Revving Up

Here is the Elliott-designed 100' Maximus warming up for the The Rolex Transatlantic Challenge. Their keel problems have been fixed and they are ready to go. It looks like a nasty weather system is waiting for this fleet of giants right out of the gate however....

5/20/05

Old School

Here is an onboard report from Chris Museler aboard Nordwind, an 88' classic built in 1938 and owned by Dr Hans Albrecht. Enjoy.

In the 1905 race, skippers like Charlie Barr of the record setting Atlantic pushed their crews to rapidly change sail combinations gain the most horsepower and stressing the boats to the limit. Aboard Nordwind we frequently doused, hoisted and rehoisted sails throughout the night until settling upon a light spinnaker,, main, mizzen and mizzen staysail, sliding along at around six knots keeping all four on watch busy fine tuning trim on the four sails. Light displacement boats like Carrera and Leopard seem exceedingly easier to me to sail out here. Ocean racing in a classic needs more hands dispersed around the bevy of winches that handle an array of sails. The traditional rigging, Nordwind with six shrouds just off the mizzen alone and external halyards on both masts, makes halyard management challenging to say the least.

Regardless of complications and lack of halyard locks and 20 knot potential speeds, the motions and sounds aboard this 1939 steed are inspiring. Nordwind has a sudden, swift motion in these conditions that designer Gruber must have expected. At about sixteen feet wide, the hiss of the whitewater trickling by either side in stereo is a musical, grounding sound not heard from the high, wide decks of the rest of the fleet.

Weather forecasts show next to no breeze for the next few hours. We are moving at five knots though, heading 100 degrees East Southeast hoping to make more ground to the south and pick up predicted SW breeze over the next two days. We are tracking boats nearby on the radar but can not see our competition. "It feels pretty good," said Captain James Gair, "But I don't know where they are."

5/24/05

More Transatlantic Challenge

Subject: Day Three TAC report May 24

Here is another onboard report from Chris Museler aboard Nordwind, an 88' classic built in 1938 and owned by Dr Hans Albrecht. Enjoy.

It has been bright sun with 15 knot winds today and we spent the morning smoking along at around 10 knots heading ESE. At dawn we had switched down to a jib top reacher with a reef in the main hitting 11 knots regularly with dolphins popping off the leeward corner. There was a baby, only around four feet long just barely able to pop it's little nose through the water and keep up.

Like those racing in the 1905 race, we have been sure to keep as much sail up as possible, running the large white code zero that sets off a furler on the stem and changing sails constantly. With all clipped into safety gear at all times, the process takes many hands but is safe. "She has a very traditional setup," said Nordwind crew member Felix Happel who just finished exams at Babson College a week ago. "It's certainly an all-hands experience...after four hours you're certainly tired."

Last evening we were becalmed for a while a sunset and were able to see the red and yellow sky reflect off a smooth ocean before building throughout the night. Currently both Mariella and Sumurun in the classics are around 40 miles to the south and 15 miles back to the west. Navigator Bob Morton aboard Nordwind believes we are on track to hook up to southerlies that will bring us east then NE towards England.

5/25/05

OnBoard

Not So Fun

Here is another onboard report from Chris Museler aboard Nordwind, an 88' classic in the Transatlantic Challenge.

Subject: May 26 Nordwind report - ups and downs

Not sure if you received my transmission yesterday. Here's a summary: The last two nights have been disastrous racing wise and frustrating physically but a good challenge none the less! Two nights ago Nordwind was ahead and to the north of our classic rivals when we sailed into a hole with light winds rotating around 360 and 12 foot seas...I thought Long Island Sound was bad! We watched the Fife built Sumurun sail through to leeward in stronger breezes. Last night, more of the same with constant sail changes and after finally settling into the asymmetrical, mizzen staysail etc. and the asym halyard sheered at the splice. Needless to say we had a roaring afternoon yesterday in 27 knots breaking the tip of the Oregon Pine pole off while surfing at 12.5 knots (fast for this boat).

We are now in the Gulf Stream and the water is that electric blue you see in all the cruising magazines. Becalmed for a bit yesterday afternoon, a sheet in the water revealed a clarity I have never seen before. A couple flying fish and a small whale of some sort early this morning have been our entertainment.

We have all concluded that the motion of this 1939 Gruber classic and the silence down below are far more enjoyable than other boats, we often have to check the log to believe that we were actually moving pver our sleep. The work has been nothing short of Iron Man quality, that is where the more modern boats such as Sariyah are well ahead in terms of being a comfortable ride. Kevin Burnham, Olympic medalist in the 470 in Athens is a helm aboard Sariyah and has his own state room as opposed to the 7x4 foot cabin I share with five crew...though I am lucky to have the space and head there to myself when I am off. I take solace in examining the 20 layers of varnish on the teak interior, the brilliant sky light and the dimpled navy leather seat.

