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Local Knowledge Wild We on the Sea Eagle recently contested the 2004 Melbourne - Hobart starting on the 27th on the same start line with the Melb - Launceston race. With 40 odd boats lined up at the start with 16 going to Hobart there were plenty of boats. Weather briefing was for gale force winds from the SW and frequent squalls. This was to keep up for about 48hrs until a slow moving high moved through and the wind would drop out all together.  Race
started OK with plenty of wind, but sheltered by land so we all powered
along to the the heads. Just as we were approaching the rounding buoy to
get out into the rip a dirty big squall hit with hail and 50+ knot winds
(boat log packed it in, so we only had apparent wind). Needless to say,
large portions of the fleet - many very experienced ocean racers - began
turning back. After making about 6 tacks to clear the heads we were finally
starting to settle down to the squally conditions and 8m seas for the long
beat to King Island when with the noise of a shotgun blast we blew the back
panel out of our main below the 3rd reefing point (had 2 reefs and the no.
4 up at the time). First thoughts were "S*it, guess that's it for us
then.." but our 2nd helmsman calmly noted that we had run the 3rd reefing
line and it looked like it would hold. So up the front and secure the 3rd
reef on the horn and it looked pretty good. That was until we noticed a
large tear had worked its way about 1/2 way up the sail about 1m from the
leech. So we all had a chat and decided we would continue until the main
blew for good then put up the storm sails and go home. At this time there was a bit of carnage in the fleet with most boats retiring for various reasons. The two crew on one boat were washed overboard (still attached by their tethers) and the boat drifted between Corsair Rock and Point Nepean (listed depth of between 1 - 2m) with massive swell pushing them through and breaking waves everywhere. Needless to say they were VERY lucky to survive that AND still have a boat! Another boat - a big 15m ocean going Elliott - blew in a window in the hull and more than 1/2 filled the boat. They lost control and a mayday was issued. After the rescue chopper was scrambled and an hour of bailing they had it under control and made it back to port under their own power. Yet another boat, this one in the Hobart fleet, pulled out a few hours in and was dismasted in the conditions.  We
kept powering on into the night, all amazed that the main looked to be holding
out well and we were keeping up with what was left of the fleet. We also
started to notice that our bilges were getting rather full and were requiring
frequent emptying. It was then discovered that we had ruptured our fresh
water tanks and lost all fresh water. To top this off we have 3 people who
are not able to keep their food down... So at about 3am - 1/2 way to King
Island - the skipper calls a meeting to decide what we are going to do.
Reluctantly we decide that our race is run, that we can't make it to Hobart
punching into this for another 30 hours. Race control is called and we ask
if we can change races to the Launceston race. Our request is OK'd and we
get new sked times and finishing procedure. During the night we get several breakers over the boat, for those on the helm it was an awesome time, one of my best sailing experiences. When off shift or on the rail, it was cold and utterly miserable. We had no start list or sked sheet for the Launceston fleet, so we had no idea how we were doing in the race. We were making decent speed as we had made it more than 1/2 way to King Island before diverting so we were no longer hard on the wind, more about 35 degrees to the apparent. We kept pushing all the time despite not being in the Hobart race any more, desperate to salvage some pride by a good finish in the Launceston race. When we were 8 miles from the finish and called race control to let them know we were an hour out, they congratulated us as we were about to take line honours in the race! We let out a cheer and did 3 sail changes to get to the line. There was some debate on the radio as to wether we were entered in the race or not, and in the end we were declared the "unofficial winner" as we indeed had not entered. Pity as the 3 boats that did finish the race were all quite a bit larger than us, so it would have been line honours and handicap. All told only 4 boats made it to hobart (after setting a new race record for the slowest ever as the wind really did die completely) and 4 including us to Launceston. Not a bad example of Bass Strait! Regards, Cameron |