An Aussie's view of the EDS - pt2

Kingfisher co-skipper Nick Moloney talks about life on board an Open 60 and the horrors for helm

Continued from yesterday's article

A sore, wet ride for the helmsman

Steering an Open 60 is just ridiculous!

Firstly you can't escape the spray: It's brutal and you always have salt water in your eyes. Volvo Ocean 60s are narrower than Open 60s, so a wave will peel along the topsides and then disappear over the coach house roof to leeward. Whereas the hull form on the Open 60 gets wider and wider, so when the wave hits the bow it just keeps curling all the way up the deck almost to the stern.

We didn't have any goggles on the last two legs so they've been the big purchase for leg three.

Secondly Open 60s don't have any practical driving position. Volvo Ocean 60s have twin wheels and a long cockpit, open at the transom. In comparison Open 60s have a small, central cockpit and an aft deck where there are two tillers, one attached to the top of each rudder stock (they have twin rudders). So to drive Kingfisher you have to have to sit on the aft deck and jam yourself in with a foot on a winch and another hooked under the runner tail. To escape the spray I was trying to get out as far as possible to the windward rail and sail with the tiller extension. But it's really hard to brace yourself and it is equally hard on your back as you're constantly having to lean forwards to steer up.

Then there's the motion. On one occasion we got hit by a wave as the stern fell away. One minute I was hanging on to the helm, squinting to see ahead in the spray and the next minute I felt myself airborne, flying towards the runner. Before I knew it I was all chicken-winged up around the back lifelines. I could have really easily have been flicked straight off the boat, that's how violent they are.

Continued on page two...