Golding battles to reach stricken Hugo Boss

by Coralie Rassinoux on 24 Nov 2006
Mike Golding and ECOVER are fighting back upwind against the clock to close on the stricken Velux 5 Oceans Race Open 60 yacht HUGO BOSS before nightfall which will make the rescue of skipper Alex Thomson more difficult. Mike reports this afternoon that he has been working relentlessly since he altered course this morning to retrace his wake in order to attend to Alex's predicament.

While the wind was around 40 knots when he settled ECOVER down for the 80 mile race back upwind, the falling breeze and strong desire to reach HUGO BOSS before darkness, Mike has made several sail changes to maintain best speed.

'There is a huge sea running and I have been changing up the sail plan regularly but I am making progress. The only problem at the moment is that I am being headed (the wind is changing direction to force him increasingly away from the rendezvous) and, of course, the main engine has decided to pack up again, which will not make life easy.'

'I noticed on the polls that Alex was very slow and Kojiro as well... David (Adams) called me and told me there was a problem. They were not asking for assistance at this stage but I had a bit of an intuition and started to take a reef and back off because I was doing 24-25 knots and I just though it was daft to be doing that kind of speed away from him.'

'So I took a reef and was still doing 16 knots. So then I think Alex called me and said that he had a problem and that the keel head had broken off.

At that point I asked the race office if they wanted me to turn round but they said no, I think because they thought Kojiro was in a better position (to sail downwind top Alex), but Kojiro might have a problem as well and I think was in lighter winds and about three quarters of an hour later they called back and asked.

It took about ten to 15 minutes to turn the boat around. It is not an easy business because you are set up to be hammering downwind and have to drop the stack (remove all the gear and sails which is stacked on the windward side of the boat). Even though you are not racing (meaning he is sailing in the opposite direction from the course to Fremantle) you still need the stack on the favoured side of the boat.'

'At first we had about 40 knots and I was under a storm staysail, tacked the boat and got going and then 20 minutes later had to change up and since then I have just been steadily working up through the sail plan. Now I am on the Solent (working jib) and two reefs.' 'I think it will be touch and go but the goal is to get there by nightfall, that's what I am trying to do. I have spoken to Alex on the phone and he is cool. I think it'll maybe be five hours.'

'I am disappointed for Alex and disappointed for the race. And it is annoying in the sense that we have lost an opportunity to close the gap, but you know Alex is in trouble and I would expect him to do the same for me. That is the game. That is what we do. It cannot be very nice for him being on a broken boat like that in the middle of the Southern Ocean and all I want to do is get him off it. And get him on here. And maybe he knows a bit more about diesel engines! Maybe I'll ask him if he will whip his fuel pump off. I don't think he will be wanting to do that.'

'But you know it is a pleasure to go back if someone is in trouble. You just can't say you feel bad about it. You just get on and do it, don't you.'

'I think it is important to be seen to be self sufficient and we always have been as a class. Very self sufficient. Alex has a really serious breakage by any standards and you know I think at the moment he is in a bad way, the boat is in danger. Right now he is OK and hopefully he will be OK. The most difficult bit of this will be the actual pick up.'

'I think he will take to the liferaft and I am going to sail up to the liferaft. It is a bit annoying not to have the engine, because it would be useful. It might be OK if I sit the boat upright. I have a feeling it is the fuel pump because it was running so well yesterday on port, but it is back to its old problem and we are on starboard tack now.'

Mike had just completed a tough, rewarding 24 hours during which he had driven ECOVER 446 miles, only 22 miles short of the world 24 hour solo monohull record which Alex holds and shortened the lead of Bernard Stamm to 445 miles.

'Doing 446 miles. That's up there with my fastest days, definitely. Last night my top speed was 32 knots, so I've exceeded my 31 knots previous top speed.'

Mike had reported before turning ECOVER around, but now the successful, safe rescue of Alex Thomson is the primary goal.