Andrew Bray's blog
Latest weblogs from the editor of Yachting World
America's Cup 25 years on
26 September 2008
It would be propitious if Larry and Ernesto, who are due to meet today in informal and unscripted talks, were to reach an agreement and pull the America's Cup back from the brink.
Because it is exactly 25 years since the Auld Mug was wrested from the Americans' 132 year grasp by the upstart Aussies and their wing keeled Australia II, the boat backed by Alan Bond, designed by the visionary Ben Lexcen and skippered by the legendary John Bertrand. On 26 September 1983 history was made.
The Cup might be known as the world's oldest sporting trophy but there were many occasions when it had been far from sporting. As was famously reported on one such occasion 'Britain rules the waves, America waives the rules'.
Although the playing field has levelled since those days many argue, including Larry Ellison, that Ernesto Bertarelli created a favourable slant for the home side with the new protocol for the 33rd Cup and hence the whole matter has finished up in Court in New York.
My hope is that between these two the clock can be turned back and the same protocol that gave us arguably one of the best ever America's Cups in 2007 can be reinstated. But I'm not holding my breath.
Andrew Bray
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Open 60 Aviva blessing
8 September 2008
I'll bet you don't know what a sabrage is. I didn't until I received a press release about the blessing of Dee Caffari's Open 60 Aviva at the weekend. Aviva was blessed by her celebrity godparents, Lady Pippa Blake (left) and French news presenter Patrick Poivre d'Arbor, who will also be starting the Vendee Globe, in which Caffari is competing, on 9 November. Here's what the release says.
"To celebrate the blessing by Lady Pippa Blake and Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, Caffari chose to perform a sabrage with the boat's two guardians. The sabrage is a ceremonial display whereby the cork of a champagne bottle is extravagantly removed by swiping the bottle with a sword. Caffari learnt the art of sabrage when invited earlier this year by Mumm Champagne to join the new Cordon Rouge Club, a revered group of adventurers and explorers."
I wonder who holds the bottle.
Andrew Bray
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Mars Odyssey - 500 days and still going
4 September 2008
What's the longest you've been at sea? Maybe a three day passage to South Brittany or five across Biscay, or perhaps one of the longer RORC races, maybe 18 days on the ARC for some. For me it's 29 days of uphill slog across the North Atlantic and very unpleasant it was too for most of the time.
But who holds the record for the longest time spent at sea, apart from the Flying Dutchman of course? I only ask because Reid Stowe, who is attempting to stay at sea for 1,000 days, out of sight of land and without re-supply has just reached his half way mark of 500 days. But impressive though that is, it is eclipsed by Jon Saunders who sailed his 47 foot Parry Endeavour solo and non-stop three times around the world in 659 days.
But back to Reid, who has had many adventures, is currently meandering around the Pacific Ocean. He started off with Soanya Ahmed as crew but she was taken off the Schooner Anne suffering chronic seasickness and later gave birth to their son, Darsen. Here is his log on day 500
"In my timeless state of mind I almost forgot to note my milestone of reaching 500 days non-stop at sea without resupply. Time has passed quite fast, perhaps because I am comfortable at sea and keeping myself well occupied by working through out the day. I have been able to fix most of the things that have worn out or broken and I am still quite confident of the schooner's abilities to keep going longer than any boat has gone on the sea. I have been able to catch rain and fill my tanks with drinking water. All of the food is preserving well and I have more than I need. I eat a healthy diet including fish and living sprouts every day. The hard work of sailing and maintaining the schooner has often made me sore handed, but I love the physicality. A good yoga session each day helps keep me limber and in tune with my body, mind and environment. In spite of some disappointments, hardships and setbacks I'm quite happy out here and continually appreciative of my situation and the wonders of nature around me. With luck and the grace of God I will continue to live at sea and perhaps I will depart the touch of the land for longer than any human since we evolved on this planet. My strategy is to keep doing what I have been doing. I will keep sharing this voyage as live and candidly as possible. I sent a lot of gratitude and love ashore to everybody!"
