Leopard - the full story

James Boyd speaks to skipper Chris Sherlock about the recent rudder loss on Mike Slade's maxi

Later that afternoon the 160m Latvian LPG carrier Kurzeme of the Latvian Shipping Company rendez-voused with Leopard. Although the wind had moderated to 15 knots there was still a dangerous 6m swell running and this was too much for the Kurzeme to dispatch their RIB. Instead Leopard's crew inflated and got into two of their liferafts. "We jumped into those and paddled away from the boat," recounted Sherlock.

The Kurzeme meanwhile had manoeuvred themselves into a position where they created a lee for Leopard and threw down a net and a rope ladder on the leeward side which the crew were then able to clamber up. "It was very scary," admitted Sherlock, a man who sounds like it would take a great deal to scare. By 1858GMT on Wednesday 3 April, almost a day and a half after the incident, the crew were safely on board the ship. "We were lucky the captain of the Kurzeme was so good," commented Sherlock. "He'd been a captain of big ships for 20 years. We were lucky we got him."

The ship then continued on their way crew to Ferrol in northern Spain where they were heading to go into dry dock.

Meanwhile Leopard's insurers had dispatched a tug to recover her. The Sigyn arrived on station on Friday night, just in time for the forecast F10 storm. It was to be a week before conditions abated adequately for them to begin the salvage. At around lunchtime last Friday (12 April) the Sigyn managed to get a crewman on board and take Leopard in tow by tying a strop around her mast. Before starting the tow they emptied the accommodation, but left the aft compartment full.

Leopard is currently under tow at 4.8 knots and is due into La Coruna on Friday from where she will have her mast taken out (if it survives the tow) and will then be shipped back to UK to be repaired.

Sherlock is still at a loss as to why Leopard's carbon fibre rudder stock broke. "We didn't hit anything and the boat had been through worse conditions weather wise," he said. "We don't know why it broke then. The boat had done 27,000 miles in the 21 months it's been in the water. Why it failed now we don't know."

During the Volvo Ocean Race SEB broke the bottom bearing on their rudder and were able to slip it out and fill the aperture with a bucket. On Leopard the rudder is a little bigger and by flailing about it tore a 2ft hole in the bottom of the boat, damaging the P-bracket in the process. A running repair would have been much harder.

When Leopard returns to the UK, her team will have to investigate why the rudder broke using the remaining top 2-3ft section of the stock, which is believed to be still in the top bearing, for analysis. The rudder and stock was built at Green Marine and engineered by SP Technologies. A new rudder will then have to be built which will take a further two months. Then there is the small matter of refurbishing the lazaret and rewiring the boat. "The boat will be renewed to what it was," commented Sherlock. "She'll be out sailing again in three months."

In the end the incident was a success. Sherlock managed to get himself and his crew safely off at the right time (although the MRCC were not happy about getting two sets of ships to stand by Leopard). This was mainly thanks not only the Kurzeme for rescuing them, but also due to Leopard's water tight bulkhead.

Sherlock shudders at the prospect of what might have happened if the same incident had occurred on Longobarda, Slade's last boat, which was originally built as an inshore maxi and has no watertight bulkheads. "If we had been on Longobarda it would have gone down in 10 or 15 minutes. In itself it is a testimonial that Leopard stayed afloat for a week after we had got off. The watertight compartment kept the boat afloat with minimal damage for one and a half weeks."