Mari-Cha IV at 80%

Robert Miller explains what has happened to his 140ft schooner in the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge

Latest positions

Boat	Cl	Position	DTF	DTL	Crs	Spd	Poll time
MAXIMUS	GP	44°09' N 54°07' W	2020.1		77	9.6	26.05.2005 16:00h
MARI-CHA IV	GP	43°56' N 53°48' W	2022.9	2.8	78	9.3	26.05.2005 20:00h
SOJANA	P1	44°06' N 58°03' W	2148.3	128.2	73	7.5	26.05.2005 20:00h
ATLANTIC (1905)	P1	41°12' N 54°15' W	2179.8		91	9.1	26.05.2005 20:20h
LEOPARD	P1	43°01' N 58°05' W	2188.2	168.1	80	7.7	26.05.2005 16:00h
WINDROSE	P1	41°33' N 56°18' W	2202.9	182.8	89	8.1	26.05.2005 20:00h
DRUMBEAT	P1	41°15' N 58°11' W	2267.4	247.3	91	7.3	26.05.2005 20:00h
STAY CALM	P2	42°35' N 61°09' W	2311.4	291.3	80	6	26.05.2005 20:00h
WHISPER	P2	41°02' N 60°07' W	2335.8	315.7	93	6.4	26.05.2005 20:00h
TIARA	P1	39°24' N 57°26' W	2339.7	319.6	102	7.8	26.05.2005 20:00h
TEMPEST	P2	38°31' N 58°58' W	2422.5	402.4	109	7.3	26.05.2005 20:00h
SELENI	P2	39°33' N 61°10' W	2433.6	413.5	105	6.4	26.05.2005 16:00h
ANEMOS	P1	39°42' N 62°05' W	2455.8	435.7	106	5.7	26.05.2005 20:00h
SARIYAH	P2	40°33' N 63°24' W	2465.2	445.1	100	5.1	26.05.2005 16:35h
PALAWAN	P2	39°08' N 62°02' W	2479.2	459.1	110	5.8	26.05.2005 20:00h
SUMURUN	CL	39°09' N 62°59' W	2508.2	488.1	113	5.4	26.05.2005 20:00h
OCEAN PHOENIX	P2	41°49' N 65°56' W	2514.6	494.5	83	3.9	26.05.2005 16:00h
MARIELLA	CL	39°26' N 63°45' W	2522.1	502	112	5	26.05.2005 20:00h
NORDWIND	CL	38°58' N 63°27' W	2532.1	512	116	5.3	26.05.2005 20:00h
Retired
CARRERA	GP	40°06' N 64°31' W	0		107	7.6	25.05.2005 04:00h
STAD AMSTERDAM	CL	38°13' N 67°16' W	0		146	6.3	25.05.2005 12:00h

Over the last 24 hours, Robert Miller’s Mari-Cha IV and Charles Brown and Bill Buckley’s Maximus have slowly turned north. Meanwhile, Maximus has split from her larger rival and is now 18 miles to Mari-Cha IV’s northwest. Yet oddly Mari-Cha IV, some 40ft longer than the 100ft Maximus has not done a horizon job on the new Kiwi sloop.

Late this afternoon the reason came through. In a rare communique Mari-Cha IV's owner, Robert Miller sent this: "It has been a testing day and a half for us here on Mari Cha IV. Around 36 hours ago in very tough conditions, we launched off a gigantic wave and as the boat came crashing down we broke the headboard car and so were forced to drop the mainsail which meant, at one stage, we were down to just a storm jib and trisail.

"Since then we have been sailing at around 80% with just the #4 jib, a trisail and a triple reefed mizzen but because of the considerable extra force put on the mizzen, we have now also damaged the mizzen luff track. This means that we're back to the #4 jib and a trisail only.

"Our plan is to continue racing as hard as possible with the sails that we have and, as soon as the weather allows, we will start affecting repairs in the hope that we will be able to get the boat back to full strength as soon as possible.

"This has been a tough time for the crew, but we have an enormous breadth of talent and the team has worked hard to minimise the damage and ensure that this has not effected morale onboard.

"This is a historic race with a long way still to go and we won't be giving up until we're safely moored in Cowes."

A difficult night of big winds and lumpy seas in terms of distance to finish (DTF), Maximus had taken the lead, 15 miles ahead at noon today, but by this evening Mari-Cha IV even at 80% had still pulled up to within 2 miles of the Kiwi maxi.

