Crew Blog

A description of the dismasting

14 March 2008

How quickly situations change when sailing, Claire’s blog for early Thursday reports our thoughts on domestic matters of food and arriving Hawaii, whilst sailing in higher winds and at a more extreme angle, but nothing unusual in the wet and windy conditions. As Claire’s watch went below deck, half to sleep and half to prepare supper, Keith’s watch took charge of the boat at 2pm - Keith, Jan, John, Wijbrand and Mandy. Wind strength was about 23 knots, apparent gusting up to 30, with a sail plan of Yankee 2, Stay Sail and the Main Sail with 2 reefs in. We were beating into the wind in choppy seas sailing at 40 degrees apparent wind. The first three hours were lively with the sea state building and with more confused wave patterns, and the wind veering from different angles. At 1710 hours I (Mandy) came to the end of my 50 minutes helming, the first 25 had been lively, but the second 25 minutes a real battle to hold course, I handed over to Wijbrand and exited to the cuddy swearing at the experience and rubbing my shoulders. I sat next to Jan and John muttering darkly about confused seas and looking at the mast and the two reefs to see if they were holding.

Simultaneously, after 3 minutes on helm Wijbrand hit another of the large waves, and the crew watched as the boom bounced and swung towards the low side, then the whole of the 81-foot, one tonne mast tilted from its base and crashed onto the deck in a sideways movement. This tore away not only the mast and all three sails, but all the rigging, forestay and baby forestay and the running backstays, No rigging or structural supports were left standing - it was quite an unbelievable sight. Jan shrieked - naughty word ‘the whole mast has gone’, and I shrieked ‘Ricky we’ve dismasted’. The amazing thing is that for the level of destruction the bang as it hit the deck was not that loud, it had been slowed down by all the sheets and Halyards attached, none of which broke. (Which is amazing when you think that we broke 5 sheets and a Halyard just sailing to Qingdao?) Crew down below were startled by the shrieks but just thought the vang/kicker had broken, but were then confused by the eerie silence and the complete loss of boat speed that followed. Those few seconds on deck with the mast hanging over the side having bent and crushed the stanchions, and the silence and sense of disbelief were profound. Wijbrand was still at the helm, even though the running backstay lines had shot past his ears and now we had no sails. We appeared to be in some parallel universe.

We then hit emergency drill, all of us down below, everyone in the saloon with life jackets, headcount, and ready for evacuation if needed. However apart from some the rigging banging on the side the boat and our rocking with the waves we were amazingly stable. Our lack of panic might also be down to our knowledge that westernaustralia2011.com had also dismasted earlier in the race, although in a different fashion (theirs folding in half and going forward to the pulpit), but we knew all their crew were safe and well, having communicated with them, and knew they were travelling under jury rig and heading for Hawaii.

Once the initial shock had subsided the clean up began. Lines with bungee and spectra were sourced, as were all tools and cutters, strapping lads and the ever-strong Claire started a clear up operation to save the sails and cut the mast free. The mast has to go overboard so it does not bash a whole in the hull, and also so we can motor to our destination. I went to the navigation station and entered the time and location in the ships log - with the simple description ‘dismasted’, it was surreal. For nearly three hours clearing up occurred, the boom and three sails were saved after heroic efforts, although with some damage on them. Ricky was calm and collected giving specific orders and the task was carried out efficiently and without panic. All the action has been caught on camera by our resident ‘Francis Ford Coppola’ Neil Withers. Any tension and stress were diffused by humour, and the jokes were flying by the time we all gathered for dinner around 9pm.

The race has been called by Clipper at the identified sailing positions. On Durban 2010 and Beyond currently the shift system continues as we are now motoring to a rendezvous point with Uniquetly Singapore and Qingdao who will transfer fuel to us, so we can continue to Hawaii. Downstairs the boat looks exactly the same, but on deck we have more or less nothing left, it looks like a pontoon with a wheel and some bent railings!. Steering is not easy either, with no mast to limit the rolling we have moved from a high end fully equipped 4 x 4, to a 1960;’s long sleek open top convertible with limited traction. This morning we had a crew photo taken on deck in our Durban shirts just to show that we are all alive and well, and in good humour. We are starting a competition, much like the spot the ball photos, you can mark with an X where you think the mast, boom, rigging, sails, forestays and running backstays should be. We are devising a creative prize.

Finally morale is high, we have food, although not the steaks and red wine we wish to devour when we get to Hawaii, and life without a mast has quickly become the norm. We look forward to seeing our support vessels in the near future - but timing has never been our strong point. We have just learnt that the factory that makes the masts burnt down a week ago – C’est la vie. A backup plan is in operation for a Hawaii fix. I will close with the quote if the day, as we looked out on the carnage on deck an hour after collapse Ian had an optimistic moment - ‘Oh well at least my water bottle didn’t go overboard’.

Mandy and crew - Durban 2010 and hopefully beyond Hawaii