Must go - getting queasy typing. See you tomorrow!

5/27/05

Here is the lastes from Mari Cha.

Date: Monday 30th May 2005
Time: 09:15 UTC
Update by: Jef d'Etiveaud ( Navigator )

The boat is nicely sailing at 22 kts in good running conditions, finally, after a long upwind poker game with Maximus over the last two days which has been quite intense for all on board, especially for the "after-guard" who have been trying to anticipate the opposition's moves on the water. Are THEY going to stay North? Are THEY going to go south just after the position report? In this water you try to make your moves in a stealth way, trying to send your adversary on one side of the track and quickly go to the other side to try to gain an advantage. No one came out with all the chips last night but we were happy with the outcome, we started the game 50 miles behind and were 2 miles apart at the end. Big relief!

Today it a different game... It is a speed race in a straight line. We anticipate that it will be the case most of the way now. We all push hard to gain an advantage and seeing that our leads extends with each position report is a moral booster.

Jef

5/30/05

What a remarkable evening! Despite sitting in doldrums for most of the day and losing ground to the leader we found plenty to rejoice about. A sunfish nearly crazed the hull while we were drifting, flopping its dorsal fin
around and spinning off to the deep again. And tonight is why I guess we
came for this experience, on this boat in this race.

Just about an hour ago I took a break from trimming and re trimming
slapping sails to look up and realized it has been years since I have seen so many stars in the sky, The countless specks with shooting lights everywhere are what offshore sailors enjoy and remember, a nice change from the city light skies we're used to seeing.

Then, looking down, I caught the luminescent glow of the phosphorescence in our wake. Standing on the slender over hanging transom looking down, a gentle, silent stream of glowing green flowed out, a tight, channeled river unlike the sprawling wake of a wide backed modern sailboat where the water flow has no direction exiting a flat, shapeless hull. The smooth lines of a classic slack bilge draw the stream in tight at the exit making this an amazing sight.

Gabriel Feldman, owner of a six metre named Erne designed my either Whiton, Stephens or both, has sailed this dainty racer to Bermuda from New England and back. He has a theory that trolling for fish is successful from a classic since the lines make little disturbance and you can sneak up on them. Tonight, I;m not sure if his theory was reversed but we watched as dolphins created contrails through the water, their forms and paths bright with the glow of the phosphorescence. It seems as though they enjoy Nordwind's form, smooth and gradual similar to their own bodies.

We are keeping spirits up. An al dente pasta with fresh mozzarella, olives
and tomatoes was a great boost...wool hats off to Anna Maria, our South
African cook, we call her "Cookie." Cheers for now. We are searching for
wind!

Chris

6/1/05

"Hey, This is Fun, Right?"

Subject: June 2 Nordwind TAC late day report

Hello! There is a ride at Universal Studios in Los Angeles that simulates an earthquake experience. Send that ride through a huge car wash And here you have our last 15 hours of sailing, inside and out. All I can say is thank god for ski goggles, without which life on deck would be unbearable.

We a are in a tight horse race with Sumurun and Mariella, looking to see who can make it out of this 45 knot low cell and first into the SW breezes. We are now on the third reef of the main and staysail. The Jib top is furled by hydraulic furler and mizzen is tied on its boom. Correction, true wind is 50 knots with driving rain and the breeze is moving south and we are sailing at 11 knots to the East.

The traditional skylights with their finely milled gears for opening and closing are veritable sieves, sending streams into the saloon and cabins as the deck is awash in green water. The beautifully crafted f 'ocsle slide is leaking so badly that the fire peak bilge pump is working almost non stop. The price we pay for good looks! The motion on the boat is sudden, leaping over waves after decelerating into breakers....update, breeze at 51 knots true.

We are hoping for the same progress for the next 12 hours until the low passes.

Must go top drop the main.
Cheers!

Chris

6/3/05

Drying Out

Subject: Nordwind June 3 Transatlantic update: After the storm

Hello! As you can see in the images, we are drying out after our rainy 40-50 knot day and night. It is now sunny and we are beam reaching under full sail at 10.5 knots towards the Lizard. Not sure everything will be totally dry but it's a good start. I will not speculate as to our ETA as as conditions change so rapidly, but for know our competition is stuck in headwinds so hopefully we are making gains.

Last evening just before midnight our stellar engineer Will Overton was looking into a GPS unit on the life line that is used by NYYC to report our position and it caught fire! Dark smoke blew in front of the helm's face causing a bit of an alarm. Repair has been unsuccessful but Will has been incredible at managing our energy consumption, water making, generator use and even washer/dryer use. He's a powerful man with say over when we can take showers, use the toilets, lights and microwave. He is on my watch and he is basically working through most standby watches on engineering tasks.

