Storm chasing on the high seas

The mighty maxi Bols attempts the 24 hour monohull record

The last few days have seen the 93ft supermaxi Bols trolling around the north Atlantic with her full race crew looking for the development of a suitable weather system and length of runway with which to have a crack at the current monohull 24 hour record. THis is currently illbruck's passage of 484 mile set in April last year during the transatlantic leg of the last Volvo Ocean Race.

On board the crew led by skipper Gordon Kay includes navigator Ian Moore, top Danish Olympic and offshore sailor Stig Westergaard, plus Hans Horrevoets, Jali Makila, Staffan Lindberg, Richard Fryer, Dean Kennedy, Piotr Harasimowicz, Andy Meiklejohn, Ben Costello, Harry McGougan, Cam Marshall, Robbie Warren, Nick Butt
and Bill Dann.

Ian Moore takes up the story:

We departed Amsterdam on the 22nd bound toward the cut off low west of the Azores, hoping to hook into that system or at least position ourselves more favourably for any low pressures that might be working round the top of the north atlantic high.

We diverted throught the solent to replace regular bowman Stefano Gerardi who dislocated his shoulder up the rig in 30 knots with Nick Butt, regular aboard Bounder and Team Tonic.

As we pushed further west, our window for the Azores low was looking less and less promising so 150 miles south of Fastnet we gybed north towards the west of Ireland to
await the next system. The residents of Ventry, Co Kerry were quite surprised when they awoke to find a 93ft maxi anchored off the beach, but Noel the local fisherman was quite happy to run a few of the crew ashore to Quinns Bar, between trips to tend his lobster pots.

After 24 hours in Ventry we pushed west again, under the guidance of Chris Bedford for a point 400 miles west of Ireland trying to position ourselves in a 30 knot north westerly flow developing around a new Icelandic low. Unfortunatley this entailed going upwind for two days and then stooging around for a further 12 hours waiting for the breeze to build sufficiently to make a start on the run.

Conditions were less than perfect. Although we experiencing gusts up to 35 knots we were also getting lulls less than that 20 and Chris was getting quite worried that breeze was not going to be consistant enough. Our alternate was four days hence starting at Rockall, another two days of beating to get there and then two days of heaving to and waiting. We thought we would take our chances and trust that the breeze would build as the model predicted.

Full main, jib top and staysail, gives you enough power to maintain the sort of speeds you need and is low maintenance and reduces the risk of the downtime you get when you broach or break gear. We pulled the trigger at 17:30Z and the first hour was good - we immediately hit 30 knots on the first big surf and in the hour we notched up 20.4 miles, which is just over the 20.16 average you need to maintain. The second and third hours were even better. With the wind averaging 27 knots we managed 21.1 miles in
consecutive hours putting us up at 20.7 knot average. The fourth hour however, was disapointing, with the wind was lulling to 20 knots we only managed 19.6 knots and we were starting to get a little worried.



Fortunately the wind started to freshen again, with the wind building to 30 and then a steady 35 knots and as I was begining to look forward to our best hour yet when a loud crack from the mast let us know that all was not well.

The vang becket attaching the hydraulic ram to the rig had sheared away, and the boom was now skying and heavily loading the gooseneck. A quick word with Andy Meicklejohn our resident Southern Spars representative confirmed our worst fears. Game Over. We would have to drop the mainsail to save damaging the rig and boom further and to remove the existing hydraulic ram.

As we were surfing at 32 knots under Jib Top alone it was tempting to think that we should have just carried on, but Bols has a bigger agenda and a broken boom isn't part of it. Next time!


This is Bols' second attempt on the monohull 24 hour record - her first was her maiden voyage out of New Zealand, which also came to a premature end through gear failure.

"It really is extraordinary the loads that you incur pushing these boats to the max!" commented Gordon Kay, who adds that they were very keen to prove the boat's speed potential without the added benefit of the Gulf Stream (as helped illbruck).

"What is particularly galling is that since the vang blew out we have had better and better weather and the wind has been absolutely perfect today for hauling the mail....to be ahead of the record in less than perfect conditions and then unable to capitalise on the hard yards is very frustrating. We are unsure as to our final plan for the winter but for sure we will be out there trying to break records rather than ashore talking about it!!"

Bols is ultimately heading to the Med for a series of sponsor commitments and at present skipper Gordon Kay are considering their options - everything from round the world record attempts to transatlantics...