Temenos suffers a collision

Rudder may be broken on Swiss Open 60 in the Barcelona World Race

On board Temenos II in the Barcelona World Race, Dominique Wavre reported in the early hours of this morning that they had hit a floating object last night, while co-skipper Michèle Paret provided further details about the incident at noon. Though the impact doesn’t seem to have affected the integrity of the rudder - further analysis is required - the incident has had some consequences aboard Temenos II.

Paret recounts: “I was on watch on deck and Dominique had just got into his bunk, when I heard a loud noise and immediately felt something hit the port rudder. I quickly got out the torch to have a look. It was still night, but I could see a big dark zone without being able to make out if it was a piece of rudder that was missing, or if there was still something hooked onto it. I quickly went down below to get Dominique. Inside in these kinds of conditions there is always an infernal racket and half asleep he had heard the noise but didn't realise straightaway. He thought it was the sound of a winch.

"It felt like we were dragging a piece of broken rudder behind us. We decided to drop the gennaker so as not to risk any further damage on the boat. However the sail refused to be furled in. We've been having problems with it for several days already but yesterday it was really extreme. We think it is down to poor pre-stressing level with the stay, but the conditions over these past few days have not enabled us to get on deck to try and resolve the problem.

"We managed to drop the sail and put it in the sail locker at the front of the boat, but we really struggled on deck. During these moments you must give it your all if you want to recuperate hundreds of square metres of loose material which is flogging in the wind. It's right on the extreme this kind of manœuvre and there’s always a big risk that you will get carried away with the sail if a gust or a big wave catches up with you. And on the other side, you have to avoid ending up in the water at all costs, otherwise there is little chance you can be recuperated and in that case you're often forced to cut everything away.

"When you are fully crewed, it’s not a problem because there are enough hands to recover the sail, but when you're double-handed and two out of your four hands are busy gently easing the halyard, it's not very efficient.

"Finally once we were under mainsail alone, we reversed the boat under sail and fortunately the rudder was freed in a single move.”

The gennaker which refused to furl in is 300sqm and they were attempting to drop it in 25 knots, on a foredeck regularly being swept by the waves.

“I was in the sail locker in the process of stowing the sail gradually, while Dominique struggled to drop the rest of the gennaker and when I poked my head out again to take another fold of material and I couldn't see Dominique anymore," recounted Paret. "I yelled his name three times without reply in the pitch black night with 25 knots of wind. It was an absolute nightmare and I immediately feared the worse. The time it took to turn my head he had reappeared on the other side and with the noise of the wind and the sail flogging he hadn't heard. I've certainly had my share of emotion for a while. But it’s unavoidable. You constantly fear something will happen to the other, though this is felt to a considerably lesser degree with more crew."

At noon the tension of the night had eased and we could sense slight disappointment in Paret's voice, as they were expecting to lose some ground on the whole fleet. “At the time we were positive about it, saying to ourselves that it was lucky that the rudder hadn't broken on impact, and that we could very easily be in the process of changing a rudder at that time. Of course though, when you see the speed of the boat drop, it makes you angry. We will be penalised for a few more hours yet, until the wind increases a little.”

On Temenos II the rudders are fixed under the transom and do not kick up. Stronger winds will enable them to heel their monohull over more, so they can better inspect the rudder. Given the two hours lost sailing a now under-powered boat, Temenos II won't be able to sustain the same high average speeds as she did yesterday. However the situation could come good thanks to the arrival of a depression over the fleet from the west tomorrow. The stronger wind then forecast should enable the monohull to carry the right sail again.

As regards the gennaker, though the sail is out of use for the time being, this should only be the case temporarily. Once they have good calm conditions, they should be able to get the sail out on deck again and roll it in little by little. Given that the duo is currently in the Roaring 40s right now though, it may be a little while yet...