"This race so far seems to have been all about no wind or too much," reported Mari-Cha IV’s racing helmsman Mike Sanderson last night. "Over the past eight hours, we have got back to the stage of having to slow the boat down to try and make sure that we don't break anything major that will stop us racing the boat. It is easy to forget, at times, that there are still 2,300 miles or so to go in this transatlantic race. We are happy to give up some of our lead to Maximus just so that we can be sure to be there when the reaching and running conditions start in a few days time." At the time, the 140-foot schooner was sailing in 37 knots in "survival conditions."

The British match race for the on-the-water lead in Performance Cruising class 1 also continues. At noon today just two miles DTF separated Mike Slade’s Leopard from Peter Harrison’s Sojana. But Sojana has split northwest and although now 40 miles ahead may possibly have gone too far north. Graham Sunderland, navigator on Sojana is obviously hoping the depression currently centred off Nova Scotia moves around to the north of them allow Sojana to be lifted past Cape Race. However it looks like they might be a bit premature and have to put in a painful losing tack 90° to the course if they are to round Cape Race.



In a third match race between what are now the two largest boats in the fleet (following Stad Amsterdam’s retirement), the 170-foot ketch Drumbeat is now 57 miles ahead of her sloop-rigged near-sistership Tiara (above). "Earlier this morning we had 40 knots of wind, and we have just broke the head of the staysail," recounted Tiara’s captain Pascal Pellat-Finet. "It is nothing dramatic, but we have had to slow down quite a bit. We will wait for nicer weather to pull out a bigger sail."

Steve Frank, owner of the Swan 112 Anemos, said they had generally been suffering from a lack of wind but had a glorious sail yesterday in 35 knots. "From 1100 until 2000 it was bright sunshine, fetching, which is what we wanted to do. The steering and sailing was magnificent. It was absolutely her seaway. I haven’t had that much sunshine and that much breeze in 40 years. It was well worth it."

But in the process, they got too far north, and when they gybed back, they ran out of wind. "Since then, they’ve kind of turned off the fan," continued Frank, who is sailing his first transatlantic race.

While the conditions have been extremely trying for the first four days of the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge, this should change in 24 hours time, said Ken Campbell of Commanders Weather, which is advising 16 of the boats competing. "This is the last day of the storm system that we were concerned about pre-start and that we have been sailing with for a couple of days now, which has produced totally screwy conditions. There are two lows. The western low is about 100-150 miles SSW of Nantucket. The eastern low is located in the western third of the fleet, 200 miles southeast of Nantucket, and they are rotating counterclockwise. The low that is in the middle of the fleet is going to head towards Nantucket today, and they will all congregate this evening 50-100 miles southeast of Nantucket, and they’ll start to move northeast like weather systems are supposed to move."

At present, the leaders and northerly boats are in easterlies, while those to the south and east are transitioning from easterlies to southerlies as they get out of the clutches of the depression. The depression is set to move across the Atlantic, and from the weekend on, all the boats in the fleet should enjoy a prolonged period of favourable westerly or southerly winds.

Elsewhere in the fleet, Clarke Murphy's Swan 70 Stay Calm continues to hang on to the lead in Performance Cruising class 2 although John 'Hap' Fauth's 116ft Whisper is thundering up from astern closing to within 13 miles this evening. Meanwhile it is all change in the Classic division where Robert Towbin's immaculate Sumurun has taken the lead off Carlo Falcone’s Mariella.

100 years ago on day four of his transatlantic race on board the schooner Atlantic, Frederick Hoyt wrote:

"The breeze kept dropping during the afternoon and by sundown we were not doing more than three or four knots. A heavy southwesterly swell on the quarter did not help matters either for it rolled us about so that with the light breeze all the booms had to be gotten onboard to save the sails and gear. The squaresail and raffee were the only sails which did any work.

"Much to the disgust of everyone the breeze continued to drop and all the evening the ship hardly had steerage way. It was a beautiful night for lovers and steamers but as a racing proposition it might have been improved upon."

The Rolex Transatlantic Challenge is sponsored by Rolex and also by Moran Towing Corp., Sandy Hook Pilots, P&O Ports North America, and MedLink. The race is supported by the City of New York and Mayor Michael Bloomberg . Showboats International is the event's official marine publication; program sponsors include Rolex, North Fork Bank and Holland Jachtbouw. Jobson Sailing, Inc. is making a documentary of the Rolex Transatlantic Challenge to be aired on the Outdoor Life Network on Wednesday, September 28 at 1:00 am ET and again on September 28 at 10:00 pm ET and on Channel 13 (PBS) in New York at a date and time to be announced.