Sea, Sail & Surf newsAround Alone
Emma Richards spent 4 hours up her 80ft mast
jeudi 7 novembre 2002 –
Emma recounted the incident first hand this morning : "I couldn’t believe it. Last night my little world of boat, sea and race fell around my ears again. Only a few precious hours after the dark, the main halyard snapped, dropping the whole mainsail to the deck in less than a second (only wish I could hoist it that fast !) It has snapped right at the top, so I have no choice but to don my hard hat and drag myself up the mast to replace the halyard.
"I would have done it immediately but it was pitch black last night and so I was bound to make a simple error that would force me to go up again this morning, and I doubt the bruising that is bound to occur as I bounce my way up the mast will permit me two trips up there.
"I got some sleep and with a clear head this morning I have a new halyard ready to go. I have also taken a spare block and lashing in case that was the cause of the chafe, a knife to cut away the old dead end up of halyard up there, and a lashing to lash me to the mast so I could use both hands to work instead of just holding on for dear life in an awful motion. There is a horrible sea running as the wind has been shifting round which will not make my life any easier. At least I’m not scared of heights !"
At the 0600hrs position report, Pindar was still in 2nd place behind leader Bernard Stamm on Bobst Group-Armor Lux, but her slower boatspeed overnight had cost her dearly against closest rival Thierry Dubois on Solidaires as she had dropped to within 13 miles of the Frenchman.
After spending four hours up the mast with the boat slowed up to 2 knots, Emma confirmed at around 1300hrs GMT that the job was done and Pindar was back up to around 13 knots boatspeed. Unfortunately, it was not quick enough to stop Solidaires from passing Pindar and stealing into second place as the 1400hrs position report shows the Frenchman with a 13 mile lead.
Positions at 1400hrs UTC 7th November 2002
Class 1
Boat, Time, Lat, Lon, DistRun, AvgBsp, AvgHeading, DTF (nm) DFL (nm)
1 Bobst Group Armor-Lux, 31 45.600 S, 10 21.520 W, 92.36 nm, 11.57 kt, 1454.54 nm
2 Solidaires, 27 26.000 S, 14 48.440 W, 97.82 nm, 12.23 kt, 1770.20 nm
3 Pindar, 27 08.840 S, 14 52.760 W, 71.75 nm, 8.97 kt, 1783.21 nm
4 Hexagon, 25 40.840 S, 21 00.440 W, 78.12 nm, 9.78 kt, 2108.43 nm
5 Ocean Planet, 3 44.760 N, 23 48.480 W, 52.67 nm, 6.59 kt, 4324.72 nm
6 Tiscali, 43 27.320 N, 8 21.000 W, 0.00 nm, 0.00 kt, 6799.83 nm
Class 2
Boat, Time, Lat, Lon, DistRun, AvgBsp, AvgHeading, DTF (nm) DFL (nm)
1 Tommy Hilfiger, 0 30.720 N, 27 20.320 W, 67.08 nm, 8.40 kt, 4037.72 nm
2 Spirit of Canada, 8 01.640 N, 24 50.640 W, 60.11 nm, 7.52 kt, 4504.84 nm
3 Everest Horizontal, 8 52.680 N, 24 01.280 W, 64.42 nm, 8.07 kt, 4570.88 nm
4 Spirit of yukoh, 8 40.310 N, 22 12.190 W, 20.70 nm, 2.58 kt, 4612.66 nm
5 Bayer Ascensia, 9 23.240 N, 22 56.160 W, 48.06 nm, 6.02 kt, 4626.86 nm
6 BTC Velocity, 9 26.080 N, 22 55.480 W, 46.71 nm, 5.84 kt, 4629.68 nm
Dans la même rubrique
Around Alone : Swiss skipper Bernard Stamm is looking over his shoulder
Around Alone : Emma Richards undertook mission impossible to keep second place
Around Alone : Top four boats are skirting the ’Saint Helena High’
Around Alone : Richards & Dubois hold an advantage to the East
