Chieftain update from HSH Nordbank Blue Race, 24.06.07

The team on Limerick yacht Chieftain has experienced a tough and challenging first week in the HSH Nordbank Blue Race. The first few days saw the team acclimatising to the rhythm of life at sea, which is governed by short bursts of sleep in a noisy, wet cabin, poor quality food and high speed, adrenaline packed sailing.

The Cookson 50 has been consistently delivering high speeds in the region of 18 - 22 knots. Crew member Ed Hill described the acclimatisation process when reporting back last Monday morning. "It was quite strange at first - you felt on edge when boat speed went over 20 knots, yet two hours later the boat seemed slow if we were not hitting speeds over 20 knots"

Tuesday morning saw conditions worsen markedly - with gusts of 45 knots and 6 metre seas hitting the fleet. Soon after the 06.00 watch change over Chieftain's day of drama commenced. The boat was sailing steadily at an average speed on 20 knots when, according to Ed Hill "we suddenly hit something very hard, boat speed crashed to 2 knots and we stopped dead in the water. Everyone was slammed forward and we were concerned at first that we may have lost our rudder as there was no feeling in the helm"

Their initial fears proved unfounded, as the incident was revealed to have been caused by a collision with a very large sunfish. This contest saw the unfortunate creature end up in a very distant second place and Chieftain was soon back up to speed, albeit at the cost of a badly ripped spinnaker which was repaired by Hill and fellow sail maker Stu Molloy.

Condition continued to deteriorate and late on Thursday afternoon Chieftain was hit by a 40 knot gust, which forced the boat into a high speed Chinese gybe. The boat was pinned on her side and another damaged spinnaker meant more work was in store for Hill and Molloy. The team decided to take stock and sailed slightly more conservatively for the next 24 hours.

Ocean racing sees crews constantly walking a tightrope, balancing the need to travel at maximum speed with the more basic requirement to keep boat and crew in one piece. This maxim was once succinctly expressed by New Zealand sailing legend Grant Dalton, who said that "to finish first, first you have to finish!" Chieftain continued to sail in a prudent manner, but saw close rival Outsider make constant gains throughout day five. At 15.00 the call was made for Chieftain's heavy weather A7 spinnaker to be hoisted and the boat took off, hitting a maximum speed of 27.8 knots. Later that night waypoint alpha was rounded and the crew's attention switched to their next target - Fair Isle, northern Scotland, some 1900 miles away.

From waypoint Alpha, Chieftain has maintained her second place on the water, closely following Outsider, with the two boats now 300 miles clear of third placed Bank von Bremen. Whilst Ger O'Rourke's team are focusing hard on catching Outsider, this will be a tough, but by no means impossible task. Tilmar Hansen's Elliott 52 is two feet longer and has a mast which circa is five metres higher, giving her a greater overall sail area. This combined with a keel which cants to a greater degree than Chieftain's, enables Outsider to generate more power and thus travel at faster speeds. Not only has this enabled Outsider to lead on the water, but at 14.00 on 23 June she took first place from Chieftain in the overall, corrected time rankings.

Saturday afternoon also saw the second start in the HSH Nordbank Blue race. Newport, Rhode Island again provided textbook conditions as Parsifal 3, Bon Bon and Rambler set off in pursuit of the smaller yachts. Bon Bon and Rambler are both Reichel Pugh designs and both were initially owned by New Zealander Neville Crichton. It was the larger Rambler which led the three boats out past Fort Adams and into the open Atlantic.

The next week promises to see a series of fascinating battles develop. Can the Class One boats catch Outsider and Chieftain? Can Ken Read and the Rambler team deliver their hoped for 11 day crossing, which would bring the American boat into Hamburg on Independence Day? Can Chieftain catch Outsider and reclaim the lead?

