David Glenn's blog
Latest weblogs from the editor of Supersail World
Ranger - fast but for sale
22 April 2008
For those of you interested in the latest performance of the two most competitive J Class yachts currently on the circuit, Velsheda and Ranger, it may come as a surprise to learn that John Williams appears to have pulled the plug on the Ranger programme.
The yacht is seriously for sale along with his support vessel Vita. Williams will sail this summer in Europe including the Superyacht Cup in Palma and at the Maxi Rolex regatta in Sardinia but that could be the end of the campaign for the iconic barrel-bowed J. Any takers…?
Whether Williams goes for a replacement J remains to be seen but the word on the dock at the Antigua Classic Regatta is that he wants to build something seriously fast, possibly a sled of some sort. Who knows, maybe he'll go for both…
After extensive mods to lighten and re-distribute weight in Ranger, Williams has a yacht that over a windward leeward course is now faster than Velsheda. At Antigua, where the courses comprise predominantly reaching legs Velsheda hung on well and if she hadn't made an odd tactical error on the final beat of the second race she could have beaten Ranger on elapsed as well as corrected time.
For reasons known only to themselves Velsheda's afterguard failed to cover Ranger on the final leg when she had a three to four boat length advantage, something she'd held from the start. Perhaps she knew Ranger would get to her anyway and that a flier was in order. When I was a lad I was always told to keep between the opposition and the weathermark/finish to keep your victim safely tucked away. Velsheda handed them the keys by taking a long tack to seaward and into oblivion while Ranger worked the well known lifts on the shore and came back to the big blue boat tacking beneath her and beating her to the line by six seconds. Cracking finish, sweet result for Williams and some glum faces back at the dock aboard Velsheda.
Despite these improvements to Ranger Williams has put her up for sale. With two more Js building, Endeavour 11 (which will not be her eventual name incidentally) and Lionheart, and another just ordered - I understand Chris Gongriep who has sold Windrose of Amsterdam has signed on the dotted line for a modern version of Rainbow - the class is in rude health but it will in many ways be sad to see Williams moving on to pastures new.
In the meantime Velsheda will be in the UK this summer for a bit of racing including the JP Morgan Round the Island Race and will have her new Southern Spars carbon rig stepped at Pendennis in Falmouth. No doubt she will also have her hydraulics sorted out too. In the last race at Classics the electronic control panel's brain went missing. Velsheda had to ship a whole bunch of guys aboard who were stationed below decks to manually operate each hydraulic valve for every manoeuvre. VHF and straightforward shouting through hatches somehow enabled them to operate everything from outhauls, pole lifts and halyards to their enormous drum sheet winches. It was scary stuff but she got round the track two minutes adrift of Ranger.
Next year's J Class scene is going to be one to watch.
Picture above shows Ranger - is the J Class scene just too slow for Team Williams?
David Glenn
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Will the America's Cup be wired
5 July 2007
If they are going to be 90ft long, have more than 20 crew who, as Brad Butterworth put it, will have to be more 'athletic', have they got trapezes in mind? And have Lake Garda boats, which Ernesto Bertarelli is known to sail, had any influence on what to expect in 2009 and beyond.
As far as athleticism is concerned surely AC boats as we know them have gone as far as the designers can go. There's surely only one way to go - out on the wire…
David Glenn
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Oyster's classic connection
25 June 2007
Here's Richard Matthews head of Oyster Marine enjoying some superyachting aboard Larry and Jan Finch's Janice of Wyoming at the Dubois Cup, held in Palma just prior to the Superyacht Cup Ulysse Nardin. Seven yachts took part in a particularly enjoyable event.
Richard was there largely because of his well advanced plans to build two new super-sized Oysters, a 100-footer and 125, both designed by Ed Dubois.
Interestingly both models will be built in female moulds using some form of sandwich composite construction and the go-ahead is about to be formalised with the RMK shipyard in Tuzla, Istanbul, part of the wealthy Koc group. Richard tells me that he and the boss of RMK have much in common including ownership of Fife classics. Richard is currently re-building two Fifes and his counterpart at RMK has a classic, gaff-rigged 12 metre. "I am very keen to sign the contract aboard his yacht," said Richard.
Will they, I wonder both be bringing a selection of their yachts to the Fife regatta due to be held in Scotland next year?
David Glenn
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Trickle down tech
25 June 2007
Sailing aboard Charles Dunstone's Hamilton 11 was one of the more enlightening experiences of last week's Superyacht Cup, especially as far as new technology was concerned. Aboard was North Sails man Neil 'Strapper' Mackley (picture shows from left to right, David Bedford, Neil trimming and Charles steering) who explained to me what the odd hissing sound was whenever we furled the headsail. "It's the pneumatics," said Neil rather enigmatically.
Hamilton's pneumatic system (used for things like sliding hatches etc.) is also linked to pipework laid into the 3DL matrix of the headsail leading to inflatable battens. These tubes set into the leech of the sail can be pumped up to 10 bar according to Neil and then, when the sail needs to be furled, they can be deflated to allow furling to occur.
Charles Dunstone's new 'inflatable' cost about $70,000 and represents direct trickle down from America's Cup technology although I'm told the Cup boys have reverted to 'hard' battens - there's not much call for furling in AC boats.
Another development from Am Cup is the use of what on the face of it are asymmetric sails that don't need trimming. "Emirates Team New Zealand have done a lot of work developing a sail that is more forgiving, that doesn't collapse so easily and is more efficient," said Neil.
