Race 12 - Day 13
Crew Diary - Race 12 Day13: New York to Derry-Londonderry
09 July

CV 27 Crew Blog 8th July – Victor Ansart

So now that we've fixed our Code 1 (lightweight spinnaker) and confirmed that our sail repair is holding up, I can now regale you of the tale of what happened and how we went about fixing it.

Our watch had been down below and had just fallen asleep when out of the blue, and without warning, our Code 1 spinnaker decided to rip itself apart. There wasn't too much wind for the Code 1, and the spinnaker wasn't flogging, but we think that after having crossed so many oceans, our spinnaker simply grew tired and decided it to tear itself apart at the top third.

But the rip didn't stop there, it went all the way down the leech of the sail down to the clew... So we had about a 30 foot tear at the top and then a 60 foot tear all the way down the leech. Thankfully, our crack sail repair team of Catherine and Jan got right down to it, and when we woke up for dinner, they were already hard at work. When we got on watch, Vicky and I took over for them and continued their work. This way the sail repair goes on non-stop, all day or night, which makes for very interesting dreams when off watch...

We do our sail repair in the sail locker as it is the only spot with enough room to do the work and where we aren't in the way of the rest of the crew. But the sail locker is also the most bouncy part of the boat! To top it off, the ocean gods didn't want to make our job easier as the wind decided to pick up right as we got to work and the boat decided to heel over to 20 to 30 degrees and start bouncing and flying off waves. The procedure to fix a spinnaker is to run the tapes to make sure there are no tangles in the spinnaker, then we tape up the rip with sail tape, and then we sew up the sail tape to make the repair permanent. The big difficulty in taping and sewing the sail is that sub-centimetre precision is needed to make sure that all the sail material is aligned correctly. If it isn't aligned right, there will be pockets and wrinkles in the sail which make it less efficient and can also weaken it and make it more likely to rip in the future. So precision is incredibly important to ensure that we do the job correctly. However that is much easier said than done when in a sail locker that is tilted at 25 degrees while the boat is rolling and flying off waves. If you ever want to test out your resilience to sea-sickness, the sail locker is the place to do so; but in terms of sail repair, it is probably one of the worst environments. Not only do you need to find a way to balance yourself to avoid slipping all over the place, but the sail also likes to slide around right when you have everything perfectly lined up. And when the boat goes off a really big wave, you literally go weightless and all the tools that were carefully laid out go flying all over the place. I'm sure that from an outside perspective, it must actually be quite funny to watch! I think we could even make a reality show out of it! Well halfway through the repair we decided to adapt professional sail repair techniques to the boat and it made our job significantly easier. I won't tell you what techniques we used as it is a Sanya Serenity Coast trade secret, but if you buy me a few beers in Derry, my lips might loosen up.

The next difficulty is sewing up the repair. We run stitching around the sail tape to make sure that it holds up and that the load from the tear is put onto new stitching. However, that is much easier said than done in a sail locker. There is no table for the sewing machine and no chair for the worker. So the machine is on the ground, the sewer is lying next to it while trying to balance himself and prevent the machine from flying and sliding around in the waves. And good luck using the foot pedal as when the sewer will undoubtedly slip and press on the pedal at the worst possible time. So we decided that we would use one hand to guide the sail into the machine and one hand to control the “foot” pedal. Let me tell you, trying to guide 60 feet worth of repair with one hand into the machine is quite the challenge! And when you finally get everything working right, the spool will undoubtedly decide to slip and tangle itself which results in the stitching getting wayy too tight and the thread inevitably breaking.. Well after one particularly close call when I almost sewed my hand to the sail, I decided that some engineering was necessary to make the operation a little safer and easier. So we tied the machine down to the floorboards and came up with a pendulum system to hold the spool so that it wouldn't tangle itself after every big wave. After these seemingly small improvements, the amount of cursing decreased significantly and the process became much much easier! So now we were chugging along, the machine going at full speed while Vicky and I ran the stitching all the way down the leech. I have to say the feeling when it was all done was quite exhilarating and the work was very rewarding! Especially when you see the kite flying again and working as good as before after 36 hours of work!

Now having said all of this, the sail repair work can be quite fun! We brought a speaker up into the sail locker with us, and since we are so far forward from the crew accommodation area, we can blast the music as loud as we want (well almost)! So hear we are, lying in a sail locker, covered in a spinnaker and pieces of sail tape singing along to some 90's gangster rap. It seems that Vicky has a similar taste in music as she was singing along as well! I brought some chocolates and candy up there with us for some morale boosting so there we were, munching, singing, and sewing along with the occasional expletive as we went off a big wave! I had a blast and I have to say that this will be a Fourth of July that I will remember!

Usually I celebrate American Independence day by drinking beers and grilling burgers, but this time it was spent holed up in a sail locker sewing up a sail and laughing all along the way! In all honestly it was quite a fun way to spend the day! The worst part of the day was lunchtime... I think that the Brits on our boat were a little sore about our seceding from the Queen so they decided to organize a vegetarian meal for America day. Such sore losers!! Being a proper American, I decided that it was necessary to eat meat on the Fourth, so I brought out the only meat I had stashed away, a few cans of sardines. Now I know that sardines really aren't an American food, but we made due with what we had aboard, and I think that the crew liked it as they went very quickly! And we had American candy and American music in the sail locker to keep us going, so it all worked out well. And I'll celebrate the Fourth a second time once we get to Derry by having some burgers, beers, and chanting some patriotic American songs! Anyway, that's all the news from me! We're getting closer and closer to Derry and we are looking forwards to enjoying the local delicacies (read drink lots of Guinness)!! Talk to you soon!

Victor Ansart