Hobart
Report
Lower and Slower
At approximately 13.35 today, Wednesday 27 Dec whilst
about 3 miles behind Wild Oats, Grant Wharington
and his crew heard a loud bang and saw their "canard" (the
5 meter carbon fibre board which acts as a "front
rudder" for the yacht) floating away on the
windward side of the boat. This canard can be lifted
and dropped and is used when the boat is sailing
upwind to improve performance and enable the yacht
to sail closer to the wind. Whilst this does not
mark the end of the race for the super-maxi, which
was in second place and performing excellently, it
will certainly slow her down.
Wharington, Skipper and Owner of the super-maxi explained
from on board, "We have no idea what happened
- we may have hit something we really don't know
at this stage - all we know is that we heard a very
loud crack and then the guys saw it floating away.
Although this is not fatal to our race, our performance
will really suffer from this injury. We will need
to sail lower and slower - basically we won't be
able to sail right at the target anymore - the boat
just goes sideways - and we wont be able to power
her up. Given this is going to be an upwind race
it is a real blow to our chances of a second Line
Honours victory.
We are currently experimenting with the level of
keel cant to maximize our performance - we have the
keel at 20 degrees (half of the 40 degree cant it
is capable of) - but it looks like we may have to
reduce that even further to about 15 degrees. We've
got about ten degrees of leeway at the moment, we
are not laying course. You will certainly start to
see some separation between us and Wild Oats now.
I guess given the carnage of last night we should
be grateful - but it's really frustrating given how
well were going, and the conservative way we have
been sailing."
"Skandia" remains in second place and Wharington
and his crew will be focusing hard to retain this
position.
-Bindy
Lockhart
12/27/06 |
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