When you look at the sail the luff stands well out to weather and it is this ability to make the sail set and 'stand out' that makes it more stable and virtually self trimming. This makes gybing easier too and during the Superyacht Cup it was amazing to see so many enormous yachts going through numerous quick gybes without a hitch.
Finally Strapper showed me something nasty. A titanium leech block which had 'exploded' while Hamilton was reefed in 40 knots on her way to Palma. A pin had worked lose and the thing had literally been torn apart by the reef line. The mainsail battens were broken and the main given a severe thrashing but the fabric of the 3DL survived.
This led to some extraordinary tales of batten incidents. Two involved broken battens that had been flogged out of their pockets. The shattered ends descended like spears and on both occasions actually penetrated the deck. In one incident a crew member was below in his bunk and awoke to find a batten unnervingly close to his torso the offensive item having buried itself in the deck and passed clean through the deckhead. Air battens sound a much safer bet…
David Glenn
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Mills plans ahead
22 June 2007
Forward planning in complex projects is everything so it was interesting to hear from Sir Keith Mills when I was sailing with him aboard Charles Dunstone's Hamilton 11 in The Superyacht Cup in Palma recently that a House of Commons Committee has already been established to look at how to handle the America's Cup if and when the Origin challenge is successful in bringing the Auld Mug back to British shores.
Sir Keith tells me that when the Cup comes home the need to look at regeneration for the port chosen for the defence will obviously require the cooperation of politicians. The advantages of regeneration do, of course, have big political consequences and it is exciting to think that the America's Cup in Britain could have such a dramatic effect on the chosen location.
Sir Keith is currently waiting with bated breath for the first ten minutes of the opening beat in tomorrow's first America's Cup match race. It would be to Origin's advantage if the Swiss went ahead in that crucial opening exchange and next week when the outcome of the AC becomes clear expect Sir Keith to start executing plans that have no doubt already been carefully laid.
I wonder if there are any British politicians in Valencia taking a look at an event that will increasingly become part of their portfolio…
David Glenn
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Black Betty's fate
6 June 2007
This is the hull mould for the now famed VOR winner ABN Amro One or Black Betty as she was dubbed, which is now looking for a home after builder Leen Schaap of Schaap ShipCare in the Netherlands was asked by ABN to dispose of all the tooling and other build materials associated with the project.
Leen told us during a visit to the yard yesterday that there was no way they could bring themselves to cut up the mould which has now become a part of yachting history, a special piece of VOR memorabilia.
"We can't take another boat off it unless we came to come arrangement with the designer Juan Kouyoumdjian," said Leen, "so we thought we might stand it on it's end and have it as some sort of sculpture," he added with a grin. "We certainly couldn't bring ourselves to take the chainsaw to it!" There's an interesting maritime museum near Schaap ShipCare in Lelystad and it might make its way there, but if anyone has any ideas they might like to contact Leen at www.schaapshipcare.nl
In the meantime Leen's fascinating specialist composites plant is just putting the finishing touches to what's been christened the 'Little Monster', a 38ft version of the same 70ft VOR hull, design by Juan K for Roy Heiner's Team Heiner a race training and events set up also based in Lelystad. The TH38 is a wonderfully potent looking machine, comes with the familiar Juan K chined hull, a canting bulbed keel and also a canting canard forward of the keel which can be trimmed to the vertical no matter what the angle of keel.
Heiner hopes to add a number of these extraordinary looking yachts to his fleet of J109s, a couple of Max Funs and an old Mount Gay 30 which are in demand as a corporate charter fleet. Check out www.teamheiner.com and more detail in an upcoming issue of Yachting World.
David Glenn
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Athos, the schooner
5 June 2007
Here's Athos, one of the highlights of a tour of Dutch yachtbuilders we're currently undertaking. Yesterday morning we dropped into Holland Jachbouw in Zaandam near Amsterdam where managing director Paul Dielemans explained that they will take delivery of the Andre Hoek-designed yacht later this year from sub-contracted hull fabricators near Rotterdam and plan to have the finished yacht in the water in 2009. At 62m (that's a little over 203ft) loa including the bowsprit she will be the largest privately owned modern schooner afloat when she eventually goes down the ways.
Holland Jachtbouw are building a brand new assembly and finishing hall for Athos which should be operational by September, but even Dielemans is wondering whether it's going to be big enough to cope with the with the continuing demands of the big yacht industry. Beautiful teak hatches, skylights and companionways are already being built in a re-vamped wood working section at HJ in preparation for installation later this year.
Dielemans is also trying to introduce what's known as WCM manufacturing methodology at the yard. That stands for World Class Manufacturing and it's a system evolved by Toyota principally for mass production. But Dielemans who was briefed by the Blom Consultancy with the idea, believes elements can be used in yacht building even though 'it's at the other end of the production spectrum' . Custom yachting building might bear little resemblance to a car line but one feature is empowering the workforce from top to bottom so that they take responsibility for decision making and can have the freedom to evolve their own jobs. Sounds interesting.
Athos has similar looks to the Hoek-design ketch Adele but this yacht, for a repeat customer, is much beamier, has twin engines, a massive centreboard - there will be 90 tons of lead ballast set internally in the aluminium hull - and her main and foresail will be handled by in-boom furling systems. Much of the accommodation is on two decks such is the size of the hull.
