Volvo Ocean Race...more wipe-outs

by Volvo Ocean Race on 2 Dec 2001 Over the last view days all the crews reported wipeouts and broaches. That
it is something wild can be easily figured out, but no one has yet
described what it really is and how it happens. Lets start from the
beginning:

A V.O.60 generates its driving force through the sails in a very similar
way that the wind off an aeroplane does. As a yacht drives through the
water and generates the power in the air, the sails have to be adapted and
adjusted to the different conditions and directions a yacht sail. The
higher the wind speed and the bigger the sails, the higher the force
generated by the sails. When the yacht sails on the wind [with the wind
from forward abeam] the amount of power that can be managed by the yacht
is limited through her stability. The higher the power, the more she heels
over as the sails create a huge sidewise power in addition to the driving
force. If the heeling force is too big, the yacht heels over and after a
certain point gets slower. The solution is reducing the sail area and get
her back on her feet.

In contrary to the above scenario, if the yacht goes with the wind, the
sails are more open and what was the heeling force above, is now added to
the driving force. A V.O.60 can handle a lot of driving force, due to the
hull form. As long as the force is channelled into the direction where
the yacht is actually going, she can handle forces far beyond the limit
that exists on a close-hauled course. If powered up enough, the yachts can
start planning like a powerboat or a surfboard. This enables the yachts
in the Volvo Ocean Race to maintain the high speeds we experienced when
they sailed their records in the Southern Ocean. In conditions, when the
average cruising sailor would wish himself in a safe haven, the Volvo
Ocean Race crews put up spinnakers to increase the available energy even
further. But even for the best helmsman and the ultimate trimmers, there
is a limit; and what happens beyond this limit, if the whole game gets out
of control?

As the power builds up in the boat, the pressure on the foils (keel and
rudder) increases. Once the pressure goes beyond a sustainable level, the
foils stall and offer no guidance to the yacht anymore. The result is,
that the sails take ultimate control over the boat and start to turn her
around. Quickly the angle between the sail generated force and the
direction the boat heads to changes, the yacht will be thrown around and
eventually lie flat on the water, being rapidly stopped. This does not
sound too dramatic yet, as some factors are still missing.

Often a wipe out happens at very high speed, very likely in excess of 25
knots of boat speed. As the yachts go with the wind the strength of the
wind is reduced. Once lying with no speed at all, flat on the water, the
yacht, the rig and the sails are exposed to the full force of the
elements. Then spinnakers can rip, mainsails tear and masts break. After
all this mayhem, somebody has to clear up the mess in temperatures just
above freezing in the middle of the night in three storey high waves. That
is dramatic!

The crews gave us a lot of accounts over the last days of how they
experienced a wipe out in the conditions they came through in the Great
Australian Bight.

Under the pressure of leading towards the Bass Strait, SEB pushed too hard
and went beyond the limit as they write: “Last night was one of those
nights we will never forget. One reason is that we had a masthead chute up
in 40 knots and enormous waves and the other that we wiped out and
shattered the spinnaker. We were monitoring a squall and it was coming
closer, just aiming for us. No worries we thought, we have been clean
through two bad ones earlier and saw no reason to back down on this one.
The waves were still very big and it was all on the edge of course. What
happened then, was that this one came in with a lift (more open wind) and
forced us to sail higher and with an angle to the waves. That is no fun
at all in 35 knots with the big gear [sails] up. One wave was then bigger
than the other and in combination with an extra gust we just spun out. Not
even a chance to make it. On the side, in a wild broach, the big spinnaker
flogging wildly, shaking the whole boat and making the very strong carbon
mast look like spaghetti. Could not get the bow down in these waves and we
were forced to look at the chute being torn to pieces as we were taking it
down and at the same time hoisting a jib.
More problems followed immediately, one sheet under the boat and jammed on
the rudder. The situation was as follows, no more masthead chute to hoist
in this breeze, sheet under the boat, sailing under jib and main the wrong
way.”

News Corp was determined to catch up with the leaders on the homeward leg
and pushed as much as they could, too much, as navigator Ross Field
reports: “Night time, broached, rolled her out in a puff of 38 knots while
carrying masthead spinnaker and a full main.

The poor old boat lay on her side flapping and screaming and then the
spinnaker fell apart. The guys got her back upright, pulled the spinnaker
down, threw it in the bilge and we took off again doing 20 knots under
main only. Got the fractional spinnaker on and were off again within 15
minutes.

We have suffered and lost 10 miles straight away and a further five miles
being underpowered. As one crewmember said - a broach cost 10 miles and
$100,000 - slight exaggeration but it’s expensive in every sense of the
word.”

But being in a yacht race with only a limited number of sails allowable to
use, the sails have to be repaired, even on board when sailing, as Knut
Frostad, skipper of djuice explains: “We had some great downwind sailing
today in up to 38 knots of wind, with all the sail area up, doing up to 29
knots of boat speed. Unfortunately our max size spinnaker ripped along the
foot and leech, but Espen [Guttormsen], Spike {Peter Doriean] and Steve
[Gruver] had it back together again after six intense hours behind the
sewing machine. It’s amazing what they can fix. Looking at the pieces that
came down from the rig, I had my doubts about seeing that sail again in
one piece on this leg, but they made it.”

Volvo Ocean Race Position Report, Day 21, 1554 GMT

PS Yacht Latitude Longitude DTF CMG SMG TFHR DTL DTL-C ETA PO
1 ILBK 40 42.52S 144 03.88E 00572 055 09.5 303 0 -1 03 DEC 01 16

2 TSEB 40 34.80S 143 47.36E 00578 061 08.2 280 6 +6 03 DEC 01 10

3 NEWS 40 51.00S 142 39.04E 00631 066 07.9 294 59 +7 04 DEC 01 12

4 AART 40 29.36S 142 20.32E 00636 049 07.5 286 64 +14 04 DEC 01 9

5 DJCE 40 50.04S 141 34.36E 00676 079 07.6 292 104 +11 04 DEC 01 6

6 AONE 40 59.56S 141 06.84E 00699 078 07.2 288 127 +13 04 DEC 01 10

7 ATOO 37 26.88S 129 29.60E 01236 105 09.5 182 664 -2 06 DEC 01 3

8 TYCO 33 58.00S 025 38.12E - - - - - - - -

PS – Position; DTF – Distance to Finish; CMG – Course made good; SMG –
Speed made good; TFHR – 24 hours run; DTL – Distance to leader; DTL-C –
Distance to leader change; ETA – Estimated time of arrival; PO –
accumulated Points

ILBK illbruck Challenge
AONE Amer Sports One
ATOO Amer Sports Two
AART ASSA ABLOY Racing Team
NEWS News Corporation
TYCO Team Tyco
TSEB Team SEB
DJCE djuice dragons