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2018 Golden Globe Race


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Update 2 hours ago:

Indian Navy overflew Tomy during the night. Australian JRCC Aircraft about to Overfly Tomy and Gregor now. Tomy cannot communicate with aircraft as batteries flat on aviation and marine VHF. Weather delay first ship till AM 25th. Gregor ETA under jury rig now AM 24th. Tomy has not drunk water since injury. Gale on scene now 35kts will drop 1800UTC today wind drop to 15kts am 24th . Thoughts are with all involved in recovery.

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Tomy safe aboard Osiris, reportedly conscious and talking. Mcguckin has asked to be pulled out as well, since it seems unlikely he can safely make Australia under jury rig and without an engine or windvane steering. (https://goldengloberace.com/day-85-rescue-update/).

 

Osiris will head for Amsterdam Island, just about due north of the rescue position, where there is apparently a relatively well-equipped hospital.

 

So good news all round.

 

And then there were eight.

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Both boats are still floating and dirfting, with trackers on.  

There was talk of Indian Navy taking them to an island 40 miles away, but not sure if that will happen.

One of the boats is an exact replica of Robin Knox Johnstone's Suhaili, built stronger and heavier.

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From the race organizers:

 

The plan is for the Indian Navy to tow Thuriya to St Paul’s Island some 40 miles north, and leave a crew to make repairs and sail her to land.

McGuckin’s yacht Hanley Energy Endurance was also left drifting when the Osiris crew picked him off the yacht. In a statement today, Neil O’Hagen, spokesman for Team Ireland said

“During the controlled evacuation of Hanley Energy Endurance, McGuckin was instructed to leave the vessel afloat. The French fisheries patrol vessel Osiris instructed McGuckin that scuttling the vessel would be in breach of international maritime regulations. Hence, McGuckinremoved all debris from the deck that could become separated, secured all equipment on board, and ensured the AIS beacon was active. The power source to the AIS device is solar panels which should remain active without any outside assistance reducing the risk to other vessels. Precautionary steps were also taken to ensure the relatively small amount of fuel onboard is secure.”>>

 

So presumably both boats will be salvaged at some time.

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I think a lot of it is luck.... if you get caught in a storm you can be in trouble, but if you avoid the heavy weather (easier said than done) you're fine. Van den Heede, if i recall rightly, hasn't been knocked down and has sustained no damage, but he's about 2,000 miles ahead of the fleet and in entirely different weather. Mark Slats has been knocked down three or four times and Susie Goodall got into the game this week. But I think it's pretty tough water in any case and sometimes no amount of preparation is enough.

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Another boat dismasted, that makes 4. Taking on water and wants off. 18 down to 7. Huge casualty rate and still only half way. They seem like well prepared and tough boats so are these unusual stats or just an indication of how tough that piece of water really is?

I wouldn't underestimate the difference modern weather routing contributes to avoiding storms and knock downs. Even on 'slow boats' like these.

These guys are effectively sailing blind with regards to forecasting, accept for the race organisers giving them warnings and advice at the last minute (i.e. too late to really position for a big blow).

 

That and they are heavily restricted by the artificial southern boundary of the course. They can only ever run north, can never run south. I think the course restrictions are bollocks myself, and clearly aren't working with regards to safety and damage to boats.

 

There is a rumour that Van den Heede is getting reliable weather via HF, which is within the rules. He can then carry out rudimentary weather routing from that i.e. old fashion, draw the situation on graph paper, mark you position and work out where to go based on boat polars, but with pencils and rulers, not laptops...

I assume he has previously set up a 'friend' to broadcast general weather forecasts at pre-arranged times and frequencies, that are open to all to listen into. i.e. legit, as opposed to bespoke weather info, or info via the satellite phone, which would be cheating (but a sh*t load safer).

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Huge storm sweeping towards Tasmania. Goodall at anchor to wait it out (in the aptly named Safety Bay).  Kopar will probably make it to shelter at the Hobart film drop buoy before it hits and so he's OK. But two others -- Randmaa and Lehtinen -- are at risk.  Randmaa, in the Tasman Sea, has been directed to make all speed to the south and there's just a chance he'll miss the worst of it. But Lehtinen, still well east of Tasmania,has nowhere to run -- south takes him closer to the centre of the low and north would turn Tasmania into a lee shore.  Good luck to both. This could be a harrowing couple of days.

 

Weather discussion here: https://www.facebook.com/1751709878415736/posts/251689388843455

 

Meanwhile, Van den Heede has broken a teacup. https://twitter.com/ggr2018official/status/1057689962768986112

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Well, maybe Jean-Luc will stay in. He's apparently decided to head for the Horn, counting on being able to make some sort of repair that will let him keep going. The GGR committee might let him stay in (despite some not-allowed sat phone calls) but give him a time penalty. 

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