We also dropped in on Contest Yachts yesterday. Their plant was burned to the ground five years ago but they have risen phoenix-like to re-develop their range with a George Nissen designed 60 due out this winter and a 40-footer by the same designer in the wings with, unusually for Contest, an aft cockpit. More details on both these projects in the August issue of Yachting World.
David Glenn
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Surely some mistake...
29 April 2007
Six hours bobbing about off Valencia with little or no racing can test the most patient America's Cup observer but aboard the press boat covering the south course this week there was plenty of banter, a considerable amount of it flowing from one Harry Cudmore, veteran match racer from a very different generation of Cup sailors.
"Shall I show you some pictures of what I'm up to now?" proffered Harry. Out came some snaps of The Mistake which transpired to be an historic 18ft skiff which he sails with a bunch of guys in Sydney Harbour. The Mistake which has 2 plus 2=5 emblazoned across it's main is a new boat, a wooden replica of a vessel which bore the same name way back in the last century. There are about ten of them which race under the auspices of the Sydney Flying Squadron and Harry tells me they want to bring the fleet to the UK for a bit of fun.
Cudmore, whose name is spelt Cudmoore on his sailing shirt just to keep the theme going, says that the fleet regularly race in the harbour and in almost any conditions (which is more than can be said for a modern America's Cup yacht). "We raced when the breeze was gusting 38 and all went well until we tried a gybe…" said Harry who listed some of the dinghy's alarming vital statistics.
Although the squat little vessels are indeed 18ft on deck, their loa is a staggering 45ft with a 24ft main boom and a 14ft bowsprit. They set their spinnakers off the end of the gaff, a spar which is equipped with its own backstays! "To gybe them you have to remove the forestay and jib," said Harry who appears to spend most of the winter in Australia campaigning The Mistake.
As we drifted around the course off Valencia, the sky overcast, the wind fitful at best and the race officers tearing their hair out with frustration, the pictures of the skiffs blasting across Sydney Harbour before steady breeze and under blue skies at least did something to cheer up our day.
David Glenn
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Adele reaches Rio!
21 February 2007
At last we're in Rio having clocked just under 3,500nm from Stanley in The Falklands! We got here late last night and now we're anchored right beneath Sugar Loaf Mountain, recovering from a quick run ashore last night to the local yacht club. It's taken eight and a half days to reach Rio from South Georgia and last night saw a mixture of emotions - relief from a long upwind session, the excitement of arrival and a sense of achievement with lots of spontaneous hugs and kisses on board. Maybe a tear or two…
From the emptiness and magnificence of the ocean we are now under the flightpath of the local airport, the drums and rhythm of carnival roll across the glassy calm, helicopters flit about and the roar of the city begins to rise as the heat builds over the land.
No sooner had we dropped the pick last night than a launch arrived from the famous Iate Clube do Rio de Janeiro Rio (that's the yacht club) with Tom 'The Pom' Richardson and his wife Carlotta aboard. They're great friends of Nigel and Michel Ingram and Tom will be well known to the maxi crowd from the 1970s - he used to run Huey Long's distinctive Britton Chance-designed Ondine.
Tom's a kind of Mr Fixit here and has been able to pave the way for Adele's arrival and help plan Jan-Eric and Jennifer's schedule from now on in Brazil. The first thing he organised was a quick trip to the yacht club, where we were served the national drink of Brazil - caipirinha. This delicious but 'lethal' cocktail is made from cachaca, a dreadfully basic local fire water, lime, sugar and ice and it doesn't take many to get you in the mood. Just two last night was enough send us off to very deep sleeps indeed. I was staggered to hear from Tom that the yacht club was previously a flying club, with an airstrip in the 'back yard' and slipways for flying boats. I began wondering if I'd already overdosed on caipirinhas.
For Jan-Eric and Jennifer's guests the end of this extraordinary adventure is in sight and there are all sorts of e-mails and phone calls going on to check flights and hotels. I had a job remembering my mobile phone number and with e-mails being accessed, websites being checked and things being downloaded we are re-entering the real world and, as someone said last night, 're-toxing'.
Unless something crazy happens here in Rio - which it probably will - I'm signing off from this blogging episode which I hope you've enjoyed. It's sure been fun doing it and I'd like to thanks Jan-Eric and Jennifer for making it happen. I would also like to add a special thanks to a special crew who have done wonders to keep this show on the road. Here they are looking all spick and span as we make our final approach to Rio!
David Glenn
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A sting in the tail
20 February 2007
It's been quite a lively night with the north-easterly piping up to 35 knots and a chunky sea occasionally finding its way into Adele's cockpit. Whoops, salt water on the deck cushions…
We've had to sail fairly well below our course because we do not want to thump into this sea as much for the crew (accommodated forward), as the yacht. The crew, however, seem totally unfazed by the conditions and maintain service as usual - if you can stomach it with the motion!
The game plan is to close the coast about 80nm to 100nm south west of Rio when the wind should ease and the sea state flatten. We will then probably motor the last bit allowing us to clean the yacht and sort ourselves out before arrival in a city with a carnival hangover - it's taken three days to raise our agent!
One of the reasons we don't want to crash into it, is that the rig is a little 'soft' with noticeable sag in the forestay and a bit of fall off at the top of the mainmast. This is because Adele has literally expanded as she has moved from water and air temperatures of around 0 degrees C. to numbers approaching 30 degrees C. Her aluminium hull and the rod rigging holding up her masts, plus the forestay foil, all react to the increase in temperature and inevitably things slacken off.
