Club Med - Update from Portugal

Although Dalton never hit the magic number, he wasn’t far off in estimating 400 miles. A decade later, the crewed mono-hull record is 449.10 miles, which the Whitbread 60 Silk Cut set in the 1997-98 race around the world.

Club Med doesn’t have any such talisman emblazoned on its mainsail, but Dalton is confident that the team can add some 30 miles to its existing record. 'I definitely think there is 650 miles in this boat. I don’t think we will get to 700,' he said.

Even 650 miles seems an awfully ambitious target, requiring an average of 27 knots. The 700-mile dream seems inconceivable, demanding an average of more than 29 knots. But Dalton says improvements made to the 110-foot catamaran, plus the team’s growing ability to extract more and more performance, should bring the 650-mile target within reach.

'For the first three to four hours of our record run in June, we only averaged 23 to 24 knots,' he said. 'So, in order to achieve our overall average of 26 knots, we were hitting some pretty good speeds. Since then, we have gained about three quarters of a knot just from sorting out resistance in the propellers and shafts.' New sails are on the way, including some 3DL headsails from North, New Zealand, which are expected to add some horsepower.

'We are also learning how to sail the boat faster,' said Dalton. 'We are a lot more confident about pushing it hard and driving it on one hull. Earlier we were more apprehensive that once we got a hull up, it was like a runaway train.'

Dalton believes there’s a good chance that a solid record achieved in the period remaining before the start of The Race will stand for the duration of the nonstop round-the-world event. 'In Formula One terms, the qualifying times tend to be faster than the actual race times,' he said. 'The same could be true here. I am not sure people will be pushing that hard during The Race. If you run at that pace all the time, you know you are living on borrowed time.'

The other thing in favour of Dalton’s premise is wind angles. To achieve the record, you can set up and go at the optimum wind angle for maximum speed. The direction is immaterial. The angle is all-important. 'During The Race, you are unlikely to strike the trade winds at the right angle for any length of time,' said navigator Mike Quilter. 'With these boats, you are covering a big distance in 24 hours. It is a long time to go and hope to stay in a consistent breeze for the whole period.'

Talk of 24-hour averages in the neighbourhood of 30 knots seemed fanciful as Club Med drifted along the Algarve, past gaudily painted local fishing boats and within yelling distance of the sun-drenched beaches. Even these great racing machines are humbled and powerless when the wind fails to blow. The highlight of the day was seven knots on the log.

The Show Resumes

While for those who had jetted in to Portugal for a brief taste of flying hulls and eye-popping adrenaline, the pace was disappointing - but Dalton and his team are enjoying a week of respite from a schedule that has been wearying. After launching the boat in May, they’ve sailed more than 8,000 miles and just spent a hectic six weeks immobilized in the Multiplast yard in Vannes, where the bows were reinforced and the interior remodelled.

The bow modifications, carried out in conjunction with engineering input from Auckland-based High Modulus, came after the front three meters of the port bow broke off as the boat was heading back across the Atlantic from New York to England.

'We went into a wave and the bow just broke off,' said Quilter. In an instant, the needle-fine entry of the bow was replaced by a blunt -- but vital -- bulkhead, which remained watertight but acted as a massive brake. 'We just did this sudden stopping thing,' recalled the ever-laconic Quilter.

The voyage was abandoned and the giant cat shipped to France for the repairs, which had everyone working what even workaholic Dalton referred to as 'horrendous hours.'

A week of showing the flag along the picturesque Algarve coast, while living in comfort at one of the sponsors’ resorts, is a welcome and necessary respite. The crew members know it will be short-lived, however.

While Club Med has had longer than most of its rivals (apart from Steve Fossett’s PlayStation) to prepare, the team is painfully aware that time is very short. With the start of The Race just over two months away, there is much left to do.

In Search of Reliability

They are happy with the performance of their Gilles Ollier machine. The hunt is not necessarily for more speed - although that would be a nice bonus. The main issue is to improve reliability. All of these maxi-yachts are entering the unknown in terms of loads and stresses. The record of damage and breakdown across the fledgling fleet has indicated that boundaries have been crossed. Reliability is the goal, and it is pursued now with an almost religious fervour.

In November, Dalton and his team will spend a week at sea working through all the systems, practising and pushing the gear to the limits to make final pre-race checks. During that time, Quilter and weather router Roger 'Clouds' Badham will scour the weather systems, looking for conditions that might set them up to tackle and better their own record.

If they can break their record, they will have struck a nice psychological blow, boosting their own confidence and diminishing that of their rivals. Even without a new record, the time at sea will be extremely valuable. As most of the other programs rush to make modifications or to get finished, the simple fact that Dalton and his multinational crew are already out clocking up the miles and learning the important lessons about reliability give Club Med an edge the others will envy.


First published on QuokkaSailing.com, republished with permission.