Conference unifix::sailing

    Before the start of the Globe Challenge the skippers protested to
    race officials and had four marks of the course deleted.  These
    were the Cape Verde Islands in the Atlantic, Marion Island in the
    Indian Ocean, and Auckland and Diego Ramirez islands in the Pacific.
    
    The race organizers wanted to use these marks as points where photo
    boats and aircraft could record the racers for the media.  The solo
    sailors argued that the marks would force them to sail courses that
    were not as direct as they might choose.
    
    The race committee agreed.  Now, the only marks are the Canary Islands
    (where the boats will be photographed as they pass).  From there,
    the boats must proceed around the world, leaving Antarctica to
    starboard, and Cape Horn to port.
        
    Don

    Talk about government buoys!!! 
    
    ;)

    Won't it be a bitch when they come in for the finish and see the
    committee flying the Tango flag (twice around)!
    
    Dave

    >> Won't it be a bitch when they come in for the finish and see the
    >> committee flying the Tango flag (twice around)!
    
    Dave, this could only happen if the Manchester YC is running the race.
    
    ... Bob
    

    Without a doubt this is a very tough race. Unlike the Whitbread, the
    boats are single handed and are predominately 60ft (18.2m) non-IOR,
    water ballasted monohulls. The 23,000 mile course takes them through
    the Canaries leaving the Antartic to starboard and Cape Horn to port.
    
    Philippe Jeantot and Philippe Poupon were the pre-race favourites.
    Other top skippers were Titouan Lamazou and Jean-Yves Terlain.Also in
    the race are Bertie Reed and Mike Plant the only non-French names.
    7 of the 13 boats entered are especially built and highly
    sophisticated, purpose designed and built short-handed offshore racing
    machines.
    
    Tom

           <<< FRAMBO::$1$DUS5:[NOTES$LIBRARY]SAILING_IN_EU.NOTE;1 >>>
                     -< Cruising in the deep blue sea.... >-
================================================================================
Note 72.1                         Stormtactics?                           1 of 1
EEMELI::KKUUSISTO "I'd rather be sailing - downwind" 14 lines   4-JAN-1990 13:20
                         -< Suggested further reading >-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


	"Seaworthiness, the Forgotten Factor" by Tony Marchaj and
	"Fastnet Force 10" by John Roussmaniere make good further reading
	on the subject of "modern" boats with flat bottoms, low displacement
	and beamy hulls and their behaviour in heavy weather. 

	Michel Poupon, taking part in the Globe Challenge, the singlehanded
	race around the world, was rescued the other day from his capsized
	boat. His boat is ultra-light, flatbottomed and very beamy. The 
	keel is made of wolfram, heavier than lead. Wonder what his
	'stormtactics' might have been?
	 
	- kaj

    I think *Philippe* Poupon knows perfectly the Marchaj book, and when he
    go to cruise at his very few spare times, he certainly don't use this
    kind of extreme racing boat. 
    The problem is only due to competition spirit wich induce skippers to
    take some risks _well calculated or not_ and to improve new ways to
    sail faster. His "Fleury-Michon" is certainly an extreme boat, capable
    to maintain average speed of 17 nm on a few days, and it was probably
    the most well prepared, but even with his big experience, he can't
    anticipate (and the naval architect _Philippe Briand_ too) all the
    perils of the sea. And that's why the race was qualified as the "Race
    of the Century".
    Precisely, after checking the boat in all kind of weather, he choose to
    add a stern mast(sp?), to reduce the size of the huge mainsail and boom
    wich was too often close to the water, but it seems the stability was
    also reduced with this new high-placed weight, a little too much...
    When he capsize, in the roaring fourties, Poupon said it was the first
    time he saw such a hard storm (after a lot of transat and
    round-the-world races), maybe the ballast tanks and the incoming water
    were added to the too good 90 degrees stability, so he waited 24 hours,
    sitting on the hull, with the masts flat on the water, without sinking
    thank to the efficient watertight compartments. Loic Peyron, another
    french skipper, arrived on site, with a very accurate navigation, and
    helped Poupon to turn his layed boat nose to the wind, in the same
    time, he cut the shrouds of the stern mast, leave it in water, to help
    to right itself.
    After a big thanks (!) and some tidying, he sailed very fastly to
    Capetown to repair his boat and come back to France with it.
    