In Rio one of Marten Spars' reps either from Auckland or Europe will come and tune the rig using a 10,000psi jack to lift the mast to allow them to make the adjustments needed for warmer climes. Andre and the crew have been particularly impressed with Marten Spars service and for that matter with Rondal who have travelled to Adele immediately any need has arisen.
Andrew Kitchener is Marten's man in Europe and along with Leen Smoor and a guy known as 'Grunter' from Auckland the rigs have been kept in tip top shape. In Auckland, bosun Georgina Swan's mum phoned Adele from her office in the city. "There's someone standing on top of your mast, dear," she said. It was Grunter, tethered to the masthead lightening conductor rod (that's 62m up by the way), standing on the truck, yanking the B&G instrument cable through! Such is the life of a modern-day rigger.
Evidence of the hull expansion and contraction can be seen in the caulking set at regular intervals between the lengths of teak cap rail. In the cold weather when the hull is 'small' the black caulking stands proud as the aluminium contracts, compressing the material between the lengths of timber.
Now it is concave as the hull has expanded and the lengths of cap rail have pulled apart slightly with the hull. It is extraordinary to think that with all the expansion and contraction, hot and cold, to say nothing of the sort of pounding that Adele has taken over the past few weeks, that paint and varnish has stayed on at all. The hull finish is Awlgrip by the way and a team from Holland will come to varnish Adele's brightwork with Epiphanes.
And we've seen evidence of other life on earth. Last night we had to alter course for a seismic survey vessel towing some sort of device, the first ship since South Georgia, and we have just talked to a Dutch freighter out on our port beam. With AIS (automatic identification system) we know she is called Racer, that she is due in Amsterdam on 9 March and than she draws 10.5m. We have her course and speed and a quick chat with her bridge established that her CPA (closest point of approach) was OK but she altered anyway to leave us well clear on her port beam. A long way from the day's when you would eye her with a hand bearer and worry until you were sure you weren't on a collision course.
David Glenn
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Lessons from Adele
19 February 2007
If he did this all again, what would Jan-Eric Osterlund change aboard Adele? I talked to him over breakfast this morning on a fantastic sailing day as we thundered along about 36 hours out of Rio de Janeiro
We're fairly close hauled, the apparent wind angle is hovering between 30 degrees and 35 degrees and we are barrelling along at around 11 knots. True wind about 16 knots. Reef in the main, full mizzen and a reef in both the staysail and yankee. The wind is just beginning to lift us (as predicted by Commander's Weather) and we are not far off the heading needed to make Rio de Janeiro 317nm away.
The sailing is quite fantastic - Nigel Ingram's watch has been disconnecting the autopilot and enjoying being at one with Adele. She's a joy to sail in these conditions. We're sitting chatting in the cockpit over breakfast with the air temperature around 28 degrees. Not bad for a Monday morning…
What this leg from South Georgia has proved more than anything is that a big, complex superyacht - at least this one - is more than capable of reeling of the miles to weather in comfort at very healthy speeds in very different conditions. OK, there's an angle of heel but you can still have hot showers, an extraordinarily comfortable night's sleep, three substantial meals a day, watch a movie, write a blog, edit a slide show, fish for tuna or simply sit and read in the sun, with little discomfort. The air con has steadily moved from heating the accommodation to cooling it. It's a travelling pleasure dome. And, fingers crossed, we haven't had a single snag - well nothing serious that I know about.
It has also been remarkably easy to 'change gear' aboard this yacht something which, of course, can only be achieved by having a well-drilled, highly organised crew. We certainly have that.
Despite this seeming utopia, there are still ways of making things better. I asked Jan-Eric Osterlund what he would change if he did it all over again. Here's his wish-list in no particular order of preference.
1. If Adele could have been 2m longer, a larger freezer capacity and a larger crew mess would have been right up there. He would also give more room to the laundry. All are a bit tight and additional freezer units have had to be installed in the bilge store area.
2. The shower faucets, at least in the owner's cabin, need to be fitted on the fore or aft bulkheads, not to port or starboard. This means when Adele is heeling one can lean on the shower stall 'wall' rather than be impaled on the taps.
3. Adele needs a bigger stern anchor. It has been used to anchor the yacht bows on to a swell that might have crept into an anchorage. It has also been used when going bows to a rock mooring in Scandinavia. Adele's counter leaves little room for a big anchor in its dedicated lazarette. Deck stowage might be the answer.
4. Single bunks have excellent lee clothes but the doubles need to be
split down the middle to fit a dividing lee cloth. Couples have had interesting times on this trip!
5. Adele needs a heated diesel fuel tank to cope with low temperatures. They thought the fuel in Argentina was of the correct type to go south, as the cruise liners were taking it, but these ships have diesel tank heaters to stop the fuel 'waxing up' as the temperature drops to 1 degree. Fuel in Adele's day tank was beginning to cloud and engineer Paul Irvine was worried we were heading for a major problem, especially as the main tanks are adjacent to Adele's aluminium hull. It didn't materialise but if Adele went to the ice again a heater would be essential.
6. Skipper Andre would like more fuel capacity. 24 tons is what she has. J-E says it's OK. I'll leave it at that!
And some of the good things…
1.The great thing is her motion - she is a beautiful 'ride' upwind - the test is, will we be exhausted after of a week sailing upwind? I think not. She has passed that test with flying colours.
