Rich Wilson rounds the Horn, Desjoyeaux aiming at Les Sables d’Olonne

by Vendee Globe media on 27 Jan 2009
Rich Wilson is highly adept at crunching numbers, a highly skilled mathematician who loves the cerebral challenge of this Vendée Globe, working the weather models to his vest advantage just as much as he has risen to the physical challenge.

But for the race’s oldest skipper, age has never been anything more than a number on his race so far. And today when he rounded Cape Horn, tired after a demanding approach, he was typically low key and measured, simply looking forward to the important northwards turn up the Atlantic at the Island los Estados, some 150 miles NE of Cape Horn.

Wilson passed the rocky landmark at around 1330hrs GMT today, in moderating conditions although he had typically angry, violent seas as he passed over the sharp rise in the ocean floor at the continental shelf. Speaking to the radio vacations in Paris and American Attaché in Paris Mr Judson Hamblett,

Wilson remarked: 'The boat is holding up well, this is the fourth time around the world, it is remarkable that the boat is holding up with this sailor just rattling around inside, trying to make it also.'

'Well we are saying here that ‘Yes You Can Too!' quipped Mr Hamblett.

'It was remarkable when we left Les Sables d’Olonne it was such an astonishing
event. 300,000 people out there to send us off, but there were groups of people started singing the US National Anthem as we headed out. There was a huge sign saying ‘yes you can!'

Leader Michel Desjoyeaux was on the point of making his next routing decision, whether to stay north and sail more miles or gybe and head on a more direct course towards Cape Finisterre, when he was called by the radio broadcast. He had indicated that he would reveal the exact nature of the damage which occurred to Foncia during Christmas afternoon which had threatened his lead, and his race.

He described how the pintle was damaged when the port rudder was hit by a big wave when it was out of the water, to the point the rudder was left secured by only the transverse linking arm, which joins the two rudders, and the rope system which is used to raise and lower it. As the boat slowed, stalled and started going backwards the rudder started to go under the boat. But Desjoyeaux managed to pull it back into place – according to him more by luck than anything. He managed to effect a temporary repair, later replacing it with a temporary pin made from a damaged stanchion and some carbon.

The duel between Sam Davies and Marc Guillemot for fourth place on the water, is swinging back in favour of the British skipper who has been enjoying the better tradewinds. This afternoon she was less than three miles behind Safran and making two knots quicker. Guillemot was not helped when he sustained damage to his starboard running backstay.

At around one this morning, the starboard runner broke five metres from the blocks, which are used to pull it tight.

'I had to sail under small jib, bring down the mainsail to ease off the leeward runner and reposition it windward. I lost some time and I’m exhausted and on edge. When you break something due to human error, that’s fine, but I couldn’t do anything to stop this from happening. It meant a lot of work due to something beyond my control.'

Norbert Sedlacek, AUT, is further compromised for the moment after suffering damage to his mainsail headboard car system and can now only raise the mainsail on Nauticsport Kapsch to the second reef. He was due to pass the final ice gate this afternoon, some hours after Raphael Dinelli (Fondation Ocean Vital) who complete the last security requirement at 0730hrs GMT this morning. With 1750 miles to Cape Horn the final duo could enter the Atlantic after the victor has arrived in Les Sables d’Olonne. After the best part of a week trapped in a bubble of high pressure they were moving well with winds over 40-45 knots today.

Michel Desjoyeaux, Foncia: 'It’s fairly quiet. I thought the seas would be rougher and the wind has dropped below ten knots. I think this afternoon, I’ll be back in stronger winds with downwind sailing and then after that, there will be a strategic choice to decide whether to head for Cape Finisterre or head up to Ireland. When you’re sailing you don’t always take the shortest route. A few hours ago, there was a great dawn with some nice clouds, even if we couldn’t see the sun. There’s a swell from several directions and ten knots of wind. It’s varying between 6 and 12 knots. There are squalls nearby, but I haven’t had any this morning. I’m managing to advance at 10-12 knots.

'On 17th December, the pintle, which the rudder rotates around partly came out and so it was being held in place on only one side. That shouldn’t have been a problem. Late on the night of 25th December, I was in heavy seas hitting the waves on my way to the West Pacific Gate in 30-35 knots of wind. I had two or three reefs in with the small jib. I was trying not to go too fast for fear of breaking something. So not too much sail up. The windward rudder was up as I’d been on the same tack for 3 days. So it was horizontal. I think a wave caught the rudder and dragged it into the water and as a part of the attachment was already broken, the box was held in place by the linking arm and the rope used to lower or raise it. So it was dark, the boat was at 10-12 knots. I pulled on the rope and of course, it wouldn’t go back in place. I slowed down the boat and she was under autopilot. I went backwards and the rudder, which was in the water went under the boat. I don’t know why but the boat moved forward again and the rudder reappeared and I’ve no idea how but on pulling on the rope used to lower or raise the rudder, it went back almost into the right place, so that was a miracle and things didn’t get any worse. Obviously when it was horizontal, bumping around it was under a lot of pressure and the carbon was suffering. So I had to work quickly.

If I hadn’t managed it I would probably have had to give up as I would only have been able to sail on one tack as the rudders aren’t interchangeable. It could quickly have become a disaster if I’d had to continue to Cape Horn with just one rudder. I consolidated the system using ropes to hold it against the transom. What worried me then was if I hit something with the rudder fixed firmly in place, I risked breaking the rudder or ripping off the attachment at the stern and I would have been back where I was before. So before the East Pacific Gate I set about using a stanchion tube and some carbon to create an axis around which the rudder could turn. So that means I have a system that I’m not raising, because I don’t want to damage anything again as it’s a bit precarious but the system would work normally if I hit something and the fuse would cause the rudder to kick up.'

Rich Wilson, USA, Great American III: ' We had a few wind shifts coming along here, little waves within the system and then a lot of wind this morning, three reefs and the staysail. Over the shelf here where it is a lot more shallow we had a pretty good sea state but now it seems to have moderated a little bit, just in the last half hour or. There seems to be quite an angry sea state. Not huge, just a bit vicious.

'It is grey. Just grey. It is raining a little bit. The clouds are over and it is just grey, grey, grey, grey. It has been like this for the last couple of days with just the occasional break of blue skies, but nothing like that today. Until this weather system goes by it will remain like this.

'I am pretty tired, I have been up for quite a while. I was up in the night as we were going westerly towards Cape Horn trying to sail deep downwind, and because the wind instruments are not functioning properly we are not able to sail to wind, I need to be on deck watching the windex at the top of the mast to see how close downwind we can go, trying to make the miles to the east.