    Maybe a new chapter to add in the Marchaj theories.
    
    
    . Pierre .

	re .7

>    The problem is only due to competition spirit wich induce skippers to
>    take some risks _well calculated or not_ and to improve new ways to
>    sail faster.

>    ... he can't anticipate (and the naval architect _Philippe Briand_ too)
>    all the perils of the sea.

	Yes, it is a calculated risk - the "sormtactics" being relying on
	outside help.

	BTW, the latest Yachting Monthly (Jan 90) issue features an article
	written by Robin Knox-Johnston (sp?) comparing his Suhaili and
	Poupon's boat. Some change in 25 years. E.g. Knox-Johnston sailed
	Suhaili eight (8) months without any radio contact.


 >   ... the too good 90 degrees stability, so he waited 24 hours,
 >   sitting on the hull, with the masts flat on the water, without sinking
 >   thank to the efficient watertight compartments.

	So the boat didn't actually capsize but lay on it's side?

	That must ceratinly, I agree, be
    
 >   ... a new chapter to add in the Marchaj theories.
    
	
    - kaj

    re: .8
>	Yes, it is a calculated risk - the "sormtactics" being relying on
>	outside help.
    
    Ok, you bring up the eternal problem of the "external assistance" in a
    sailing race. 
    Even if Knox-Johnston sailed without radio, satellit navigator,
    electronical loch, that's not why we must throw away all this stuff we
    have now, and that's not why we sail with an "outside help spirit"!
    Yes, when they design and choose their boat, they know they have a very
    efficient communication equipment, but they know too there are some
    places (big south) where rescue possibilities are really poor, and the
    main difficultie is to find a good average between performance and the
    best security, or you can't calling it a race.
    
    Whatever the results, I think this kind of race will bring back us a
    lot of lessons, like the previous one (in 1969 I think), especially
    because it's a single handed one, the longer one and certainly the more
    dangerous one.
    
    . Pierre .

 I do think Fleury Michon and the other racing machines (boats)	are amazing
 - as well as the men sailing them. A lot will be learned which is of value
 for all shortanded offshore cruising.

 Still, the basic design concepts of the the boats does not - if you beleive
 Marchaj - conform to seaworthiness. With racing machines this can be accepted
 (?) especially as a calculated risk. Now, it seems, that this calculation is
 not always correct - i.e. the factors influencing seaworthiness are not all
 known to the designers.

 Thus, one experience gathered with this kind of extreme boats is
 the their vulnebarity in rough conditions.

 How is the race proceeding - how many are still in the game? Your coverage of
 the rescue of Philippe Poupon was interesting - especially because the media
 interest in The Globe Challenge seems 	to be very moderate outside France
 (correct?).

	- kaj
   

    The following is by Dan Byrne, special to the LA Times.  Dan competed
    in the 1982-83 BOC Challenge.
    
    Paris- The "Roaring 40s" of the South Atlantic and Indian oceans sprang
    a trap on three solo sailors in the Globe Challenge around-the-world
    sailboat race.
    	The bleak, cold storm-whipped Southern Ocean capsized one boat,
    dismasted another and crippled a third with a knockdown near 40 degrees
    south latitude.  All three skippers-Frenchmen Philippe Poupon and Jean
    Yves Terlain and South African Bertie Reed-are out of the
    27,000-nautical-mile non-stop race that began Nov.26.
    	Ten boats remain from the 13-boat field after the halfway mark. 
    Moroccan-born Titouan Lamazou, aboard Ecureuil d'Aquitaine, has been in
    the lead since the day after it started.  He was 400 nautical miles
    ahead of the second boat after more than 14,000 nautical miles and two
    months of racing.
    	Behind him pressure is mounting as the boats race across the Indian
    Ocean in iceberg territory, 1,200 nautical miles south of Australia and
    900 nautical miles north of Antarctica.
                                               