2. Three tenders seems a lot of tenders. For this programme it's proved to be an excellent choice, with all three employed for different conditions and locations - J-E would do that again.
3. The ketch rig is an excellent choice, infinitely adjustable, loads of sail for light airs, easy to reduce for heavy airs and perfect for those motor sailing moments when you need to squeeze to weather for a while. Great sails, reefed or full, from North Denmark.
4. Furling systems excellent once the Rondal problems were solved and the Harken cars modified.
5. There was talk at one stage of twin engines. The Caterpillar 1000hp
main hasn't missed a beat. So no change.
6. Never any shortage of hot water (see previous blog). A brilliant system which has worked very well in cold climes.
These were points raised in just 20 minutes and I hope to be able to enlarge in an upcoming issue of Yachting World.
Current position 27deg 31min S 40deg 45min W. Should be in tomorrow evening.
David Glenn
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Let me introduce you
18 February 2007
It's Sunday morning and we've just reached 30 degrees south. We're
hoisting the main and will soon bear away for our final run into Rio, 500 miles away. Last night we dined under the stars on deck but for most of the voyage meals have been taken around Adele's fine dining table in the deck saloon.
This shot (above) was taken a week ago just before we left South Georgia and I am happy to report that we are still all on board. As it's Sunday and you're all probably sitting round your own dining tables I thought it was appropriate - Left to right: Jennifer Osterlund, your author, Birgitta Kjellberg (friend of the owner), Nigel Ingram (project managed the build of Adele), Eef Willems (Adele's guide in Antarctica), Jan-Eric Osterlund (Adele's owner), Michel Ingram, Mark Chisnell (writing a book about Adele's adventure), Lars Lind (friend of the owner).
The crew is led by Andre Engblom (skipper). Then there's Mark Thirkettle (mate), Georgina Swan (bosun), Quinton Ross (deckhand), Paul Irvine (engineer), Clare Oliver (chef and medic), Anne Hall-Reace (chief stewardess) and Gillian Baker (stewardess).
Eighteen in all and it's been a very happy ship. When we arrived at South Georgia we doubled the population. When we arrive in Rio de Janeiro we will barely register amongst the country's 155 million. It's going to be one heck of a shock when we arrive….
David Glenn
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We've broken out the shorts
17 February 2007
After a starlit and unfortunately windless night, Saturday dawns with a
glassy calm and temperatures (water and air) soaring onto the high 20s.
It's blissful on deck and there's time to check things out onboard Adele - and to discuss a nasty incident deep in the south Pacific
After an early breakfast of smoked salmon and scrambled eggs I follow mate Mark Thirkettle onto a hot foredeck where he has a torch stuck in the inspection panel of the Rondal furling gear.
On Adele's trip across the Pacific, towards New Zealand, they had problems with the furled yankee 'letting go'. It appeared that when the hydraulic brake for the gear released, the pawl which should engage the gearing to prevent the foil from turning any further, either wasn't engaging properly or was damaging the teeth in the gearing.
Rondal sorted it all out in New Zealand but yesterday there was a bit of a bang and something moved on the yankee furler. With 500 square metres of sail up there and enormous torque on the furler, Mark and skipper Andre were anxious to know what was going on. MCM's Nigel Ingram took a look too, and they were happy that nothing serious seemed to have happened although some of the teeth looked worn. But the fact that the unit had gone half a turn or so, seemingly of its own accord, indicates that all is not completely well and Rondal will no doubt be asked to investigate further.
This prompted chat about another equipment problem which bedeviled Adele on the crossing to Ushuaia in Argentina from Auckland, before Christmas. They were about two thirds of the way into the crossing. There was a dodgy forecast, night was approaching and the crew decided to douse the mizzen which was reefed.
This sail is about the same size as the main on a 110-footer, so sizeable. Trouble is they couldn't get it down. One of the cars appeared to be stuck about two thirds of the way up the track. They tried winching it down but the car wouldn't budge and loading up to the winch to its 5 tons capacity could have done really serious damage.
Only one solution - someone would have to go up the rig. With a big sea running this was no mean feat. The first attempt to encourage it to move with some gentle coaxing with a hammer didn't work, so it was decided that the only way to get it down was to cut it free from the headboard and from all the cars above the culprit. Up went bosun Georgina Swan armed with a knife and tethered to a heavily tensioned halyard that would stop her being flung around like a rag doll.
It took her 10 minutes to cut away the headboard, the tapes connecting the cars to the sail and to unbolt one of the battens from its car. The sail was flogging all over the place and Georgina came down with a big lump on her head and eventually a real shiner. But the sail was on deck.
One small machine screw had caused the problem. It was one of four securing the black Delrin slider which is set inside the car itself providing the smooth running surface against the metal track. One screw had worked free and jammed solid against the track. That's all it took. With apparently no Loctite or other means of guaranteeing it would remain in place, it had worked free.
With the mizzen unserviceable, skipper Andre wisely decided that the main should stay on deck too. The thought of not being able to get that down did not bear thinking about so they completed the passage under headsail! Later checks showed that some of the other screws were beginning to work loose.
In Ushuaia it took three days to get the sails off, mark every car, drill out all 250-odd machine screws using a pillar drill in the engine room, then insert Torlon plugs, glued in with Scotchweld. Harken had worked on the problem as soon as it had come to their attention, tested the new system back in their HQ in the USA then sent a complete kit of parts to Ushuaia so that the crew could get to work over Christmas (nice one!) before setting off for Antarctica.
