Volvo Ocean Race: MOB search continues with other vessels
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com/nz 26 Mar 2018 16:16 PDT
27 March 2018
Leg 4, Melbourne to Hong Kong, day 1 John Fisher on board Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag © Konrad Frost / Volvo Ocean Race
Volvo Ocean Race have confirmed that SHK Scallywag has been allowed to resume her course for Cape Horn after losing crew member John Fisher overboard.
In a statement Volvo Ocean Race advised that Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) is continuing to lead efforts to recover Volvo Ocean Race sailor John Fisher (UK), who was reported overboard off Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag early on Monday afternoon UTC.
The Scallywag team, assisted by the MRCC, conducted an exhaustive search and rescue operation in an effort to recover Fisher, who was on watch and wearing appropriate survival gear when he went overboard.
The remaining crew are reported safe.
The wind in the area at the time was a strong 35-knot westerly, with accompanying sea state. Water temperature was 9-degrees Celsius. There is still daylight, but weather conditions are forecast to deteriorate in the coming hours, and darkness will come at approximately 01:20 UTC.
The MRCC has already requested a ship, nearly 400 nautical miles away, divert to the scene.
The MRCC continues in attempts to contact other ships that may be able to assist.
The weather in the area is forecast to deteriorate significantly in the coming hours. Given the severity of the forecast and with nightfall just over an hour away, we acknowledge the chances of a successful recovery are diminishing.
SHK/Scallywag has thus made the difficult decision to turn downwind and head towards the South American coast, the nearest safe landfall, approximately 1,200 nautical miles away.
The Hong Kong flagged entry was in a position 600nm SE of Point Nemo and in winds that were averaging in the mid to high 30kt range. It is not known what the sea state was at the time of the incident. However it is not expected to be good.
The safety procedure on each boat is that each boat has its own safety plan, which is independent of Volvo Ocean Race who have their own more extensive safety and incident management plan. Volvo Ocean Race has oversight over the individual race plans, and they are interlocked so that the team shore crew can work with the on board crew and also with Volvo Ocean Race. There is cross-liaison between the teams and Volvo Ocean Race on an ongoing basis to ensure there is proper integration between all involved groups.
In the last report before the incident from Volvo Ocean Race which was prophetically entitled the "Southern Ocean bites Back", SHK Scallywag skipper David Witt commented:
At the back of the fleet, SHK Scallywag is sailing conservatively following some equipment damage as well as at least one uncontrolled gybe.
Skipper David Witt says the goal is to get to Cape Horn safely and then make an effort to catch the fleet. Given the forecast of compression after the Horn, that might be a sensible strategy, the report continued.
"Make sure we get to the Horn intact, and we may have a chance,” he told his on-board reporter. “We may not, but we need to get from here to the Horn, and at the moment we’re struggling so we just have to get there safely.”
According to routing using Predictwind from her last reported position, SHK Scallywag will round the Horn at noon on March 29 UTC. Thankfully that is in daylight.
For SHK Scallywag conditions to the Horn vary with the wind feed but are showing as an average of 30-35kts increasing to over 40kts average in the next 36 hours - which probably means squalls more than 50kts.
According to Predictwind, the front runners will have an easier run to Cape Horn than SHK Scallywag with winds averaging 10kts less than the backmarker.
Using the Comfort routing function of Predictwind, for SHK Scallywag set to provide a route that will have winds averaging less than 25kts and seas under 5metres in height SHK Scallywag will have to either head well to the North, adding 1500nm and three days to reach the southernmost point of South America. The alternative is to head south down to almost 60 degrees, and extreme cold, giving a run of 1600nm to the Cape and rounding in 65hours from her current position.
Leg leader, Team Brunel had 1300-1400nm to sail to reach Cape Horn and at last, report was at 56degrees South but was expected to come north in the next few hours. SHK Scallywag is well to the north of the fleet at her last reported position being at 52 degrees South, and
Volvo Ocean Race in the last race report said the lead boats had 1,400 miles to sail to Cape Horn, and the fleet is now seeing snow squalls and winds above 40 knots, in building seas.
This will be the case for another 24 hours before another short break brings more moderate winds. But as the boats approach the famed Cape Horn, the forecast is for conditions to deteriorate significantly, with howling winds and towering seas predicted.
Team Brunel continues to lead the fleet in their push eastwards, with race veterans like skipper Bouwe Bekking and navigator Andrew Cape shepherding the rookies on their team through the travails of the Southern Ocean.
“The young dogs help to make the boat go fast, but they have never been bitten badly in the butt, and we don't want them to experience that,” Bekking wrote. “Down here things can quickly snowball in the wrong direction. In a blink, 30 knots can turn into 40-plus and then it is crash and burn…
“(But) we’ve been going very nicely for the last couple of days,” Bekking said. “There is a big front coming from behind, and the Ice Exclusion Zone is setting us up for a gybe. Then a big shift and quite a bit of breeze tonight and tomorrow.”
Vestas 11th Hour Racing navigator Simon Fisher was even more succinct in a tweet: “Windy. Very Windy. Making our way East while getting hunted down by a cold front. A few more hard hours ahead.”
Fisher’s Vestas 11th Hour Racing is in a group of five boats 50 miles behind Brunel, all within 10 miles of each other on distance to finish, and spread 30 miles from north to south.
Remarkably, the overall race leader, MAPFRE, has managed to hang with this group, despite damage to their mast track that limits their mainsail configuration to a single or double-reef.
“I think we have to be very happy with where we are,” said skipper Xabi Fernández. “Yesterday we’ve tried to stop the boat a little bit to make some reinforcements that allow us to keep pushing hard with one or two reefs all the way to the Horn…
“We are now waiting for a lot of wind. We’ll have to be very careful with the mast, and hopefully, we can match the speed of the other boats and be in the game at the Horn.”
On a personal note, I had the pleasure of meeting John Fisher for the first time in Auckland when he gave several media a tour of SHK Scallywag. He came across as being very professional, highly experienced and a thoroughly pleasant person. It is very hard to understand how someone of his experience could have gone overboard in the Southern Ocean, but accidents can happen to the best of us. Our deepest condolences to his wife, family and the whole of the SHK Scallywag team.