and as Coleman says ‘we were on fire.’ He goes on to say that they will now do the ORCV winter series and have not ruled out the Melbourne to Osaka race next year but he will see how he feels after doing the 500 qualifier for that race.

* Sunfish The ocean sunfish vies for the title of strangest fish in the sea. Its Latin name, Mola mola , means millstone. Recorded up to two tons, this gentle giant inhabits all tropical and temperate seas.

Addendum: From Peter Coleman

UPDATE...
the two hydraulic rams ave been dismantled...the aft ram is perfect, the front ram is not...somehow in the build process a 30mm slither of wood managed to find its way into the ram cylinder, more chance of winnig tattslotto i reckon, anyway, what has happened can now be said, the impact from the big fish shut off the hose burst vales which in turn has loaded up the pressure in the rams and the slither of wood has stuffed the seals inside the ram , which in turn has allowed oil to expel and then air to get into the rams...amazing stuff....what we have learnt......we are now going to change the ram control system so the rams are sperated, not in parallel as they are now....at least we now know....