North Denmark sent a man down to attach ready-made headboard taping and reinforcements for the mizzen so that it could be re-united with its cars. Then on a very quiet morning indeed, while Adele was at anchor in Ushuaia, up went the main and mizzen with their newly modified cars. It all seemed to work and Adele hasn't had a problem since. They were full of praise for Harken's quick reaction - getting the bits to Ushuaia over Christmas was no mean task in itself, but they are still scratching their heads over how such a small failure in engineering could have led to a very much bigger problem out in the middle of a very large ocean.
David Glenn
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Halfway to Rio
16 February 2007
The amount of information displayed at Adele's steering and control consoles is staggering. There are no fewer than 12 B&G repeater display units in the cockpit alone and on the centre console is the Sea Book
screen upon which all radar and chart plotting information can be displayed.
As we break through the halfway mark to Rio, ETA (estimated time of arrival) is being noted with interest. The TTG (time to go) readout currently says 4d 4hr and 15min and the DTW (distance to waypoint) is 982.4 nautical miles. But you can also plumb in PTA (planned time of arrival) based on average speeds which in our case have been set at 9kts and 13kts. Our position this morning at about 1000 was 37deg 13min S, 34deg 20min W.
There are two radars on Adele, one a Tranas radar which as the name suggests interfaces with the Russian made chart-plotting software. Transas is the only charting software class approved for GMDSS. Updated annually by disk (the yacht's navigation system is isolated from the internet for safety reasons) the chart plotting programme has also been deemed good enough by IMO (the International Maritime Organisation) for vessels not to have a paper chart back up, but having been in the waters of South Georgia no navigator worth his salt would trust the electronic chart to deal with the intricate local pilotage.
Mate Mark Thirkettle was constantly double checking on paper charts with parallel rule and dividers making sure he knew as closely as possible where we were, although some of those charts hadn't been corrected for almost half a century! He is aided by the other, more sophisticated, Furuno radar (for features above the water) which is the one we use for lookout on watch. Earlier in the passage it was invaluable for picking up bergs. That big one off South Georgia, incidentally, was eventually estimated to be about the size of the Isle of Wight but astonishingly neither the British Antarctic Survey staff at King Edward Point on South Georgia, nor Commanders Weather, our routers, knew of its existence!
Six B&G 20/20 repeaters are suspended from the framework above Adele's deckhouse and normally display, from port to starboard, course over the ground (COG), speed over the ground (SOG) derived from GPS, true wind speed (TWS), apparent wind speed (AWS), heading and boat speed through the water. Other read-outs at the helm stations can bring up anything from barometric pressure and forestay tension to sea water temperature (now at 21.9 degrees C from barely 1 degree!) and air temperature. Apparent wind angle can be read out next to an analogue indicator. There are several more repeaters further forward and aft on deck and about 10 below decks although I don't think I've found them all!
After a stonking day's sailing yesterday on starboard - we tacked two
days'ago which makes my bunk far more tenable - we have had to resort to a bit of motor sailing as the wind is dying. Also on the horizon is a low forming south of Rio. Skipper Andre has decided we cannot get over the top of this so we have come down a few degrees and are aiming to pick up following winds on its southern and western flanks. At least that's the hope…
David Glenn
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What about MOB?
16 February 2007
First thing is shout very loudly Man Overboard and at the same time hit one or both MOB buttons at the steering position. This releases Jon Buoy canisters from the stern railings and sets off an audible alarm.
The Jon Buoys might need a shove but once in the water they should release an inflatable ring and a conical high visibility element with a lifting becket. Next to the Jon Buoy is an orange lifebelt, a floating line and an orange smoke canister all of which should be deployed. An accidental deployment of the starboard smoke canister in the Antarctic demonstrated perfectly what they look like in action see picture.
Getting MOB equipment overboard is paramount but the chart plotter/GPS MOB button should be pushed simultaneously so that a position is shown on the chart. Adele also carries eight personal EPIRBS for those on watch and also personal strobe lights.
Falling into the water in Antarctic conditions when the water temperature is close to zero will give you something in the region of 20 minutes to half an hour survival time although people differ widely in their ability to survive and your chances will depend on what you're wearing. Inhalation of water through shock can, however, drown you sooner.
But if the yacht does get back to you in time, Adele has several means of retrieval. In flattish conditions the side-boarding platform can be lowered. It's at water level and used as a diving and tender platform. Then there is a three-part side ladder, which can be lowered over the side and a rope ladder with wooden treads is also very effective in rough conditions. The RIB, which doubles as an MCA approved safety boat could be launched if the victim needs additional help. The crew must be able to launch it in less than five minutes - in fact Adele's crew can manage it more quickly - and there must be means of launching it manually using winches.
If the victim is in the Jon Buoy a line could be attached to the lifting becket and winched aboard. In extremis, if the MOB is alongside, another member of the crew could be dressed in an immersion suit, tethered and put into the water to assist retrieval.
But the adage, 'don't go overboard in the first place', is a deadly serious one. When you see that water rushing past at 14 knots in the black of night or even in a cresting sea in the middle of the day you soon realise that the chances of a successful rescue in these conditions are probably going to be slim at best.
David Glenn
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Waste matters
16 February 2007
Please don't read this if you're about to sit down to a meal. I have to
say the standard of cuisine aboard Adele is second to none and there is no let up on passage with three meals served a day. So far on the voyage from South Georgia, that's about 216 individual servings!
