Emma aloft

Over the satphone from mid-Atlantic Emma Richards gave James Boyd her first impressions solo sailing her new boat

"Hoots man, ye ken?" With her Glaswegian background I always want to think of Emma Richards as sailing's equivalent to Billy Connolly but am again disappointed when I come to speak over a remarkably clear line direct to her Iridium satellite phone, that prolonged exposure to Hampshire has left only the slightest trace of her highlands lilt remaining.

Scotland's very own answer to Ellen MacArthur set sail from Cowes last Saturday to deliver her newly chartered Open 60 to Newport, Rhode Island ready for the September start of Around Alone, the singlehanded round the world race. The Groupe Finot design, that for the last few years Josh Hall has been sailing, has now shed her Gartmore livery in favour of the colours of Richards' long term sponsor Scarborough-based print and internet giant, Pindar.

Apart from the Round the Island and a few days of corporate charter, the voyage across to Newport is Richards' first major outing in the boat and to make matters a little more interesting she is doing the trip singlehanded - necessary in order to qualify for Around Alone and a much needed opportunity for her to get to grips with her new beastie.

Yesterday afternoon when we spoke to her, Pindar was 300 miles past Cape Finisterre apparently heading for the Caribbean. "I could have gone upwind, but I decided to go south of the Azores," she explained. Going 'the pretty way', downwind to Newport, the route is around 4,000 miles long, almost twice that of the direct route, but should help spare the boat, Emma's fillings and also give her more time to acclimatise to being on board alone. "We're doing 9-10 knots, so the miles are disappearing pretty fast."

At present there are all manner of things which Richards says she is learning about the boat - the crossovers in the sail wardrobe, how to use the water ballast, when to use the water ballast, all the systems, the generator, the engine and the vast array of electronics to name but a few.

"Yesterday afternoon the wind picked up to 30 knots and I didn't know the limits of my sail combination - or my limits," she admitted. She dropped the genniker then six sail changes later was down to staysail and double reefed mainsail a combination. Completely shattered, she stayed with this sail combination for the rest of the night. "I went on a sleep-fest for six hours. I had the alarm set for every 30 minutes and I'd get up, look at the sails, look at the radar and the instruments and go back to bed. I had a little routine where I'd literally be awake for 3-4 minutes. Fortunately the wind was quite stable so I could do this".

These sail changes came after after an unwelcome highlight of her trip so far. When the wind piped up she had dropped the genniker to find one of the blocks on the halyard was mangled. Coming out of the top of the mast the genniker halyard is on a two to one purchase and clearly not knowing the boat well enough she had hoisted the genniker too high and ground the two blocks together. If the bottom block was mangled, what was the block at the masthead like?

During the Europe 1 New Man STAR when Richards won the 50ft monohull class, she had gone up the mast, but only as far as the first spreaders. This time, she was going to have to go right to the masthead. "I thought I'd never have to do that," she said.

Singlehanded, this is obviously easier said than done, particularly for those who remember Ellen's video of the Vendee Globe. Going aloft - particularly right to the masthead - is by no means an easy decision and for Richards there were two choices, drop the mainsail and go up on that halyard or go up on the possibly suspect genniker halyard. She chose the latter. "Luckily it was a flat calm day. Unfortunately I was going up to see if the halyard I was on was okay..."

To make the trip aloft she got fully kitted up with a crash helmet and set up her TopClimber system. This involves having a fixed line from the masthead to the deck which you climb up using a pair of what are effectively jammers, one attached to your legs, the other to your torso. With the one at your legs jammed off, you straighten your body out and move the upper jammer up the rope, then clamp that off and raise your knees so that the bottom jammer comes up. "I was totally ready for a nightmare," said Richards, " but it was just fantastic. You go up a bit like a worm. It's great."

Although she thought she'd never used the tackle, it was fortunate that Josh Hall had shown her how to use it prior to her departure. Fortunately she got to the masthead, the block and the halyard were both okay.

Apart from this one life threatening experience, she says, the trip is going well and she anticipates it taking around three weeks to get to Newport. "It's noticable that I feel very comfortable with the boat already. It felt bigger when nI got on to it, but then they always come down to a nice size inn your head. I can't really remember what it was like sailing the 50 in the OSTAR."

More of Thierry Martinez' photos on the following pages...