Back Down

by Volvo ocean race media on 29 May 2002 In the shallow waters of the North Sea, all crews report trouble with
catching seaweed with their keels, rudders and engine struts. Getting
anything wrapped around one of your boat’s appendages is the nightmare of
every racing sailor. The flow of water around the fin that has been
perfectly smoothed before hitting the water is destroyed and a lot of drag
is added, resulting in a considerable loss of boat speed and an increase
in leeway.

On powerful boats like the V.O.60s the loss of speed might be as little as
a few tenths of a knot, but in the fierce competition between the yachts,
no-one can afford such a disadvantage. Therefore the crews are working
frantically to get rid of whatever sticks to their yacht. Some have fit
special weed cutting devices to their keel, others carry weed sticks they
can use to clear the keel or rudder when going slow, but most report that
they have to sail backwards to get clear. Reports about ‘backing down’
came in from several yachts.

Brad Jackson from Tyco explains a typical procedure: “After going slowly
for a short while we decided that we had to clear it off which meant
hoisting headsail and dropping the spinnaker before rounding up head to
wind and going backwards. Normally this is enough to clear the foils but
in the murky North Sea we had no easy way of knowing that we are 100%
clean… It is very annoying to turn around and point 180 degrees from where
you want to go and watch the boats behind you take away your lead that you
have been working on for two days. We lost first place to ASSA ABLOY but
at least we were going 100% again.”

Race leader illbruck hasn’t been spared the experience: “Also, seaweed has
played a big role in this leg so far. All the teams have performed 'back
downs'. This normally means dropping your headsail or spinnaker and
turning the boat into the wind, which allows the boat to stop, and slowly
go in reverse for a few moments to let the sea weed come off the keel,
strut, and rudder. Each back down move you make you can lose anywhere from
0.5 to 2 miles. Making the back down move could mean losing 2-4 places.
That is one of the reasons the boats are changing positions all of the
time on this leg.
“On our last back down, we had seaweed wrapped around our strut, so Tony
went for a swim in the chilly water of the North Sea to clear it off. No
one was excited about swimming this morning, but Tony, the youngest
crewmember onboard, stuck his hand up and said, ‘I will do it’ and
everyone else onboard was relieved and happy that Tony went swimming,”
wrote skipper John Kostecki.

While most of the crews accept it as a natural occurrence, Mark Rudiger,
navigator on ASSA ABLOY had a more to say on the matter: “Why is it that
just when things are going your way, something comes along to foul it up?
After fighting hard to hold the lead with Tyco, and holding off the rest,
playing the tides and gybing on the shifts, we came out of Dover Strait in
good shape. The boats behind had gained a lot as predicted because we hit
the big ebb first and were sailing into dying breeze. They got out of jail
free. On top of that, all of a sudden, we slowed down noticeably and the
fleet was all over us.”

While the other yachts had to free their keels and rudders from seaweed,
ASSA ABLOY’s obstacles were of a different nature: “Magnus [Olsson] came
up on deck shaking his head, and exclaimed in his drawn out Swedish accent
‘you won’t believe what was on the keel.’ Everyone looked around waiting
for some one to guess ’three big fishes.’ He laughed spreading his arms as
far as he could. We all looked suspicious of another Magnus Olsson fish
story, but Richard and Sidney [Gavignet] confirmed having watched through
the scope. I had to agree that looking at the performance factor on the
graph, it went up 6%. So now after 48 hrs of giving everything for a few
boat lengths, it’s back to the grinder for more boat lengths to gain
back.”

On Amer Sports One Dee Smith had to deal with another problem. Having lost
their early lead, the confidence in the design of the red and grey yacht
faded as the competition overtook: “It has been tough for us on the
non-Farr [Yacht Design] boat. We had a good lead entering the English
Channel; just to see the Farr [Yacht Design] boats come up and pass us
over the last 350 miles.”

Still confident about what lies ahead, Dee continues: “We feel very good
on how we are sailing just to be this close. Our time will have to come
when the wind gets light and tricky. I know the race won't be this close
at the finish. Getting into the marks in Norway without any real wind
will be very hard, and there it just might not pay to get there first.”

Djuice and Amer Sports Too continue to trail the fleet. Djuice is looking
forward to the lighter conditions off the Norwegian coast, where they hope
to close in on the fleet and repeat the good result they had into Rio at
the end of leg four. Now 160 miles behind the leading yachts, hopes for a
good position at the end of this leg are fading away for Amer Sports Too.

Last night SEB has split from the main pack, sailing a parallel course
about ten miles to the northwest. For the other yachts it is what John
Kostecki called a “drag race” where pure boat speed counts. The yachts are
expected to round Torungen Lighthouse off the Norwegian coast tomorrow
early morning and to pass Skagen at noon