Volvo Ocean Race Legends- Destruction derby

by Volvo Ocean Race Media on 12 Sep 2010
The first leg of the third Whitbread Round the World Race in 1981-82, from Portsmouth to Cape Town, was dubbed by one yachting magazine as a ‘destruction derby'. Part 1 of 3.

Three yachts, La Barca Laboratorio, Rollygo and Peter Blake's Ceramco NZ, lost their rigs. FCF Challenger and Charles Heidsieck III suffered serious rigging problems, Bubblegum broke a chainplate and also collided with a whale, losing steerage when the wire cables broke. Traité de Rome came perilously close to losing her entire skeg and rudder and Scandinavian retired to Las Palmas with a long list of problems.

In Cape Town, there were so many repairs to different kinds of damage that the race committee did consider postponing the next leg start. Of the 29 boats taking part, 21 reported damage.

The most remarkable recovery, however, was that of Peter Blake's Ceramco New Zealand. After pressing Flyer, the eventual race winner, for the first three weeks of the leg, on 21 September 1980, disaster struck Ceramco's New Zealand crew 100 miles from Ascension Island.

This is part one of Peter Blake's account of what happened.

‘Suddenly, there was an almighty bang and a crash from up top. Ceramco came upright and slowed. I didn't need to know what had happened. We'd broken the mast. I dashed up on deck. What a mess. The whole top of the mast was over the side, but still attached by internal halyards and wiring systems, plus the mainsail, jib and the headstay. Another section, probably 20-feet long, was bent over and dangling down to the gunwhale. We were left with a 16-foot stump still in place.

‘It appeared that the port lower intermediate shroud had broken where it bent over the lower spreader. The top section of the alloy mast, with all its attachments, was under the boat with the wind blowing Ceramco down on to it.

‘There were some shocked and glum faces about, but nobody hesitated. Fenders were put over the side to prevent hull damage by the section in the water. We used the motor - first making sure there were no lines under the propeller - to reverse the boat around until the spar and entanglements were to windward with Ceramco streaming to leeward of their danger. Then we used blocks and tackles to slowly winch the mast section back on board.

‘With everything back on deck - we salvaged the lot - we had only three bent stanchions to show for all the trouble. But, we were 2,455 miles from Cape Town, with only a 16-foot stump of a mast from which to hang a bare minimum of sail.

‘To get us moving again, while we took stock of the situation, we hoisted trysail and the No. 6 jib on the stump and were quickly making four to five knots in the right direction, but it was daunting to think how far we had to go - most of it to windward if we contemplated the direct route.

‘We'd been lucky though. I shuddered when I thought what could have happened if someone had been to leeward, changing sheets or preparing for a headsail change when it came down.

‘The boat was unnaturally quiet; gloom and doom below and the mood wasn't helped by the necessity to let the outside world know what had happened. This, fortunately posed no technical problem. Our big Sailor SSB radio worked through two whip aerials mounted on the stern. Things would have been a bit more difficult had we used the backstay as an aerial.

‘My first call was to my wife Pippa back in England. She burst into tears. Then it was the turn of Peter Montgomery of Radio New Zealand and Alan Sefton of the Auckland Star. These two had done so much for our project; they had a right to be the first media people to know. I had already informed the rest of the fleet on the ‘chat' show and sent a telex to the Royal Naval Sailing Association, the organisers of the race, telling them we had lost the mast but were continuing to Cape Town under jury rig.

‘The chores out of the way, I assembled the crew and outlined our options. The direct route to Cape Town was out. Ceramco was in no condition to go sailing to windward. If we found we couldn't sail effectively, we could put into Ascension Island, take on diesel, sail on as far as we could and then start the motor. This went down like the proverbial lead balloon.

‘We could also turn back and head for Monrovia, 800 miles to the north and have a new mast waiting there. But that would mean the end of the race for us. We would never get to Cape Town in time for the re-start to Auckland...'

Find out what happened next week.

If you know the whereabouts of Ceramco New Zealand, email us at Legends@volvooceanrace.com.

Peter Blake's account of Ceramco's dismasting is an excerpt from Ocean Conquest,, the official story of the Whitbread Round the World Race, by Bob Fisher and Barry Pickthall.