Pulling out again

Navigator Roger Nilson on Orange II's second attempt on the Jules Verne Trophy

The Jules Verne Trophy is a little bit like climbing Mount Everest. If one is not prepared enough, the mountain and weather will be stronger. This morning, 4 March we have had two days to reflect upon our situation, having once more to return home to 'base camp' in Lorient.

After five days of intense, fun and fast sailing, we were very close to Bruno's old record and also close to Geronimo. Geronimo chose to go west after Portugal and east after Canaries. We did the opposite, went east after the Spanish peninsula, following the coast of Marocco and then west, approaching the Cape Verdes. As Geronimo came back west at Cabo Verdes, the net result was that our boats were very close.

On the way down to Cabo Verdes in fresh NE trade winds, we had flawless sailing except two small happenings. One was catching a two metre long shark, which got folded around our starboard daggerboard. After stopping and backing, the poor backbroken shark could be seen floating off.

The other was suddenly breaking the steering cables on the port side. At 25 knots of boatspeed with 1100 sqm of sail, it is not good to lose control of a 120ft catamaran. Fortunately a fast reaction from the helmsman and another crew quickly running over to take the helm on the other side, and all was fine.

Early morning 2 March a strong, hard, vibrating sound developed under the area of the propeller. We knew the shark had not been close to that area, so it had to be something else. The hope was that we had caught something, but the sound was indicating a worse condition, as it got stronger and stronger into the last dark morning hours.

At 0530 we stopped and backed off. No improvement. We decided to slow down the track and at 0630 we had sailed the boat into the lee of Ilha de Santo Antao, the most north-western of the islands in the Cape Verde archipelago. Our very experienced diver Vlad went down into the dark and bumpy water. He brought bad news to the surface.

The oval, streamlined 'box' made out of carbon and foam, covering the vertical square drive to the propeller, had started to peel off from the bottom of the boat...

First we decided to sail down to the smoother waters of the doldrums, hoping to fix it there. But 70nm later, running fast with the genaker, the noise got worse and worse. Our cat was creating heartbreaking sounds and we had to look for better options. We altered course 45 degrees to port and aimed for Fogo Island in order to find a really calm place leeward of this large Island. As the daylight was vanishing, we changed the course a bit and pointed at the smaller but closer Isla Brava, the most southeasterly of all the volcanic islands.

After finding a flat, windless spot, very close to this dry but pretty island, Vlad was down with his diving bottle again. The mission was to see and evaluate if we could repair or cut off the whole thing.

The conclusion came soon. As you are not allowed to lift the boat out of water during a Jules Verne record attempt, we were facing a hopeless case. No chance to repair or cut off the box and strut below water with the resources available onboard. To continue at high speed in the Southern Ocean would be dangerous. Further damage to the bottom of the hull could have developed.

During the night of 2-3 March we proceeded slowly north, all of us feeling very disappointed. We were aiming for Ilha de Sao Vicente which has a proper port, but what could we do there as we cannot lift the boat anyway… . Just before reaching Sao Vicente early morning of 3 March we took the final decision. Once again we realised we had to turn around and go back home. Not so far from the place Geronimo turned around some weeks ago... .

A 120ft racing cat is a complicated machine. As any other big yacht it has its teething problems. 11 weeks between launching this brand new boat and starting was just not long enough time to sort all the technical issues out. We would have needed more offshore sailing time to find these problems earlier - before rather then during the record attempt.

In my opinion the crew of this fantastic boat has done a great job, working hard from November. Today reaching north through the gentle trades we are already planning for our next attempt to bring the big cat back into the battlefield. When? We do not know at the moment. Time will tell.

Yours,
Roger