Route du Vendee Globe pt2

In part two of our interview with Nick Moloney he describes what it is like to sail his boat

He says that his biggest job has been developing the sails alongside North France. "We've had a monty on the sails. We did an inventory for the EDS [on Kingfisher] and we did another for the Jacques Vabre that were a lot more user friendly."

Moloney thinks Kingfisher is underpowered for fully crewed races. "She can still go a long way," he says. "We've got a roach profile which we'd like to achieve if we go to a taller rig. We pushed everything out on the EDS and realised that probably this wasn't feasible to use on your own."

Since then he has been working on specialist solo sails. "We developed a reaching spinnaker, 1.5-2oz narrow headed, easy to snuff spinnaker that would take some flapping if you wiped the boat out. Because if there were two of us [on the Jacques Vabre] you could push and then if you wanted to rest in the squalls or it was night and you did wipe out then it would take a bit of ragging. And then we had a massive 1oz runner which we blew up on day four."

He says they have developed another sail that combined two sails in the inventory - the tight luffed spinnaker and the flying luffed code 5 - thereby eliminating one of the hardest crossover calls to make on the sail wardrobe. "When you're sailing solo you always think you've got the wrong sail up. Ellen's shocking because she works herself so hard. So if she thinks she's got the wrong sail on, she'll change and then if she thinks it was the change wrong, she'll change back again. And she'll do this whole sequence back to back - which is exhausting."

An all round racing machine, his boat isn't. Downwind Moloney has already touched 26 knots "without any stress". No complaints there. Upwind Moloney is visibly biting his tongue to prevent himself says she is a complete pig. This was confirmed by Brad van Liew who has the boat's sistership entered in Around Alone and has had considerably more time to improve this shortcoming in his boat's performance. Part of the problem is that the boat is very full in the bow and so can get blown off sailing upwind. What is needed is forward water ballast.

Sailing the boat upwind has been a learning experience for him. "These boats just crash and crash and crash. I've done a lot of sailing and from your experience you hope you know when a boat is overstressed. But on this it doesn't make any difference if you're doing 6 knots or 8 knots upwind, it still feels like the nav station is going to fall on the floor. It just tears me apart...

"On the qualifier on day two I tested it just to see if it would explode - and I just hung on as the thing smashed her away across the ocean. I've got earplugs now to take the edge off it." Part of the problem is that she is flat bottomed and he says the experience is far worse than Kingfisher.

One imagines that this should not be a problem in a race like the Route du Rhum which is ostensibly a downwind Trade Winds sleigh ride to the sunny Caribbean. However this is not the case. "The Route du Rhum has potentially a lot of upwind if you go north of the Azores high," explains Moloney. "The direct route cuts through the high. That's how Ellen got a pasteing last time. The other option is the tradewinds route to the south that is 1000 miles longer."

For Moloney the routing issue for the Route du Rhum is significant. Upwind he could be making 5 knots upwind on a good day whereas going the 'pretty way' in the Trades downwind in 15-24 knots the boat could be clocking up 17 knots. But then there is the competitive element too. "The boat is not so competitive on the northerly option, but equally it would kill me to be on the southerly option on my own."

Continued on page 3...