An Aussie's view of the EDS - pt1

Kingfisher's co-skipper Nick Moloney on Open 60s v Volvo 60s, getting soaked and sailing with Ellen

The fear factor

Volvo boats are more scary because they're heavier. It's the same if you're in some old heavy displacement boat in heaps of wind sailing downwind at 12 knots you're just thinking 'Jeez we've got a bit on here' and the old ticker's going and the adrenalin is flowing.

On a Volvo boat it works from the motion. At 23 knots of boat speed the boys start turning into the machine and all the mechanics comes together. All the useless chat is gone. Everyone just talks the boat and that can go on for days, where you will not discuss anything else other than the balance of the boat, the performance of the boat, the sail package, heel angle, etc.

So in 18 knots of breeze, the sun is shining and we're all talking about chicks and everything else and you start to go that little bit quicker - at around 23 knots on a Volvo boat or it was last time - you tune out and start concentrating. And then you go faster and faster and it gets to the point where it just starts to sink in the water. It feels like the boat's got four inches of freeboard as it's slipping along scooping up massive sheets of water. These sheets come screaming across the deck breaking on every block and obstacle turning into this huge shower of white water before it hits you.

I'll never forget being hit by the water coming across the deck on a Volvo boat. It was just frightening, feeling the impact of that water on your body. Once we wiped out to the point that we were so far under water that it was quiet - amazing on a 64ft long boat.

Another time we were smoking along at about 28 knots of boat speed in the middle of the night in dead flat water with the storm chute on and a reef in the main. I went on deck on standby and I thought 'you're kidding me'. The boat was underwater with this liquid smoke across the deck. You couldn't see the deck at all, you could just see everyone from their chest up.

Then when the seaway gets up and the boat starts porpoising along scooping up big sheets of water, then you get guys going through the wheel, you can't get anyone in front of the mast.

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