But with 18 of us aboard the consequences of digesting all that food throws up (and there's been a bit of that) some basic questions. Novelist Mark Chisnell, with whom I have been sharing a cabin for these past couple of weeks, casually asked if I knew where all the sewage went. He quickly apologised for being temporarily short of suitable small talk …
We consulted the oracle - Nigel Ingram. Right in the bowels (sorry) of the yacht is a 4-ton capacity black water tank sitting on top of the keel. Black water is essentially sewage. Also feeding into that is all the galley waste because it includes some macerated food and water. The black water tank content is macerated first at each loo and then again in another part of the treatment works before reaching the tank. The heads are all flushed with fresh water but once it reaches the black tank it is mixed with sea water and chlorine at which point it is considered fit to be jettisoned. This only happens in open water and obviously Adele's system meets all the marine anti-pollution regulations.
Paul, Adele's engineer, added some detail: "With this many on the yacht we empty the tank about once every 36 hours." It is simply flushed overboard via a through hull fitting. He explained that there were no regulations governing grey water, essentially basin and shower water waste, collected in separate tanks, one forward and one aft, which goes straight into the sea. In all, the yacht gets through about 3.5 tons of waste water a day. If Adele is being used in port, black water waste can be pumped directly ashore.
But what of the waste that can't get down the plughole? Chef Claire Oliver explained that when in restricted waters like the Antarctic and South Georgia, absolutely nothing goes over the side including biodegradable matter. But outside those waters waste is carefully separated. Any foodstuff, very soft paper and some cardboard is put into a large bucket of water in the galley. This is jettisoned when required over the side and becomes part of the food chain. Two trash compactors will reduce the bulk of the remaining waste, which is bagged up and stored in a special locker forward or even in the three tenders which are chocked on the foredeck. In the cold weather there has been no odour and waste will be taken ashore in Rio.
Occasionally, there are places where one simply cannot take waste ashore - the San Blas Islands were an example. Then the waste is kept aboard until such time Adele is in a port, which can accept it. In the heat it can get a bit niffy.
Claire said that it was important to have the right attitude to waste onboard. Re-using plastic food bags, water bottles and other containers is something of which the whole crew are aware. According to Claire this is not, unfortunately, a universal attitude in the yachting industry and too much is thrown away, sometimes overboard, although she was impressed with one yacht, Limitless, which has its own incinerator to deal with rubbish!
David Glenn
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Strange things happen at sea
14 February 2007
Adele was two days out of the Canaries back in December 2005 en route to the Caribbean. Irritatingly they were having to deal with a north easterly which was drawing weather and rain in from the north Atlantic and the UK.
After a particularly heavy downpour mate Mark Thirkettle noticed that Adele was covered in a black film. The entire rig was coated, as were the sails, with a black oily deposit. "You could run your finger over the spars and a clean line would appear in the blackness," said Mark. They were up and down the rig with fresh water and cleaning fluid to shift the stuff but it took until they got to Auckland to get the muck off the sails. They had to be industrially cleaned but you can still see some of the streaks.
In Gibraltar, before they left for the Canaries, they had seen the news of the explosion in the UK and can only deduce that with the wind and weather direction at the time the deposit had been lifted into the upper atmosphere, transferred on the weather system and deposited on them in almost mid-Atlantic!
David Glenn
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Photos from Adele
14 February 2007
Here are a couple of pictures just to prove that life (and work) does go
on, even if I'm aboard a 180-footer 7000 miles from the office in the
south Atlantic. Pictures by Rick Tomlinson
Photo above
Readers might be surprised to learn that most of the time Adele is steered
by a highly sophisticated autopilot (not pictured) which is more accurate,
'faster' and safer then any human. However, when the conditions are right,
as they were yesterday, Andre will disconnect it and let us lose on the
helm. Boy, what a feeling!! This yacht is highly unusual in that the
autopilot can be completely disconnected from the steering system. A
Safeset coupling hydraulically disengages the Tenfjord autopilot drive
from the stock. That allows the excellent Edson manual system to take over
so that the helmsman is steering directly via a system of chain and wire
to a 1.3m wide quadrant. It's been developed specially for Adele by
Vitters, Edson and MCM and I'll describe it all in more detail in a later
blog.
Adele is extraordinarily well balanced. What weight there is on the helm
can be controlled by trimming the mizzen and to a lesser extent the
headsails. There is a great sense of being at one with the yacht's
behaviour through the wheel. A tiny amount of weatherhelm keeps you in
touch and the response time is what you would normally associate with a
much smaller yacht. The rudder angle indicator confirms the balance - it
barely moves from 0 degrees.
Just steering Adele in perfect sailing conditions, fully powered up is an
absolute joy. We all had a 'feel' and couldn't get the smiles off our
faces, but handed back to auto when the wake started looking a little wonky.
Photo above
There are any number of network connections throughout Adele, even a fully fledged office, but one of the most convenient is next to my bunk, which
has been to weather for the past two and a half days, and on which I sit
sideways, feet braced against the lee-cloth to pound the laptop. With
power, network, and photo transfer cables all plugged in my travelling
home office is complete. Nowadays there really is no escape!
And finally .... if you want to see some truly spectacular pictures of
Adele's adventures in the Antarctic including some incredible shots of an
encounter with a humpback whale take a look at www.rick-tomlinson.com -
fantastic stuff! And you'll be seeing more of Rick's work in the May issue
of Yachting World - don't miss it!
