Light displacement and wherewithal
by John Curnow, Editor, Sail-World AUS 4 Mar 2018 10:04 PST
Leg 4, Melbourne to Hong Kong, day 08 on board Dongfeng. Drifting in the doldrums with no wind © Martin Keruzore / Volvo Ocean Race
Had a call from an old friend. Wow. Just realised that is the very same line used at the start of Billy Joel's My Life. Anyway, that is purely as an aside, and has no bearing whatsoever on the material contained herein. At any rate, they had just finished a race, and it was wonderful to catch up on the goings on, especially when it was not so much daylight for second, but a whole week of sunshine.
Overall, it had been a day of ultra-light winds from many a direction, and made all the more 'memorable' by the amount and size of the voids in between the truly important zephyrs that kept them going. That's to say nothing of the tide, which can easily pull four knots, and seems to be invariably going the other way to you in the area where they race.
Yet over and above their meagre two and a half tonne displacement, and investment in a wardrobe for all occasions, there was a delightful notion that sat with me for a good couple of days afterwards. Sure we got to talking about the square top main, and super-oversize, overlapping headsail that this kind of racing permits (no need to stress about certificates here), but it was way more than any of that.
What came out of it all, however, was just how easy it was to remember the exact times sailing taught you the key lessons. Where you were, what boat you were on, which race, and who you were with. The one we both were commenting on was just how important it is to keep the boat going in conditions like this, and that could often mean in a direction that could have a very negative VMG!
My first lesson with this principle was in Bass Strait of all places. It is one locale that does both ends of the spectrum oh-so-well. Indeed it was one of my first ocean races, and there we were with a heavy displacement craft. The only thing 'planing' about her shape was the tools the craftsmen had used on the furniture below. Think that's bad? Well it had runners, yet we could see no way that these wires were going to be able to put any shape into the telegraph pole that was her stick!
There were two of us on deck. It was kind of damp, which was not surprising given the fog. We had the dogwatch. We knew the fleet was out there, and that the prize was to be able to get to the picturesque little town that race finished in, and enjoy the sunshine with a nice red.
So you have the biggest rags up and you try to fill them, but it felt totally like trying to drag a D10 Caterpillar around behind a children's kite. Still the name of the game is perseverance, and slowly the spinnaker spent more time aloft, and less sweeping the deck. Soon, one of us was even able to use the helm as water began to pass over the rudder.
Had it been in the era of the tracker, then the resultant image would have been like a finger painting. Yet the real joy came in the form of the morning sched. For all of that effort had translated into a sizable lead over larger and more fancied craft, with something like only 30nm left to run.
If you cannot have low mass and a selection of weapons, then at least use your composure. So thank you sailing, and also the owners and crew along the way, for the wonderful lessons and memories. Cheers.
Right oh - here today there are some gems for you to review. We have information from the 18s, and you would have noticed their live stream on the front of the website. You too can have your live feed up on the top of the site, just make contact with us ahead of time, and we can make it so.
Great to see tech2 do so well in Round Four of the SuperFoilers from Busselton. After the disaster that was disintegration in Adelaide, to be storming along is terrific. Of course having Euroflex back out for the end of the round, after its own set of damage, shows how dedicated the entire outfit is to delivering their product. Well done, all!
Also there is information from the RC44s, ESS, the Clippers, Barcelona World Race, we say goodbye to Thorry Gunnersen AM (and thanks to Andrew Roberts for sending the great piece to us), RS:X, Optis from Lake Garda (worth it for the pics alone), Vestas 11th hour Racing, the Volvo itself, J24s, 5.5s, the Sydney Harbour Regatta sponsored by Abell Point Marina, Youth Worlds, China Sea Race, MySailTeam continue to get people on boats and out on the water, and will be giving us weekly updates for the next little while, and certainly there is much, much more.
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John Curnow, Sail-World.com Australian Editor