        Philippe Poupon, 35, whom the French consider the fastest sailor alive,
    limped into Cape Town aboard his Fleury Michon with a harrowing tale. 
    In second place on Dec. 28, Poupon was steering a wide arc around the
    Cape of Good Hope at 47 degrees south latitude.  The wind was 55 knots
    and the seas 25 feet, he recalled.  He was below when he felt the boat
    roll to port.  In an instant, he was over 120 degrees, with his keel in
    the air and his main and mizzen masts and sails under water.
    	Afraid he was trapped below, he waited for the keel to lever the
    boat erect.  It didn't happen.  "I was terrified the boat would turn
    'turtle' [upside down]," Poupon told race headquarters by radio
    afterward.  When he saw that the boat was stabilized but capsized,
    Poupon set to work to save himself and the boat.  First, he turned on
    two satellite emergency beacons, alerting race headquarters of trouble. 
    Next, he donned a survival suit and pumped his water ballast tanks
    empty in the hope that the boat, minus the weight or the ballast, would
    right itself.  No luck.
    	A South African search and rescue aircraft, alerted by race
    headquarters, spotted Fleury Michon 1,300 mautical miles southwest of
    Cape Town 23 hours after the emergency beacons were activated.  Three
    hours later, Loick Peyron, 29, aboard Lada Poch in third place 130
    nautical miles astern of Fleury Michon when the emergency developed,
    arrived.  Peyron found Fleury Michon broadside to heavy seas and
    25-knot winds.  Poupon was nowhere in sight.  Peyron blew his boat
    whistle and the startled Poupon clambered on deck to find his rescuer
    slowly circling his stricken craft.
    	Poupon floated a line to Lada Poch, which towed the bow of the
    capsized vessel into the wind.  The two sailors waited, hoping that
    without the force of the wind and seas acting on its broadside length,
    the boat would spring back up.  Again, it failed to respond.  Poupon
    decided to lessen the force holding his boat down by cutting away the
    mizzen mast.  This done, the boat came up.  Except for shredded sails,
    everything appeared to be intact, Peyron reported by radio.
    	Peyron rejoined the race with a 14-hour 30-minute time allowance
    for going to Poupon's aid.  However, as soom as Peyron put a line on
    Fleury Michon, Poupon was disqualified.  The rules allow no outside
    assistance.  Fleury Michon was not built as a ketch with an aft- or
    mizzen- mast.  It was designed as a sloop with a single mast.  Poupon
    added the mizzen to give himself a spare upon which to set sail if the
    other mast was lost.  It now appears that the water pressure on the
    added mast and sail kept Fleury Michon from righting itself and forced
    Poupon to accept assistance.
    
