Handling Breakages at Sea

13 December 2012

It's almost a foregone conclusion that on any ocean passage of any real length (and the ARC is indeed a long one, at 2,800 miles), most boats will experience some sort of gear failure. Some major, some minor. But it's simply part of the ocean sailing game to expect gear failures at sea, even if they'e on only due to wear and tear.

ARC 2012 is no exception. Yachts towards the front of the fleet (particularly those who left with the Racing Division on the first Sunday) experienced stronger than usual weather, making for tough conditions on both boats and bodies.

Problems with the main on Spirit.

"We had two days going upwind," said Ross Appleby, skipper of the perennial ARC favorite Scarlet Oyster. "That's not really in the brochure!" he joked, alluding to the fact that the ARC is billed as a downwind passage in the Trades. "The conditions were pretty hard on the boat and the guys, bashing upwind in 30 knots," Ross continued. 

While they only lasted 48 hours or so, those upwind conditions were hard enough on the boat (and Ross and company sail her to the limit) to cause what could have been a catastrophic rig failure had the crew not acted quickly. 

"We put up the spinnaker for the first time and boat settled down," Ross explained. As the wind finally started to shift behind them, they anticipated faster and more comfortable sailing. "We thought, 'aw, here we go!' And then there's a loud bang from the rig," he continued. 

Albatros drying out their spinnaker. 
They also tore the head out of the mainsail.

The D2 rod - the second diagonal shroud from the first spreader to the mast - had sheared off at the top fitting. The triple-spreader mast quickly lost stability, and with the big spinnaker up, was in real danger of toppling. 


"We managed to get the spinnaker down and bore away," Ross explained. The immediate plan was to add support to the mast where the shroud had failed in order to save the rig. They re-led the baby stay athwartships to provide temporary support and buy some time to think about their choices.

"We're now 300 miles from land," Ross explained. "Going back upwind with the rig as it was wasn't an option."

Ross of Scarlet Oyster - they also broke their spin pole.

Ross instead called several riggers back on shore, but nobody had any idea how they could get an attachment point onto the mast column itself. Rod rigging fittings are such that they only accept their own type - a jury rig was next to impossible. But Ross came up with a plan anyway. 

"We were sailing downwind with just the mainsail up, keeping the pressure off," Ross noted. "We wanted to get down the waves as much as possible to stop the rolling, because the physical weight of the mast is it's worst enemy. And safe for Alex working up the rig," he continued. "We managed to get a lashing around the spreaders at the spreader tip. We made up some vectran cables which we spliced to the right length and tensioned with lashings. After nine hours of Alex up the rig and me cutting and splicing, we had a rig that looked viable again."

Viable enough indeed to continue on across the Atlantic, pushing the boat hard enough that the crew thinks they are in good enough position to win their class and take a podium spot on the overall (though that remains to be seen at next week's Prizegiving when the final results are computed).

While Scarlet Oyster's trials and tribulations were the most dramatic of those boats that made the crossing, nearly everyone in Rodney Bay Marina noted some sort of gear failure en route to the Caribbean. 

"We had some damage," noted the skipper of Challenger 2, "but nothing we couldn't fix."

Triumph, in fact, broke so much gear it was hard to keep track. 

"Before the start of the race," Börje began, "Magnus was up the rig to find what was wrong with the genoa," he said, noting that it only unfurled about 2 or 3 meters before getting stuck. And this as they are literally sailing towards the starting line in Las Palmas. "Magnus was up there cutting off a part of the curler, during the starting line," he continued. They lost two spinnakers en route as well, one a brand new one bought just for the ARC.

But most noticeable as they came into the marina was their missing boom, which had simply buckled under the strain of the new carbon-fiber mainsail that they'd added to the boat in the offseason. But they handled that remarkably well.

"No, that was not the biggest problem," Börje explained. "It sounds dramatic that the boom has broken, but sailing downwind, it's not a big problem even without the boom." They rigged the mainsail - fully hoisted - with three sheets, one acting as a vang, one as outhaul, the other as the sheet itself. "We had nearly too few winches!" he joked. 

But despite the problems, crews were thrilled to have made it, and indeed often empowered by the success they had at overcoming obstacles. Many sailors on the ARC are experiencing ocean sailing for the first time, and achieving success in the face of adversity is oftentimes their biggest takeaway, what keeps them coming back for more. 

"They had the adventure of a lifetime," noted Börje of Triumph. "They loved it."

And the key to that success?

Nico, skipper of the X-Yacht Nix had some advice. "You just carry on and get on with it."