Sorry about the blank look on the home page, mothership updated the wordpress to the latest version and it looks like a piece of code is missing from the backend of the site, mothership is working with the wordpress guys to try and sort the problem. In the meantime enjoy my little collection of yachting news and random humour.
Greetings yachties,
Flat out like a lizard drinking at the mo, Louis Vuitton, RL sailing, fishing and the day job.
Enjoy
Nick & Sam @ The Americas Cup Auckland Visit
Abby Sunderland – Into the 40′s
Oman Sail’s A100 trimaran ‘Majan’ – Hurrican Conditions
Jules Verne – update - where are they now?
Azzurra
Des Top News
Kites World Tour PKRA
more later
Join Yachtyakka Yacht Club and build your own sailing blog with photos, video, events and handy hints.
Meeting the next generation
Photo courtesy Bob Grieser/Louis Vuitton Trophy
Team skipper Jimmy Spithill, along with other team members who are in Auckland this week, met with the next generation of potential Cup sailors on Thursday afternoon, when the team held a Q+A and poster signing session for the kids who have been sailing in the Louis Vuitton Junior Trophy regatta.
“It was such a key moment for Australia, probably our proudest sporting moment in the history of Australian sport. It was such a legendary story, it was every kid’s dream. We looked up to John and the guys on the boat. Where I was brought up, I lived near the Beashels, and Rob Brown was round the same little bay where I grew up. If it hadn’t been done, I probably would have still ended up in sailing, but probably without the hunger I had after that win,” Spithill says.
Photo courtesy Bob Grieser/Louis Vuitton Trophy
Its not exactly the type of weather for running around up on deck but it looked so nice out tonight that I suited up to go and take a ‘quick’ picture. I ended up out there for a good long while. It was very wet out there and before too long I was quiet drenched as my hood kept blowing off letting every wave that hit go right down into my jacket. So, I’m not exactly happy with all the pictures I ended up with but my fingers were too numb to push the buttons on the camera!
After being outside for a while the 60 degree cabin feels nice and warm. Sixty degrees isn’t all that cold but when it is when you’ve spent most of the past month in 100 degree weather, so hot you can hardly sleep at night. Going from that to 60 degrees in three short days really makes it feel absolutely freezing! But the nice thing about cold is that you can always put another jacket on!
Now This is the 40s
Things have been going well out here. Unfortunately, I don’t have very steady wind but I’m still managing to make some progress. Its starting to get really cold! Its still quite possible that I’ll be up on deck reading a book when rounding Cape Horn, but I’m beginning to think that while out there I’ll be in an Eskimo suit…not a swim suit.
I was surprised by how fast the temperature changed. Just two days or so ago it was nice and warm but all of a sudden it got right down to 60F. Its not just the temperature that has changed. Everything around me from the constantly breaking waves to the grey sky is different. Not more than three days ago there was still the bright blue water, clear sunny skies, and warm wind. Things may not have started to roar the minute I entered the 40s but the past few days have made it evident that I’m in them.
Its cold, and rather then everything being bright blue as it had on the equator, everything has now turned grey. Its an all together less inviting sight than the equator, but its exciting and it feels like I’m really getting into my trip now.
Oman Sail’s A100 trimaran ‘Majan’ battling hurricane force winds in the Southern Ocean
It’s been a long couple of days. As I woke the first day of this storm Paul, Mohammed and Mike were on watch. The sky was grey with driving rain that stung your face. The wind was around 45 knots touching 55 in the gusts. The noise resembled a badly tuned television, on full volume, hissing out white noise.
The waves were mostly broadside, hitting us on our starboard (right) hull and sending the sea water high in the sky, then cascading down over the boat. Occasionally, we would be lifted by the top of a wave and slammed by another, resulting in a sudden shunt sideways. It felt like King Neptune had cupped us in his hand, lobbed us in the air and whacked us out of court with his watery tennis racket.
Mohsin Although admittedly both nervous at times, (as I think we all were at times), Mohsin and Mohammed handled the conditions very well. Mohsin had seen 51 knots in the Cook Straits on his last voyage round the world, but had never experienced anything like yesterday before. He commented on how well Majan had handled the wind and the waves. “When I started to feel scared I just touched the boat with my hands and immediately felt better – as Majan felt so solid.”
If you weren’t holding on tight you were smack, bang on the floor, for sure. Most of the crew were tipped out of their bunks a few times. Eventually everyone gave up, and found some place on the cabin floor to sleep – wedged onto a beanbag or nestled between a bulkhead and the engine block. The tighter the space the less damage you did to yourself, in your sleep!
Meanwhile, the roaring wind had started to growl as we saw more and more gusts up in the 60-knot zone. The waves seemed to flatten and grow long silver manes of white spume that flowed out behind the wave face. In fact, all the waves were doing were ‘hunkering down’ and forming a more powerful and solid stance to shoulder us sideways – and more frequently.
The air was now constantly full of sharp, biting spray. Every one lung-full you took of breath, you spat out a two mouthfuls of brine. It was time to reduce sail and slow down some more. Down came the J3 beautifully flaking itself as it dropped. Next was to reef the mainsail down from the size of a squash court to the size of a table tennis table. Dropping the sails is a very noisy, wet exercise, exerting yet more shaking on the boat as even these much-reduced sized sails flap violently in the process.
Countdown
Franck Cammas and his men are in the disturbed air flow of the North Atlantic homing in on the finish, which is still scheduled for Saturday. However, the wind is unstable at times behind the fronts, which Groupama 3 will have to negotiate all the way to Ushant…
The giant trimaran has now racked up a lead of nearly 700 miles over the past few hours! And though there was a slight drop in the pace prior to daybreak, this was simply due to the fact that Groupama 3 was caught up in a post-front lull… Indeed, behind these cloud masses, which are bringing rain and humidity, there is a zone of light breezes which marks the passage of this weather system. This was the case at around 0500 UTC when Franck Cammas and his nine crew ended up stuck in shifty light airs, forcing them to gybe to reposition themselves to the North.
Racing the front
Jules Verne Trophy 2009 – 2010
The final charge towards Ushant began this Wednesday lunchtime as Groupama 3 gybed in a SW’ly wind of a little over twenty knots. Now without fear of being caught up in the calm conditions of an anticyclone, Franck Cammas and his men will still have to be on their guard all the way to the finish as the sea state deteriorates.
In the great round the world marathon, Groupama 3 is beginning the final sprint in a steady yet disturbed SW’ly wind. The current aim for Franck Cammas and his nine crew is to seek to position themselves ahead of a cold front, which should push them all the way to the finish off Ushant. However, the trajectory isn’t likely to be direct, initially at least, as the giant trimaran is set to cover a little more ground to the North in order to totally extract herself from the high pressure of the Azores, before swooping on Brittany with the help of a few gybes.
“We’re happy to be back in the breeze because things were still pretty tricky on Tuesday close to the axis of a ridge of high pressure. The grib files had us believe that we could be swallowed up by the light breeze of this high pressure, which might have led to us being stuck for hours or even days! In fact the night proved windier than forecast and we were able to make good our escape via the North. Right now, we’re going to have to deal with a depression, which we hope we’ll be able to play with as far as the finish… It’s going to be windy with quite a lot of gybes to perform. In fact we’re tackling our first manoeuvre right now. The skies have become greyer so the weather’s reminiscent of Brittany, but the temperature is still quite high” indicated Franck Cammas during the 1130 UTC radio link-up with Groupama’s Race HQ in Paris.
This post is tagged Abby Sunderland, americas cup, Azzura, Des Top News, Jules Verne Trophy, oman sail, PKRA
No Comments
Leave a Reply