    Don

    	The next victim of the "Roaring 40s" was Jean Yves Terlain, aboard
    UAP 1992.  Terlain, 45, a veteran solo racer, reported the wind was 30
    knots and the boat was surfing at speeds up to 15 knots.  "I was down
    below, and all of a sudden there was a big bang," he said.  "I went up
    on deck and found the mast had fallen in three pieces."  He also found
    a smashed hatch and damage to the hull, deck and stanchions on the
    starboard side.  Parts of the mast were dragging in the water.  "I cut
    the shrouds with a hacksaw.  I had to change blades after each shroud
    was cut.  The boat was crossing the waves and one-degree [Celsius]
    water was hitting me in the face."
    	A video camera and a satellite mavigation antenna also were
    damaged, Terlain reported.  "I'm going to wait for better weather
    conditions before setting up a jury rig to head north to Cape Town or
    elsewhere, working with the direction of the wind," Terlain told race
    headquarters.  "I'll call you later."
    	For three days, he struggled to erect a jury rig.  Race
    headquarters waited anxiously during this time as Terlain's
    bright-yellow 60-footer drifted southeast at one to two knots toward
    Antarctica.  Finally, Terlain reported he had set up a rig using
    spinnaker poles and the stump of the broken mast.  At this point,
    Terlain was almost 2,000 miles southeast of Cape Town with the
    prevailing winds and current coming from the west.  With a jury rig it
    would be hard going to make South Africa, unless a southeaster were to
    blow through, giving him a downwind run for as long as it lasted.  Then
    the wind would go around to the west, and he could still be short of a
    safe harbor.
    	He had two alternatives:
    	-Reunion Island, a French posession 2,400 nautical miles northeast
    of his current position.  The prevailing winds and current would be
    marginally helpful in reaching this goal.
    	-The Kerguelen Islands, also a French possession, uninhabited and
    lying 2,300 nautical miles dead downwind and down current from him. 
    With a jury rig and a knot and a half of current assisting him, he
    could expect to make as many as 130 nautical miles a day and be there
    in 18 days.  
    	But to the surprise of many, Terlain said he was going to try for
    South Africa, with the winds and seas abeam.  It could take him a month
    to reach a South African port, if he reaches one at all.  It will be
    hard going.  The latest satellite position report showed him to be
    making only one knot on a heading of 285 degrees.
    
    Don

    	The third victim of the "Roaring 40s" was South Africa's Bertie
    Reed.  Aboard his 60-foot Grinaker, Reed radioed that he was
    withdrawing from the race and heading for Cape Town.  A two-time
    circumnavigator in BOC Challenge solo races, he had been beset by
    steering problems since the start of the race.  The first night out of
    port, he was hit in the stern by Philippe Jeantot, aboard Credit
    Agricole, and suffered damage to his windvane steering.
    	In the ensuing weeks, five of six autopilots on board failed, one
    by one.  Then on Dec. 28, near Gough Island in the South Atlantic,
    Grinaker was knocked down, with the mast to the water.  The knockdown
    apparently misaligned one of the boat's twin rudders.  Reed reported
    that the mis-alignment made it impossible for the remaining autopilot
    to steer the boat reliably.  Added to these problems was a damaged boom
    and a malfunctioning electrical control panel.
      On Jan. 8, Reed radioed that he was considering dropping out.  The
    next day he made it official.  Eight hundred miles south of Cape Town,
    he turned toward the port and began hand-steering into a northwesterly
    blow with reduced sail.  In Cape Town, Poupon said he thought Reed had
    made the right decision, adding, " Before this race started...we all
    knew that there was a real chance that not one boat would finish-and
    that could still be the case.  It's the story of the sea: One just has
    to accept that with all our technology, the sea often proves it is much
    greater than we are."
    	Damage has also changed the order of the fleet.  A mainsail problem
    caused Alain Gautier, 28, in fifth place aboard Generali Concorde and
    among the leaders since the North Atlantic, to be passed by Jeantot on
    Credit Agricole.  Jeantot, 37, a two-time winner of this race, has been
    relentless in closing the gap on Lamazou, whom he beat around the world
    two years ago by three days.  In a week Jeantot pared the distance
    between him and the leader from 1,200 nautical miles to 810.  He then
    passed the fourth-place boat, TBS-Charente Maritime, skippered by
    Pierre Follenfont, 37.
    
    Don

    ANOTHER CASUALTY
    
    Mike Plant, an American Challenger in the race, was found safe on a
    small New Zealand island yesterday after loosing radio contact for
    several days. The race headquarters in Paris said 39 year old Plant,
    and his yacht "Duracell", was detected on Campbell Island, his position
    changed bu only 200 metres in almost 24 hours in the strong winds and
    heavy seas in the region.
    