Andrew Bray
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Reid Stowe still at sea
30 July 2008
I last wrote about Reid Stowe back in March. Stowe, if you recall, is attempting to stay at sea for 1,000 days in his 60 foot ferro schooner Anne. I was recounting how he had to drop his crew, the young Soanya Ahmed, off in Australia because she was suffering from bad seasickness, and carry on solo. Well she wasn't. It was altogether another type of sickness and a few days ago she gave birth to their son, Darsen.
So solo Stowe is now on day 467 of his Mars Odyssey, so called because 1000 day is, he claims, the length of time it will take a man - or woman - to travel to Mars. Not both I trust as there will be no convenient Australia en route. He is travelling, very slowly, somewhere in the South Pacific. But I am beginning to wonder whether the solitude is beginning to get to him because like Bernard Moitessier many years before him (his book 'The Long Way' is, by the way, a must read) he is starting to wax lyrical, spiritual even. Here's an extract from his latest log.
"I feel I need a certain purity to live here, even more than I needed to pass through the Sacred Sea. Here the N and S tradewinds meet and fade. The Equatorial current flow strong E and W. I should just exist silently and I'll try, but I have needs 'Will you share your fresh water with me?' and I carry society with me. I hope the spirit of this sanctuary approves of such busyness. I heaved-to on a small double reefed foresail and we drift and roll WNW. It is a very unique situation to be here unpressed to proceed for a while. The wind is blowing briskly. Maybe I haven't moved out of the SE trades. The sea looks different again. I look at it lovingly again."
Andrew Bray
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Getting Ready for the Vendee Globe
16 July 2008
Many races claim to be the toughest in the world. The BT Global Challenge, Chay Blyth's 'wrong way' race did so with some justification, as does the fully-crewed Volvo Ocean Race sailing some of the world's fastest monohulls and pushing them to their limits - and beyond.
But in my mind this picture says it all. It is the IMOCA or Open 60 Groupe Bel sailed by Kito de Pavant on trials in readiness for the Vendee Globe starting in November. I can just about imagine doing this for a day before returning to terra firma and a hot shower. But de Pavant and his 29 fellow skippers will be doing it, alone and sometimes in the freezing wastes of the Southern Ocean for three months or more. Now tell me which is the toughest yacht race in the world.
Picture by Gilles Martin-Raget
Andrew Bray
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Waterside lap dancers
27 June 2008
It's enough to make a chap choke on his Pimms or spill his pinkers down his blazer. What is the world coming to? Lap dancers during Cowes Week?
Yes, it's for real. At the Waterside pub in Cowes there will be lap dancing from 1 - 7 August. From 9pm to 1am the pub will become 'an exclusive men's club', although the press announcement then goes on to say 'although not excluding women'. I should think not. After all, who is going to do the dancing? It won't work with a hairy 14 stone bowman.
The numbers will be restricted to 100, with the first 80 guests paying £20, the remainder £25. The dancers, apparently, come from Elegance, Portsmouth's first and only lap dancing club.
Not surprisingly there has been a fair amount of local opposition and the police have been consulted. You could not make this up, but the Cowes Police spokesperson is Sgt Julie Cocks.
Bookings at 01983 293 269 or after9@thewatersidecowes.com
Andrew Bray
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Careless Alinghi
3 June 2008
To capsize one multihull is careless, but two? Here is the Alinghi Extreme 40 catamaran taking part in the recent iShares Cup at Lugano and having one of those "oh s***" moments. This is just a few weeks after they planted the bows of the hapless Alain Gautier's ORMA trimaran Foncia and performed a none too gentle pirouette to end up upside down. BMW Oracle Racing aren't much better having also capsized their Extreme 40. So far, apart from Russell Coutts who suffered a cut arm, no-one has been badly injured.
The learning curve is patently extremely steep. But think of this. It now looks as though the 33rd America's Cup will be raced in 90 foot multihulls. These boats will be substantially more powerful than the Extreme or Foncia and much, much faster. Fifty knots is a distinct possibility. Now if one of those comes unstuck at those speeds, with no tyre barriers to cushion the impact what are the chances of severe damage to both crew and boat.
