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

Tacking

To tack the boat requires all hands on deck - remember there's only five crew on the EDS Atlantic Challenge. We lower the new windward board ( Kingfisher and all the swing keel boats have daggerboards, these are toed out so the leeward board is vertical when the boat's heeled) so it is about eight feet in the water. That sets off a huge rooster-tail of water so anyone working on deck gets completely soaked. We set up all the working sheets and the runner.

Down below someone - usually Ellen - dumps the water ballast and once this has glugged its way down to the new weather tanks we press the button to lower the keel. Then they shift all the interior - all food, water, personal and sleeping gear, spares, etc down to the new weather side.

While this is going on we keep easing everything. This makes for a significant drop in boat speed - from nine knots to be struggling to make three and a half. Then everyone comes on deck to do the manoeuvre. You look for a flat spot in the ocean and make a really agressive turn up into the wind. Often you need to back the jib - it's very much like tacking a multihull. The whole process takes about 20 minutes to get up to full noise again. Then the boys get back to bed.

Although 20 minutes seems like a long time, it takes longer still on a Volvo boat. You've got 14 sails to move and there is so much more gear with 12 people on board. But they tack and point better. Their hull form is better and you have some cord length on the keel. On Open 60s the keel foils are just struts, they don't provide much lift. A Volvo boat is better upwind, but once you've freed the sheets it's a different story.