    Regards,
    Tom

    	One of the most impressive performances of the race has been that
    of Jean-Luc Van Den Heede, a 44-year-old high school math teacher and
    father of two children.  Van Den Heede has the least-impressive boat in
    the race.  Compared to the other 60-footers that rate as Mercedes or
    Rolls-Royces, his is a VW Beetle.  The mast of his boat, 36.15 Met -
    named after a French radio station that provides weather information -
    is only 67 feeet.  The fleet average is 75 feet.
    	The boat's deck reflects its owner's lack of funds.  He has no
    plastic-enclosed control center with a reclining chair for sleep, as do
    most of the other skippers.  In fact, he doesn't even have a canvas
    dodger to shelter behind.  He has the bare minimum of winches and
    gadgets to control the boat, and he steers with a tiller instead of a
    more expensive wheel.  The stanchions that support the lifelines around
    the perimeter of the deck are a scant 20 inches high.  "Just high
    enough to trip you overboard," one spectator at the start noted.
    	And his is the only boat in the fleet without movable water
    ballast.  The other boats have tanks port and starboard into which they
    can pump tons of water to keep the boat upright while sailing to
    weather.  All that said, Van Den Heede is challenging Peyron, aboard
    Lada Poch, for second place.  Van Den Heede was in the center of the
    13-boat fleet down the Atlantic and made his move after swinging east. 
    He has stayed to the south of the other boats at 55 degrees and thus
    closer to the great-circle course, which is the shortest route to Cape
    Horn, 6,500 nautical miles east of the leaders.
    	At 20,000 pounds the lightest boat in the fleet, 36.15 Met has been
    consistently averaging more than 10 knots in the downwind sleigh ride
    of the Southern Ocean.  Lada Poch, sailing a course 70 nautical miles
    to the north of Van Den Heede, fell into an almost windless hole in the
    center of a depression and was slowed under three knots for several
    hours earlier this month.  He was just 49 nautical miles ahead of Van
    Den Heede at last report.
    
    Don                               

    	Before the latest news about Mike Plant being found on the New
    Zealand island the L.A. Times printed the following about him:
    
    	Mike Plant of Newport, R.I., and Minneapolis has come into his own
    in the Southern Ocean aboard Duracell.  For the first 24 hours of the
    race Plant was first.  Forty-eight hours later, he was last.  Felled by
    the flu, Plant lost contact with the race and almost lost control of
    his boat.  He came to his senses staring at the coast of northern
    Spain, having failed to go far enough west with the rest of the fleet
    to round Cape Finisterre and head south into the Atlantic.  Gradually,
    Plant, winner of Class 2 in the 1986-87 solo race, got things back
    under control and started to move up slowly.  He passed Guy Bernardin,
    Aboard Okay, in the South Atlantic.
    	Plant soon found himself in eighth place and shortly thereafter
    became seventh after passing Patrice Carpentier, 40, on Nouvel
    Observator.  Carpentier had been plagued for weeks by a disintegrating
    boom and finally ran out of material to repair it.  He was forced to
    take down his main and proceed with only headsails.  Plant's Duracell
    has a tall rig and great downwind speed.  The boat has been averaging
    well over 240 miles a day, and its 10.5 knot average for four days
    earlier this month was the fastest in the fleet.  In those four days he
    gained 308 miles on Generali Concorde in sixth place.
    	Plant's elation has been reflected in his communications, such as:
    -"We are in the fast lane for the trip across the Southern Ocean.  I've
    buried this boat right past the canopy.  Top speed to date - a big 27. 
    Not bad for a Minnesota farm boy.  Weather is stinky nice - and cold. 
    Same temperature as the inside of a refrigerator.  I can tell because
    the butter is hard as a rock.  It's not boring, but a little lonely
    without my neighbors [Grinaker and UAP 1992].  Can't believe they both
    fell on the same night."
    	With South African Reed aboard Grinaker, out of the race, Plant is
    the only non-French competitor left.
    
    Now, after the New Zealand report Mike Plant too may be out of it.
    
