Mid Race Review
Around Alone, single handed race around the world in 4 legs, is half way.
For the cabinet of Finot-Conq architects, creator of the 6 boats(1) who are currently
leading in the standings, it is time for a first technical and sporting assessment.
Interview of Pascal Conq, who has just spent two weeks (very studious) to Auckland.
Translated by William Rodarmor,
Q: How does it feel to have six of your designs in the
first six places?
Conq: The biggest satisfaction comes from having them all come in safely. Even Team Group
4 had practically made it to port before her accident, and had overcome this leg's
greatest difficulties without any damage. It's especially interesting because this
round-the-world voyage is a real race, and not some grand adventure or a mad dash. The
four or five lead boats have been pushed harder than 60- footers ever have been before.
Strategically, I think this race is a major step forward; one might be able to do better,
but you start coming up against human limits, not limits on the boats. I think that for
the moment, all the boats are sailing a bit off the wind. If they sailed closer to the
wind they would go faster, but that would also be more stressful and exhausting.
Q: What is your impression of the leg from a technical
standpoint?
Conq: We haven't encountered any structural or reliability problems.Damage has been mainly
caused by hitting things: a whale or an unidentified object (broken rudders on PRB and
SOMEWHERE), or shoals, in the case of Team Group 4. Aside from that, Josh Hall had
problems with his autopilots. They couldn't steer a proper course because the gyro-compass
wasn't working. I suspect the problem isn't with the equipment, but the way it was
installed. Hall also had trouble with his upper mainsail slide. Isabelle Autissier had
trouble with her mainsail track, too. That one's an interesting problem, because the track
just "unbuttoned," leaving most of the mounting screws still in the mast. Yet
this track had been chosen for its strength, as evidenced by its use on all the W60s
during the Whitbread race. Even if it turns out that the track had a manufacturing defect
in the drilling of the screw holes, it has to be said that what is right for one set of
circumstances might not be true for another.
In fact, the Whitbread is much less hard on mast and mainsail than a solo voyage. On a
Whitbread boat, the mainsails aren't cut as full, there is always one crew member at the
wheel and another on the sheets during a jibe, and a preventer is permanently attached to
the boom. As far as the mounting of the hydraulic ram that bothered Isabelle early in the
race, the bolts were set with too much play. Their holes need to be filled with resin and
the bases for the attachment plates roughened, so they stick better. It's worth adding to
this summary that the boats were never in a survival situation. Except perhaps SOMEWHERE
for a few hours, none seems to have suffered the worst of the storm that decimated the
Sydney-to-Hobart fleet. Marc Thiercelin says he sailed for six or eight hours in winds of
55 knots, but no more. In fact he was amazed to read 38 knots on his speedometer during a
surfing run when he was on automatic pilot, and to have escaped without any trouble.
Q: What is the situation with Team Group 4?
Conq: Mike Golding was doing 15 to 17 knots when he hit a sandbar three times quite hard,
and three more times less so. Things could have been worse; he could have lost his boat.
It seems the flexibility of the keel cushioned the impacts and spread them out somewhat.
To give you an idea of how hard the boat hit, the keel's hydraulic rams were bent, and
they are solid stainless steel, nearly three inches thick! We might have been able to
repair the boat's damage before the start of the third leg, but there was no way we could
be sure that the keel itself was intact. Continuing with the race was too risky, hence the
decision to ship the boat home on a freighter.
Q: As we have seen, you've been very busy during your
stay in Auckland. What is the point of this "after-sale" service?
Conq: For us, it's essential. In terms of acquiring information and experience, nothing
beats immediately sitting down and talking with the skippers. This also lets us be
available to them, to answer questions about their boats and their performance. And we can
sometimes help with their worries when they hear a suspicious noise on board. Moreover, we
work closely with the technical crews, advising them on repairs or improvements. I haven't
wasted my time over these last 15 days, though it's true that about a third of my trip was
devoted to Team Group 4.
Q: Were you surprised by the performance of Cray Valley,
a 50-footer that came in within a day of SOMEWHERE and PRB, and ahead of Gartmore
Investment Management?
Conq: No, because we know that a well-sailed 50-footer will go only two to four percent
slower than a 60-footer of the same generation. And if the bigger boats have problems,
like Isabelle with her series of breakdowns, the gap narrows further. Jean- Pierre
Mouligne just sailed a super race. Also, fewer 50s have been built than 60s, so they still
have lots of room for improvement.
Q: As far as safety is concerned, you are going to step
out of your role as designers in the next leg, right?
Conq: Yes. We have decided to make the Meteo France three-day wave-height forecasts
available to the racers. As you know, what's dangerous at sea isn't the wind, but the
waves. And sailors rarely face waves that correspond to the current wind. The state of
those waves actually depends on the history of the low that raised them, but also on the
low's path, its speed, on the previous low, and what quadrant you are in. It's important
for a sailor to be able to choose a course that takes that information into account. So we
are talking with race operations about ways to transmit that information by COMSAT. It's a
new step, and we think it will prove very useful.
Note (1) : They are PRB (I. Autissier), Somewhere (M. Thiercelin), Fila (G. Soldini), Gartmore Investment (J. Hall) for 60 ' and Cray Valley (J.P Mouligné) et Magellan (M. Garside) for 50' . The 7th boat he worked on was Team Group 4, which is now out of the race after nearly having her keel ripped off on a sandbar near Cape Reinga.