Trades arrive - RYU-JIN taking no prisoners

by Di Pearson on 16 Apr 2007 The prevailing winds of the tropics, the east-sou-easterly trades, have materialised and the top four line honours contenders in the Melbourne-Osaka double handed yacht race have put in some big miles in the past 24 hours, whilst some behind have suffered at the hand of the doldrums.

COCORIN interland, which has led the fleet since April 2, put in 214 nautical miles since yesterday morning. However, second on line, Alex, sailing just to the east of the Japanese, and keeping them on their toes, put in 188nm and is only 41nm astern.

Brian Pattinson continues to do an amazing job with the Open 60 Gusto, with an 180nm run, 60nm from the leader, but still on a more easterly route than the rest of the fleet.

In communication with the Race Director Kevin Wilson yesterday, Pattinson said: 'Thank you and the committee for keeping me in the race, you know how much it means to me.

'Today was hot and windless again. Tell the other yachts it won’t change after the equator!' Fortunately, he was wrong.

'I chased a few good storms today, but really wonder if is worth all the effort. Some last 1-2hours, some 30 minutes, and they have to be going your way. You still keep on doing it, because the 'next' one might get you out of this windless place. Hopefully good winds soon.'

A different scenario from Pattinson this morning: 'Good day today. Hooked onto a few good fronts/storms. Have to hand-steer to keep in the right place, and not get overrun. I was looking forward to reducing sail down to second reef, then having a quiet night.

'Once I reefed down, and set Gusto up, it was dark. Then some wind came in – don’t know where it came from, but have been cruising on 10-11knots. It’s so dark; you can’t even see your hand in front of your face. It’s like I’m flying!

'The last couple of nights I have reefed down, then no wind at all, so pulled all sails down and slept all night. Yesterday I had a bug in my belly, so slept for 10 hours. Today I feel great.

'Looks like I’m sleeping in the cockpit tonight. Everything is perfect; I’m really having a great time. Hope this wind keeps up.'

In total, the top five yachts on line (sailing amongst the Caroline Islands in the Federated States of Micronesia), have crossed the equator, including the latest, Alex, Tamagomalu and Dekadence. Once over the equator, yachts will be monitored by Osaka Race Control Centre.

Other big mile-makers in the past 24 hours include ‘The Odd Couple' on Dekadence. Phil Coombs and Peter ‘Pee Wee’ Walsh notched up 168nm to overtake Makoto Hisamatsu/Jimmi Doherty on Tamagomalu (as Doherty suspected yesterday) and relieve them of fourth place on line. The Japanese boat didn’t dither either, notching up 116nm.

As prophesised yesterday, Queenslanders Murray Bucknall/Jon Sayer on RYU-JIN -fgi played their cards well, steaming past both Hullabaloo and Ingenue. Forty three miles away, with New Ireland over her shoulder, Japan’s Asadori, an Iain Murray 43, is their next target.

RYU-JIN is sailing due north, while Asadori, which took a punt yesterday in taking a short leg to the west, is sailing a north-easterly course this morning. We shall see…

Southern Light and Wild Boar also put in solid performances with 134 and 114nm apiece. The South Australian’s will be smiling again – they have both Wild Boar and current last placed Esoterica; the latter putting a credible 109nm behind them. The three are abeam of Kanam on the eastern side of New Ireland.

Asadori, Ingenue and Hullabaloo have not faired so well, trapped in the grip of the doldrums. Shinsuke Nishi/Kyojun Fujita would be kicking themselves, having kept Asadori in close contact with the front runners over the past two weeks.

Jim and Joe O’Keeffe too. The Yamba NSW father and son had been part of a group with Tamagomalu and Dekadence for most of the race, but now find themselves 216nm behind Tamagomalu and even further from Dekadence, following a disastrous time in the doldrums.

Last evening, Phil Coombs’ partner and friends of he and Walsh were at host venue, Sandringham Yacht Club where Coombs is a former Commodore, having a celebratory drink in the guys’ honour, when they got the call they had been waiting for: 'We’ve crossed the Equator!!'

The co-skippers were then able to have a chat to a few friends at the Club and share their celebrations in reaching yet another milestone.

In an email yesterday afternoon, the two said: 'We are 45 miles from the equator - close to another of our milestones, positioned east of the fleet, but did that to pick up the easterly breeze first, which we should get in the next few hours - touch wood...

'I’m not sure whether it is such a good idea crossing the equator with a sick man like Pee Wee – I believe it's a bit like a full moon to a wolf. I will let you know the outcome.

'We have had tropical downpours both night and day - and lots of them. It rains - seems like inches every time, not normal, though we haven't had lots of wind with it. Then again it’s not so normal to have them night and day and continual with some lasting over an hour or two.

'Wind is typically 3-10 knots, and swinging heaps, which makes it tough going. Last night we went through 360 degrees, twice!

'Daily it shifts 60 degrees back and forth, very unstable. It makes night sailing very tough when you don't know where the wind is coming from, and with downpours and black clouds, you don't know how much wind is in them.

'You find yourself sitting with small jib and reef in for hours because you are under the blackest cloud of all times and 5 knots of breeze, but it is the one you take for granted that will hit 50

'On the boat front, we haven't let people know our problems encountered, so I will give you a quick summary. In the first week we had electrical issues, three of; Firstly, the engine wouldn't start and after fault-finding we found a loose terminal on the starter motor, tightened and all OK.

'Bit further down the track, we had charging issues, we couldn't charge our electronics bank - fault was caused by fixing other problem. End result, we had to bypass the path maker, and reset the system, which was successful.

'Further on, we had problems charging the house batteries. We had to then reset the electronic volt meters which we did and fixed the problem. Very time consuming and distracting, however all problems solved and no further issues since.

'The other ongoing issue is that we have had lots of problems with from the start, is water in the cabin and the horrible sluggish performance of the boat, like it was full of water. We kept pumping out from all the cavities and it kept filling. We kept pulling the boat apart to drain and rectify. Every time we thought we had fixed it, more would appear!

'We believed it was the fresh water bladders which were leaking into the bilge, so in the end, we ditched the bladder water, which was a lot of water, very heavy and contributing to poor performance.

'This boat doesn't perform well reaching anyway, let alone with additional weight. With the water gone, and continuing the process of looking, we found water trapped below the floor compartments which we couldn't get out. We cut 3 inch holes in three spots and believed we emptied another 500 kg of trapped water - not good. No wonder the boat was like sailing the Endeavour?!

'That done, problem fixed? No! More water finding its way into the cabin. Continue with bailing - but now very salty Oh oh!

'When the water was mixed with bladder water, we were not able to pick it up. We pulled the boat apart again, drilled more holes, and bingo, found our crash bulkhead was full of water, lots of water, more weight in bow - oh ****! So, another marathon effort to get rid of that water. Think we have finally fixed all our water issues now - fingers crossed.'

From Rosie Colahan on Ingenue yesterday afternoon: 'W