Brian Thompson, on board Bahrain Team Pindar

by Brian Thompson on 21 Nov 2008 Hi All

It’s been a day in the sail loft for me on board Bahrain Team Pindar. I have been working on the A3 sail since 10am yesterday, through much of the night and will take at least all of today to get it finished. Hopefully then I can put it up to furl it and see if she stays up.

Much of yesterday was spent laboriously unwrapping the sail, as it was furled in 2 sections, above and below the luff to the tear in the middle. I had to unwrap the sail around and around the luff cable. With a 15m foot length you end up with a lot of sail to wind underneath and over its own luff cable again and again.

After finally exposing the luff cable, which I was most happy to see, it was a matter of finding out whether any bits of the sail were missing, by following the tear on both sides. That was fortunately fine and so then on to the actual repair, which is a combination of cuben fibre sticky back cloth, sikaflex and spray glue. No stitching required, according to our sail designer Yann.

It’s a long and tedious job, but the effort will be well rewarded with the joy to come if the sail goes into the air and stays together. That will be a nervous moment! I spent much of the night working on the sail, out of the sun with the light of the headtorch. Took a few naps on the folds of Cuben cloth, with the stars above and the boat doing 8 knots, it was great, its not often you can do that on a round the world trip.

Fortunately, I had this ideal weather window now where there was no water on the deck to unroll the sail, and little apparent wind to blow the sail off the deck once it was unrolled. I need to take advantage of this time, as otherwise I will be working in the forepeak in the SE trades, which won’t be nearly so pleasant. Certainly there was no way I could have unrolled it by myself in the forepeak.

Had a close encounter of the Roxy kind yesterday, I was busy unwrapping my Cuben fiber early Xmas present on deck when in came Sam on starboard, She gybed about a mile ahead and we spent most of the day glued together. We had a chat on the telephone as one of our radios must be acting up, and all is well on board Roxy. During the night I lost sight of her, and this morning she crossed my bow on starboard, heading out to the SW.

Sailing with Sam reminds me of sailing these same waters in the 2001 mini transat race which we both did, together with Arnaud Boissiere and Yannick Bestaven. Four mini sailors from one edition of the Transat now doing the Vendee, quite remarkable.

It’s a big shame that Yannick had his dismasting in the beautifully revamped ex Aquitane Innovation of Yves Parlier. It’s certainly very different sailing on the IMOCA 60 with internet access, phone lines and access to expensive weather models. In the mini there was no access to the outside except your short wave radio receiver and your VHF.

Having the information now is fascinating ( and essential for safety in the South) and being able to call home and tell everyone you are ok is priceless, but there was that simplicity in the mini to have more time just to sail the boat and be in the elements. The IMOCA 60 is part boat, part workshop, part weather station, part media company and part general office. But what a boat!

I think I will stay on port for now, as the doldrums should be clearing out as I get there.I am very happy to have got the westing in the day before yesterday as there was always much lighter wind to my east till now. Also this gybe is much better for the sail repair, so an added bonus. I should have a slight net gain on the leaders for this doldrum crossing if the weather models are right, though the leaders will start to make some progress today as the wind fills in for them too.

Currently on A2 spinnaker and full main and wind is up to 10 knots.

Naturewatch Ocean: Saw a second stormy petrel today, and some flying fish.

34 degrees in the cabin today, water temp 27.9 degrees at 925N 2744W.

Brian