After last week's drama, which saw a crew member on HSH Nordbank evacuated after breaking their ankle, the fleet are currently facing light headwinds and Chieftain's crew are now well settled into their routine. Morale is good and the team are enjoying the experience of competing in the HSH Nordbank Blue race. Any concerns, according to Ed Hill, are of a pretty basic nature. Apparently "the main issues are missing decent food and a severe longing for a shower, clean dry clothes and perhaps some boots which don't leak!"

Matt Jess.

For further updates on the race, see http://www.hsh-nordbank-blue-race.com or www.chieftainracing.com. Photo thanks to Nico Krauss / HSH Nordbank.

Below is the full text of Ed Hill's diary update for days 3 - 6.

Day 3

It seems ages since my last report and things have changed dramatically. We spent a whole day flying along, covering a huge amount of miles. It was quite strange at first, - you felt on the edge when the boat speed went over 20 knots - yet 2 hours later the boat seemed slow if we were not hitting over 20knots boat speed.

To give some idea of how the boat feels under speed, it sails like an oversized surf board and feels like your one hanging legged onto a tube train which keeps on taking corners too fast and then breaking suddenly. Add into that night sailing when the sprays in your face and you can't see a thing - it makes for interesting times! Sleep also becomes an issue as it's horrendously noisy downstairs, with the hydraulic winches and waves banging against the side.

Day 4

Yesterday proved by far our hardest day. We started the day in good form, hitting around 18 - 22 knots of boat speed as we were changing over watches at 6am. Suddenly we hit something very hard, boat speed crashed to 2 knots and we stopped dead in the water. Everyone was slammed forward and we were concerned at first that we may have lost our rudder as there was no feeling in the helm. Unfortunately the kite, which was flapping, ripped as we blew it, adding to our woes. This was just at 6am. As we backed the boat up and recovered the kite a completely mangled sunfish appeared, an absolutely huge one which had been completely crushed against the rudder. After testing the rudder we continued on.

We ended up sailing on with Stu Molloy and myself repairing the kite, which was ripped from the clew to the bottom half of the sail, as best we could. This consisted of getting smashed around in the boat while getting high on acetone trying to remove all the water off the sail and stick it back together without a sewing machine.

The breeze was a fairly steady 25 knots, but occasionally huge squalls would come through which made sailing with the kite up hard work. As I was sleeping downstairs at around 4pm a huge squall of about 40 knots came through, lifting us and resulting in a massive Chinese gybe. The boat lay flat on its side in the middle of the Atlantic and our running kite was completely destroyed, the head and both tapes were ripped off. Two kites down and not looking so happy!

It was pretty disappointing as we'd been pushing the boat really hard to stay ahead of Outsider and perhaps we had over pushed things. The rest of the day we spent being much more conservative, sailing under jib top which was prudent when considering the fact that we now only have one fully intact heavy kite with over 2400 miles still to go. We finished repairing one kite and sailed through the night under Jib top.

Day 5

The weather was again really squally and we had issues with deciding how hard to push the boat. We sailed a bit more conservatively but every position report showed 'Outsider' catching us up. Eventually by 3pm we put our heavy airs A7 kite up and absolutely flew. Top speed was 27.6 knots and we had a huge 6 hour average. Again it was gutting to find that 'Outsider' posted one more mile than us during the same time period. It's pretty hard, as they are a much faster boat than us. I think they have a longer bow sprit, 2 foot longer water line length, 5 metres more mast height and also more cant on their keel. That said we could have been a lot worse off than we were and although it was annoying to be rounding Point Alpha second, it was still great to be right up there and just in the lead on corrected time.

We rounded Point Alpha at about midnight US EDT time - it was pouring with rain and there was lightening pretty well marking where we had to round. Questions did arise as to why we do this, feelings which were reinforced by knowing that it's 1900 miles to the Fair Isle, our next mark of the course.

Day 6

We are sailing along under our repaired A3 kite and hoping for no more damage! Already today we have narrowly missed a whale when travelling at 20 knots, but spirits are generally a lot higher. Main issues are missing decent food and a severe longing for a shower, clean dry clothes and perhaps some boots which don't leak!

Ed.