    Don 

    Winners will be really those who will arrive!
    Last news confirm it is the hardest sailing race of the century, after
    the recent withdrawal of Mike Plant wich has been helped by the four
    inhabitants (meteorologists) of the little Campbel island (sp?) to avoid 
    to be wrecked on the rocks, the French/American Guy Bernardin have bad 
    luck a new time (two withdraws in the last two Boc Challenge), and if
    his boat is Okay, he is suffering since 3 weeks now with a raging 
    toothache and must join Hobart as soon as possible to be operated.
    Saturday, Patrice Carpentier aboard Nouvel Obs, was trying to sleep in
    a 60 kts gale when his boat did a 360 deg capsize. Fortunately, the
    mast was not broken but his electric tillers were out. The skipper is
    waiting now to take a decision if he continue the race or not.
    UAP of Jean-Yves Terlain after braking his mast two weeks ago, and set
    a jury mast is approaching Capetown.
    
    Titouan Lamazou aboard Ecureuil d'Aquitaine is always keeping the head,
    trying now to keep his boat safe a few days before the cape Horn. His
    average speed since the start, 70 days ago, is around 9.5 kts !! (very
    close to the one of the Withbread crewed big boats!). 8066 nm to the
    finish.
    J-L Van Den Heede aboard 36.15 Met keeps contact at 254 nm, and his
    performances are generating some reflexions for a lot of architects and
    skippers (a very narrow, light, simple and cheap boat).
    Loic Peyron aboard Lada Poch is close too with 271 nm and works hard to
    keep his stuff right. His young brother has organized a rendez-vous in
    front of the cape Horn and will jump from an helicopter with a windsurf
    board to sail a while behind Loic!!! (this guy has crossed the north
    Atlantic ocean alone on a big windsurf last year, and the third brother
    has won the last Twostar on a catamaran, what a family!!)
    Philippe Jeantot aboard Credit Agricole, twice winner of the Boc
    Challenge, after having a lot of troubles, try to make up lost time, at
    693 nm. Pierre Follenfant aboard TBS, and a rudder reduced of 40%, is
    971 nm behind Lamazou. Alain Gautier aboard Generali Concorde, at 1070
    nm and Francois Coste aboard Cacharel (ex. Pen Duick III with Tabarly)
    is now 4600 nm behind the first!
    
    Regards,
    
    . Pierre .
    
    

    Titouan Lamazou and Ecureuil d'Aquitaine have just passed the Horn
    friday 9th at 5.15 GMT.
    3615 MET is 233 nm behind him, Lada Poch 312 nm, Cr�dit Agricole 752
    nm, TBS Charente-Maritime 1093 nm, Generali Concorde 2076 nm, Nouvel
    Observateur 2560 nm and Cacharel more than 5000 nm.
    All these boats are more or less seriously damaged after the strong
    south and some (Generali, mast problems, Nouvel Obs, electric pilot
    problems, Cr�dit and TBS rudder and sails problems, etc...) doesn't
    know if they can finish the race normally, but it's not a normal race!
    
    . Pierre .

    I found some news in the Providence Sunday newspaper about Mike Plant.
    He recently rounded the Horn in the company of many Whitbread boats.
    
    I don't know if he's still racing in the Globe Challenge or just
    returning to Newport for the BOC.    

    The winner of the first Globe Challenge has cut the finish line
    yesterday evening at 11pm at "les Sables d'Olonne". This young 34 years
    old skipper, born in Morocco, artist, writer, painter and sailor with
    Eric Tabarly in the first round the world race (1973) has really made a
    great performance on his 60fts singlehanded monohull "Ecureuil
    d'Aquitaine II" and establish a new record with 109 days (last year,
    another French sailor Kersauzon, starting from Brest, France, had made
    125 days for the same trip on a 65fts trimaran "Un autre regard").
    All the French medias are giving a large place for this main story, and
    Titouan is now considered like a heroe!
    Another amazing skipper is Loic Peyron who will arrive one day after,
    but with a _14h30 boni_ for the rescue of Philippe Poupon boat in the
    south latitudes, I just saw yesterday an illustrated report (filmed by
    himself!!! films were given to his brother when passing the horn!) and
    I can say I've never been so impressed by a sailing report! 
    
    I'll try to give you more info in a few times.
    
    
    . Pierre .