Another thing about these boats. They are going to cost tens of millions to be designed and built and then used for a maximum of just three races...it's a bit obscene isn't it?
Andrew Bray
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A logistical nightmare
28 April 2008
There used to be a standing joke in the editorial office of one magazine I worked for. It was called 'but where are the roof bars?' Some of our sailing trips involved driving the crew to point A, sailing to point B and then having to retieve the car from A. Unless of course you could rent a car from B to get to A. Simple enough so far, except for the roof bars. These were for the obligatory windsurfer that went with us and without which it could not be transported. And, in those days anyway, you could not hire cars with roof bars.
A simple logistical exercise but absolutely nothing when you consider the problems of the organisers of the Clipper round the world race when two of its yachts were dismasted in the Pacific. Read how they managed it.
"International marine events company Clipper Ventures Plc has successfully carried out a major logistical operation to re-rig two of the yachts competing in its Clipper 07-08 Round the World Yacht Race. The ten-strong fleet is now racing from Santa Cruz to Panama following the race restart for the internationally-backed yachts on Thursday. New rigs were assembled for Durban 20101 and Beyond and westernaustralia2011.com in the UK and freighted the 7,500 miles to Honolulu after the two 68-foot racing yachts were dismasted in Race 7 across the Pacific from Qingdao, China.
Clipper Ventures Chairman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston said: "When we lost two masts in the Clipper fleet in just over a week during the race from Qingdao to Hawaii, the priority was to replace all the similar fittings to those that failed within the fleet and to manufacture and ship out two new masts to Hawaii.
"Time was of the essence as the Clipper Race has a tight schedule and the plans of 200 crew members were at stake. Thanks to the tremendous efforts of the Race Team in Hawaii, Finance Director Jeremy Knight and Fleet Manager John Farndell in the UK and the many companies involved around the globe led by UK-based Spencer Rigging, the fleet is now back racing again", he said.
When westernaustralia2011.com lost half of her 81-foot (24.5 metre) mast on 5 March, Clipper Ventures immediately approached Sparcraft in Cape Town, the company that manufactured the masts for the ten matched Clipper 68s, to provide a replacement section.
However, Sparcraft suffered a factory fire on 7 March and was unable to make the new mast section as a result. On 10 April the company confirmed that its other factories in France and the United States did not have the spare capacity to make the mast. Later that day, Clipper Ventures sourced the required mast section in France, which was transported to Atlantic Spars in Brixham.
Meanwhile, on 13 March, day 19 of the 4,400-mile race from Qingdao to Hawaii, Durban 2010 and Beyond lost her mast at deck level, just eight days after westernaustralia2011.com lost her rig.
Following the second dismasting, Clipper Ventures sourced similar sections from the Netherlands to replace Durban 2010 and Beyond's mast which was also finished by Atlantic Spars. Meanwhile, Spencer Rigging sourced enough compact strand to complete two complete new sets of standing rigging.
Spencer Rigging cut and made up the rigging in Southampton and Cowes. They also commissioned a company to manufacture custom-made bottle screws and wire terminals as Clipper Ventures regular supplier, Navtec, only holds minimal stock and did not have the capacity to make replacements for many weeks. These parts were made in Germany and Newcastle.
Sir Robin said: "With parts coming from all over Europe, Spencer Rigging and Atlantic Spars had to work together closely to make ensure that everything fitted together correctly without any hitches when it arrived in Hawaii. With the boats more 7,000 miles away in Honolulu, there was neither the time, nor the opportunity to 'try it for size'!"
Clipper Fleet Manager John Farndell sourced all the remaining parts, with Marlow supplying running rigging. This process was complete by 26 April, just under two weeks after Durban 2010 and Beyond's dismasting.
The two masts were road transported from Devon to Luxembourg from where they were flown by front-loading Boeing 747 to Los Angeles arriving in the early hours of 29 March. This consignment containing the new rigs and related parts then waited in Los Angeles airport to be loaded onto the first available flight to Honolulu on 2 April.
After all the waiting, the plane it was booked on developed a technical fault. However, the airline managed to get it fixed, and the consignment was loaded onto the Boeing 747, fitting through the side doors with just six inches to spare.