David Glenn
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An interesting angle of dangle
14 February 2007
After nearly three days on port tack I feel I need one leg shorter than
the other as we close-reach at an angle of 16 degrees to the horizontal.
Got a useful 300-mile day in yesterday although as you can see from the picture of our plotter we are heading way east of our rhumb line as the wind is out of the north-north-west, currently at about 18 knots true. We are on the south-western flank of a high and need to get across to the top of it for the north-easterlies and easterlies which should give us a good angle to Rio, still 1,420 miles away. Our position at 1,000 on Valentine's Day (thank God for e-mail) is 45deg 15min S 32deg 31min W, the water temp is up to 10 degrees and the stiletto cold has vanished from the wind.
The breeze has been extraordinarily steady in direction and strength for the past 24 hours and the sea state comparatively flat, although last night when I was on watch at 0300 the true wind dropped away under a blanket of stars and boat speed fell to 8kt. It prompted a call to shake the reef out of the mizzen, one out of the main and unfurl the yankee to just a single reef. A full staysail could also be set.
Twenty years ago aboard the old two-tonner Nick Nack 11, which I used to race, changing to a big headsail on that 46-footer would take at least six crew and you'd be knackered and wet after a 20-minute struggle on a heaving foredeck. Then you'd have to pack the damn thing.
Last night three of us wandered forward under floodlights, remote control box in hand. Georgina, our bosun, pushed a few buttons and hey presto all four sails had been 'changed'! Well, it's not quite that simple and one has to be very careful indeed with lazyjacks, tricing lines and the other controls of a modern rig. Georgina, had it all done and dusted in 15 minutes.
Just beforehand, in time honoured fashion, skipper Andre said he'd finish his cup of tea before making the decision to increase sail and he only decided to go for it when he was sure the breeze wasn't going to come back. Sod's law of course applied itself even though he'd paid homage to the conditions. As soon as we were back in the cockpit the wind piped up again!
Adele was right on the edge of her sensible cruising limit but the breeze eventually settled down at around 17kts true and we were OK, back up at 12 to 13kts boat speed and smoking. It's a fine line one treads with a yacht with so much sail area, but the ketch rig is infinitely adjustable and the relatively small individual sails are OK to 'handle'. We have all been wondering how Boreas the new Andre Hoek-designed sloop version of Adele will manage (see Yachting World Supersail, March issue). Her mast is 1.5m taller than Adele's but the really staggering statistic is that her boom will be 5m longer at 23m or 75ft! And with her in-boom furling it will weigh 3.5 tons. Keeping it out of the water in a seaway and controlling it with preventer, vang and sheet will be a major task, something that has not been a problem aboard Adele.
Moving around Adele in these conditions is interesting. We are heeling at between 13 degrees and 16 degrees and we all look as though we have one leg shorter than the other. Those wonderful 'sticky' place mats keep our plates on the table and custom mug holders have really come into their own. There are plenty of hand holds but wearing woolly gloves (earlier down south) can be dangerous because they simply slip off the high gloss finish. Nigel Ingram was interesting when he explained that rig loads and engineering are calculated for a heel angle of 20 or 25 degrees compared to the traditional figure of 30 degrees. For Adele the figure is 25. Getting to that angle is unimaginable!
There's 10/10 cloud cover at moment so shorts and T shirts still lie
dormant. Maybe tomorrow…
David Glenn
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14kt and Adele's trucking
13 February 2007
What a difference a day makes. This time yesterday we were dodging icebergs and punching into it. Today we are in glorious sunshine, charging along smoothly at up to 14 knots in 23 knots of true breeze out of the north-west, two reefs in the main, two in the yankee, a slightly furled staysail and a reef in the mizzen.
The water temperature has crept up to 6.8 degrees C, from under 2 degrees, and we have crossed the Antarctic convergence line leaving glacial waters behind us. After around three months in southern ocean waters Adele is at last hauling her way north.
It has to be said there's an air of mild relief on the faces of the crew - 'glad we've been there and done it, but we're looking forward to getting out of this cold weather kit' is the general tone. Guests are looking a little less green round the gills, they're becoming more animated and there's a sense of expectancy as the bow points unerringly north.
I've just had a bowl of porridge, smoked eel and salmon for breakfast looking out at the south Atlantic blasting past the deck saloon ports. It's comfortable and very exhilarating as Adele really begins to get into her stride. Her versatile ketch rig means that when the wind begins to ease we can start piling on the sail and maintain these high speeds even with the wind just into double figures. This has always been the game plan for Adele, a yacht aboard which one needs to reef quite early.
The single line reefing system is an automatic press button affair with the halyard and reef line winches synchronised to take in the first reasonably deep reef. Headsails are, of course, on big Rondal furlers.
There's a temptation to shake out a reef but it would only increase heel angle to an unacceptable degree for those below and wouldn't add much to the speed. We could go on forever like this. Skipper Andre says 16 knots is the 'red line' for this yacht, the point at which loads start becoming rapidly greater. "We've had her up to 19 knots and she will slide down big waves," said Andre who clearly has a total handle not only on how the yacht herself is 'feeling' but the effects on crew above and below decks.
He's on his fourth major global sailing adventure. Brought up in the
demanding waters of the South African coast he's the sort of man it's good to have around when things get mucky. We'll be interviewing him in greater depth for the next issue of Supersail World, out with the June issue of Yachting World.
David Glenn
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