Actions and Consequences

Mark Chisnell reflects as Team Philips makes its way, solo, across the North Atlantic

Pete Goss' call to abandon Team Philips to the tender mercy of the North Atlantic was the final decision in a long line that have taken us to the point where several million quids worth of high-tech structure is drifting aimlessly around the ocean. No less a hazard to shipping than to its skipper's reputation, not to mention that of British sailing.

The biggest remaining question is the salvage or otherwise of the boat - where it fetches up and what state it is in when it does so. Goss Challenges are in a position to track the yacht to its final destination, be that a watery grave, a rocky one, or onto the end of a fishing boat tow-rope. It's to be hoped that the boat remains afloat and the right way up until someone can find it. But even if she is found in any kind of salvageable state, it's not clear whether the sponsors would cough up once again for the rescue operation and the repair.

So where did it all go wrong in that line of decisions, or didn't it - was this a justifiable end for a concept always pitched as radical and experimental?

Although there is little detail on the nature or extent of the damage to the pod that caused the steering failure, it would seem that it must be significant. The team have said that it was caused by wave action in the 40 to 50 knot conditions, and it seems likely that this weakness was only going to be discovered by getting the boat into this kind of extreme conditions.

It can be argued that this fatal North Atlantic test was the right thing to do - better to be in trouble 700 miles west of Ireland near a busy shipping lane, than 2000 miles from anywhere and near no ships at all. No one's been hurt, and the rescue services and merchant shipping were not horrendously inconvenienced - for that we should be grateful.

But it's also possible to argue that there were other futures for this boat, rather than this ruthless examination of its abilities. The trip into the Atlantic was make or break, as Pete Goss said, "We wanted a stern test of Team Philips before setting off for the much more settled conditions of the Med, so we really have dived in with both feet by heading to 60 degrees North. It's wickedly windy and very rough ..." But it didn't have to be like that. It was suggested by Chris Savage three weeks ago on this website that Goss should forget The Race and concentrate on a plan that would optimise the boat for the sponsor - who had, after all, paid for it.