The rigs were flown to Honolulu arriving early on 2 April, where the Clipper Maintenance team along with three riggers from Spencer Rigging and a mast builder from Atlantic Spars were eagerly awaiting their arrival. Both rigs were delivered to the boatyard, where they were stepped and tuned in just over a week with westernaustralia2011.com and Durban 2010 and Beyond leaving on 10 April just five days after the rest of the fleet.
Clipper Race Director Joff Bailey said: "It was a magical moment watching the ten teams cross the start line in Santa Cruz on Thursday as it marked the end of a very challenging experience. The blue water, clear skies and a reasonable breeze also helped the day go well.
"I'd particularly like to commend the crews of westernaustralia2011.com and Durban 2010 and Beyond on the massive amount of work they put into assisting us with the new masts and the great job they did in turning the boats around in less than 48 hours after they arrived in Santa Cruz."
After a brief stopover, Race 9 from Santa Cruz got underway on 24 April. The fleet is scheduled to reach Panama City on 13 May."
Andrew Bray
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Serial keel waggler
28 April 2008
Modesty is not something you could accuse Yann Elies Transat and Vendee Globe steed Generali of. Look at her here, waving her bright red appendages in the air for all the world to see during pre-Transat trials. A great stunt to show off inshore but would the pair risk doing the same in 40 foot seas 1,000 miles from land deep in the Southern Ocean?
Andrew Bray
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Southern Ocean Seas
7 April 2008
Fedor Konyukhov is currently circumnavigating Antarctica solo as a dry run - if that's possible in the deep south - of the inaugural Antartica Cup. This race has been planned for a number of years and starts and finishes in Albany, Western Australia. It's late in the season to be that far south and Fedor has endured more than his fair share of storms. He has also had to sail further north than he would have liked to keep clear of ice.
Just look at the size and colour of this sea! It makes me, sitting comfortably in a heated office, feel very, very cold. www.antarcticacup.com
Andrew Bray
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Noisy antifouling
20 March 2008
With Easter round the corner it seems a good time to blog about antifouling. There's something about antifouling that seems to encourage innovation. Maybe it's the cost of the stuff or perhaps the less than favourite job of putting it on, no doubt on a breezy, cold day that sees any other person, boat or car to leeward getting generously spotted with International's finest.
Over the years I've come across many different ideas to solve the problem. One impecunious sailor thought he'd save a few pounds by using swimming pool paint (though if he had a pool he could not have been that impecunious). The sky blue was very fetching. The barnacles thought so too. Another added copious quantities of rat poison and creosote to domestic emulsion paint. Other than deterring the occasional passing water rat or gribble that too had little effect. One that did work, though it's frightening to think of the environmental consequences if widely used, was adding vetinerary antibiotics to household paint, though no doubt continued use could have developed MRSA-like super barnacles. And then there was Barnacle Bill.
Back in the 1970s, when a US Coastguard cutter was slipped for a refit the shipyard was puzzled when they found that one area of hull was completely free of fouling. On investigation they found that it correlated to a sailor's cabin and that sailor was a hi fi enthusiast and had speakers mounted all round the cabin, including on the hull. Barnacle Bill was born, a system of sonic devices glued on the inside of the hull designed to blast away fouling, though no-one used it long enough to ascertain whether Mozart or Black Sabbath worked best. Because it made little discernable difference.
Well Barnacle Bill, or son of Barnacle Bill is back. The Shipsonic ultrasound antifouling system has just been announced. Now I won't tar it with the same brush as Barnacle Bill (come to think of it tar is supposed to work well) as it may well work in a completely different way. But it will take a lot to convince me to fit it to my boat. Read about it at www.sonic-marine.co.uk
Andrew Bray
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Sinking supermarket trolleys
19 March 2008
What is it about supermarket trolleys that makes anyone want to push them into the nearest river, canal or, come to that, the sea? An accident pushing an overloaded Carrefour trolley along a wobbly pontoon in Port Chantereyne in Cherbourg is, perhaps, forgivable, if unfortunate. But wanton trolley drowning?