During yesterdays blow, German crewmember Bodo Richardt had his life vest inflate when he was engulfed by a wave in the cockpit. "At first I didn't know," said Richardt. "It was a big wave coming over the bow, not just a splash and it was actually funny after I relaxed." Last night we had two other false inflations which were a concern but all are up and running now.

We have been breaking sails often and repair is constant. The main and mizzen masts rigged to the designer's original specifications which leaves a lot for sails, always falling back into the boat even in 15 knots of breeze because of large waves, to catch on and tear. Our jib nearly all our headsails have leach lines ripped out, all three spinnakers have been torn and repaired and we fabricated a batten for the main after one flew free while reefing.

That is all for now from the refreshed crew of Nordwind. We will be passing north of the Azores this weekend and pushing for England next week. See you tomorrow, time for sleep!

Chris

Pictures June 3, 2 p.m. ships time by Bodo Richardt. Drying out! Uruguian Daniel Desierra at the helm with of the last remaining cigarettes.

6/6/05

Are We There Yet?

Subject: Nordwind TAC Report
Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 03:40:06 +0000

Hello again! After a bouncy evening of 30 knot beating in 8 to 10-foot seas we have had an afternoon of more moderate 20 to 25 knot winds, sunshine and small swell. Though the conditions are benign, the mood aboard the boat is near fever pitch with all anxious to get updates on the converging classic division.

Mariella is only 32 miles behind as I write and Sumurun is 130 miles to our southeast, putting us all under 50 miles apart in our distances to the finish, a statistical dead heat! East to northeast winds are excepted! tyed for the next several days making this a 400 mile beat to the Lizard with the additional 140-mile course up the Solent to Cowes that promises to provide strong currents, shifting winds and heavy ship traffic. This will easily be one of the most challenging and competitive beats I have encountered, similar to racing on the Cityfront in the washing machine they call San Francisco Bay...but after sailing there from Hawaii.

With all this upwind work, the strengths and shortcomings of a large classic become magnified. With shortened sail (Nordwind is flying two reefs, a reefed mizzen and jib top with staysail), finding yourself too high with a bad set of waves will send you almost in reverse, with little power left to accelerate the massive hull. The full keel, however, gives up little leeway. The regally high bulwarks of the three classics here that have an immaculate bright work finish on the inside have a habit o! f filling with, and holding seawater. Despite several drain holes, this phenomena will hold a rail down long enough to stop the boat. Nordwind's is just under a foot high but little Mariella's comes almost pass the knees, a suspected hindrance in these condition. It doesn't seem to be affecting her though as she has remained directly behind at the same distance after a night and day of tacking.

Aboard Nordwind we are being selective about taking and are now on starboard heading NE in hopes of a shift in that direction with our competitors on the same tack. I personally enjoy upwind work and coming on watch at 8 a.m. this morning was exceptionally exciting. With 30 plus knots on the nose, the three-one steering gear system (she was originally geared one-one!!), it took bracing with two hands on one slickly varnished spoke to hold her straight when dropping off the backside of a wave. Preparing for the helm's response makes the difference between holding course or getting your knuckles! cracked like in a Bugs Bunny cartoon as the wheel slips from the hand and spins like a roulette wheel. Once this is figured out, there is only a five degree steering adjustment needed, just a powerful one. She tracks surprisingly well and you can feel the roughly 45-foot long keel lock in like a wedge.

I know that on many ocean racing boats that the journalist/photographer is generally not in the watch system and even sometimes has a crewmember assigned to him or her for safety. Well my back, shoulders, knuckles, knees and neck can tell you that is not the case aboard Nordwind. Though the one or two journalists that sailed in the 1905 race were living in near squalor conditions compared to mine, at least they didn't have to be hoisted to the clew of the jib top (16-feet over a frothy leeward wake) in 30 knots of breeze to retrieve a lazy sheet left by a previous watch, or had to sprint forward in the middle of a ! tack while unsheathing a knife to cut free a mistied sail tie that was fouling a madly flicking jib sheet. This has been experiential and certainly more rigorous than the Grand Prix racing I have done in the past. All I can say is that the crew aboard the boats during the 1905 Kaiser's Cup race must have had the strength of California Governor Schwartzeneggar (of Terminator fame) and the endurance of Tour de France icon Lance Armstrong.

For now, a couple Advil will help me keep up, and if we stay on starboard much longer, my left arm that I use to prop myself up while writing with my right index finger will be like Popeye's and the other a withering stick!

That's all for now, stay tuned for rapidly changing positions thorough Saturday as we begin to converge again. The ETA is now Monday-ish but anything can happen on this closing leg. Thank you for all your support, this is wet but tons of fun...despite lack of powered winches!

Cheers!

Chris

6/13/05