This is prompted by a news story about Essex Waterways, part of the IWA, threatening to take Tesco to court to recover the cost of removal of trolleys from the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation at Heybridge. Tesco paid up. Not only that, Tesco has introduced 'new procedures' to reduce the likelihood of trolleys being abandoned within the waterway.
IWA commented "IWA believes that the larger navigation authorities should take a more proactive and sustained assertive approach to known trolley hotspots and ensure that our waterways are freed from the scourge of abandoned trolleys once and for all"
There's a new one, 'known trolley hotspot'.
Andrew Bray
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Another Clipper mast fails
13 March 2008
One design fleet, one design problems is what they say and after the hiatus in the last Clipper race when all the boats were forced to make a lengthy unscheduled stop in the Phillipines with serious keel issues one wonders whether the double dismasting could be indicative of a fleet-wide problem.
Last week westernaustralia2011.com lost her rig and is sailing under jury rig towards Midway for re-fuelling and re-provisioning. Now comes the news that Durban 2010 and Beyond has suffered a similar fate, although the race organisers say the causes of both are not thought to be the same. However, as an apparently precautionary measure, the remaining eight boats have been instructed to cease racing, with two going to Durban's assistance. No injuries have been reported.
Andrew Bray
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Hand bags and a whiff of oxygen
7 March 2008
Sailing apart, one of my other passions is skiing and for years I have been promising myself a trip to Colorado to experience 'the world's best powder'. This year was the year.
It was an inauspicious start. When there's a marquee and free tea and coffee outside Terminal 4 at Heathrow you know you're in for trouble. We were.
British Airways has become notorious over the last year or so for losing baggage so I could only assume that the fact that they were refusing to accept check in bags was some kind of fiendish plot to make amends. I mean if you're not checking in bags then you cannot lose them. 100% fool-proof. The excuse they made was that the new baggage handling software had gone awol. Strange but it seemed to be working perfectly for Club and First Class check-in.
They gave us three options.
1. Risk checking in and the bags would take around 10 days to be delivered.
2. Send them FedEx or DHL.
3. Leave them behind and only take carry on bags
1. was no go as we'd be flying back in 10 days
2. I phoned FedEx. It would take them three hours to collect the bags. We were flying in two. It would also cost several hundred pounds.
3. Even without skis you take a lot of gear skiing, from boots to helmet, salopettes, socks, thermals and so on. But this was really the only option.
So, in the middle of a heaving Terminal 4 there we were with open cases stuffing 'essentials' into our boot bags and hand baggage. What next? Left Luggage of course, except the queue was two hours long and our plane left in 90 minutes. In a moment of inspiration we rushed to the Heathrow Express station, got a train to Terminal 3, left our bags at Left Luggage there and got the train back to Terminal 4. It was now countdown minus 30 minutes.
Somehow we made in through security (and saw one bloke wearing his ski boots) and onto the flight. And our clothes and bags? Luckily there was a Wal Mart in a town about 10 miles from the resort.
But for me the trials were not over. Breckenridge is high. 10,000 feet high. I woke next morning with a splitting headache, dizzy and feeling rotten. Altitude sickness. 'Just take an aspirin, drink plenty of water and rest' was the advice. And 'down at the City Market you can buy cans of oxygen which help.'
A word of advice: if this ever happens to you do not get the Tropic Breeze flavoured oxygen.
So did the Colorado powder snow live up to its reputation? The picture says it all.
Andrew Bray
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An end to global warming?
7 March 2008
Here's an interesting thought on global warming from an American ecological consultant.
Jennifer Berry, an ecological consultant from San Francisco, writes: "Icebergs are breaking from Antarctica at an ever increasing rate, and every day there are new images and startling revelations about the loss of habitat for our South Pole flora and fauna. But what happens to the ice when it breaks away and floats to the ocean?
"Scientists from the Monterey Bay Research Center set out to find out what effect these frozen travellers have on the waters they occupy. Anecdotal reports suggested an increase in seabird activity around these icebergs, but no one knew just why. It turns out that these melting ice masses are carrying organic and mineral debris stored from millennia, and releasing them into the cold waters off South America. These ocean waters are normally low in essential nutrients, like iron. As the icebergs melt, they act as a timed release fertilizer, increasing ocean life around them, such as algae. Organisms that take particular delight in the new food source are krill, the tiny shrimp like creatures that occupy the bottom of the food chain for marine mammals, even providing a direct source for many whales. When an iceberg breaks off and drifts, it creates a new habitat for opportunists, and increases biodiversity for a distance of up to 2 1/2 miles from the edge of the drift.?Not only is the afterlife of an iceberg spectacular, but this new life in turn is able to absorb enormous amounts of the CO2 that created the melting in the first place, in a sort of feedback loop. Is this the silver lining here? We'll have to find out."
Andrew Bray
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Red diesel fudge
7 March 2008
So now we have the final ruling on red diesel. You'll still be able to buy it. But leisure users will have to pay full tax on it. All you have to do is make a declaration at the pump that you have filled up for private use and the retailer will add VAT at 17.5%. So far no problem for you (extra cost apart) but lots of paperwork for the hapless retailer. But what if you've a diesel heater? You see heating oil is only taxed at 5%. So you now have to declare that 10% is for heating and 90% for propulsion. The poor guy's calculator is now getting red hot.
But what does he do on a blazing hot summer's day when you declare that 50% is for heating? Does he ask you to prove it? You could always say that you're headed off to Baffin Island. And there's also the unanswered question of other member states not recognising the difference between tax paid and duty free red diesel. Imagine trying to tell a Dutch or German Customs officer that 10% is for heating, even if it is pink. Talk about a fudge.
Andrew Bray
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Windy Monday
6 March 2008
Synoptic chart for Monday 10 March
Andrew Bray
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I just want to be alone
5 March 2008
Remember Reid Stowe? It was he who set out from New York last April with the young Soanya Ahmad as crew in an attempt to stay at sea, out of sight of land and with no stops for re-provisioning nor repair for 1,000 days. Sailing the home-built 60-foot ferro schooner Anne, he called the voyage the Mars Ocean Odyssey as 1,000 days is, he claims, the time it will take man to fly to Mars so he will experience the same deprivation as an astronaut. Apart, that is, from having an attractive female companion on board.
Well, all has changed now. After meandering around the Atlantic for several months he turned Anne's bows east for the Cape of Good Hope and the Southern Ocean. Although fairly far north the couple still experienced bad weather and Soanya discovered that, except in calm weather, she was chronically seasick. So much so that as they closed Australia she asked to be dropped off.
So on day 307, still 113 days short of the existing 'at sea' record set by Jon Sanders during his non stop triple circumnavigations, Anne rendezvoused with Stuart Walton, General Manager of the Royal Perth Yacht Club and a grateful Soanya transferred back to terra firma whilst Reid turned his bows southward to continue his quest alone.
Andrew Bray
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Broken dreams
15 February 2008
This is all that remains of someone's dream after severe storms battered the Queensland coast. Several boats broke off their moorings at Airlie Beach and there were a numbers of rescues. I somehow think that this one is beyond repair.
Andrew Bray
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Getting bored with epic adventures?
15 February 2008
A few years ago if there had been a non stop two handed round the world race then we'd all have been riveted to the daily online news and position reports. The same used to be the case with the Whitbread, as it was then. It was our daily portion of gratuitous adventure. It always has been, and will continue to be, the case with the Vendee Globe because that race is still high adventure.
But when, after Francis Joyon's incredible voyage, the Pen Duick organisation, veteran trans ocean events organisers announced 'The Ultimate Challenge', a no-holds-barred fully crewed round the world race in multihulls I admit that I had to stifle a yawn. A boredom, or maybe overdose, factor is creeping in. The Barcelona Race was borderline, as will be the Volvo Ocean Race, but then the latter is no longer intended as a spectacle for the masses, it is a business riding on the back of a yacht race. Indeed are there just too many extreme races or is my palate is getting very jaded. Are you turned off as well?
Andrew Bray
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