http://www.mikegolding.com Official Home page of Mike Gol en-us Tue, 10 Jun 2003 04:00:00 GMT Sun, 6 July 2008 03:10:52 GMT+1 http://www.mikegolding.com/rss/ OCVision RSS News Generator support@ocvision.com support@ocvision.com
Whilst I have not blogged recently about The Artemis Transat, I did follow closely the culmination of the event. Loick Peyron's much deserved victory is a signal that he is totally in control of his new monohull campaign. While many teams are still struggling with the new powerful IMOCA boats' reliability, this is Loick's second bullet in a row in the class and must put him firmly at the head of the favourites for the Vendée. It is sailors such as Loick who inspired me to get involved in the predominantly French Open 60's and as far as I am concerned he has reaffirmed his status as one of the great all around offshore sailors. It was an unfortunate end to the race for Vincent Riou and PRB who looked well set up before his keel failure, Vincent's superb form also seems to assure a good performance in the Vendée and much the same can be said about Michel Desjoyeaux and Seb Josse.

Add to this mix the winning skipper of the Barcelona World Race Jean Pierre Dick and second placed Alex Thompson - then throw in Jean Le Cam and Roland Jourdan - not to mention the new up and coming sailors and teams and the odds of winning any event are shorter than ever before. The Vendée Globe always represents the biggest of sailing challenges but competing against such an awesome group of sailors and boats is going to be some prospect!

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The North Atlantic has always been a cauldron of "things for sailboats" to hit, be it - fish (big fish!), containers or just plain old rubbish. Something as innocuous as a old fridge, when filled with water can weigh close to a ton and would inflict mortal damage to a lightweight carbon fibre - fast moving IMOCA 60 monohull. The boats have definitely evolved to try to prevent this damage from being serious, kick up rudders are almost de rigour now in the list of most common IMOCA 60 extras. But the fact remains that, if you are unfortunate and you do collide properly with something significant then no amount of design trickery will allow you to escape from damage on the scale that we have seen on PRB or Foncia. Such happenings are totally indiscriminate and always cruel for the affected party. It is certainly no way for a racer to have to withdraw from a major event. Worse still is the prospect that Vincent's and PRB's 2008 Vendee programme will now be affected - this would be four years of dedication and hard work gone in a flash - lets hope the PRB team can track, find and salvage the boat before it is lost.

Naturally the incident is reminiscent of the damage and the subsequent rescue of Alex Thompson from Hugo Boss in the Southern Ocean last year. Loick Peyron is probably the best guy you could have around in such a situation and the whole rescue process seems so far to be incredibly understated. It is a truly great effort by a great sailor. Still now Loick along with his new found "passenger" will have to turn back to the race if he is to cling on to his lead over Brit Air and Generali. These younger guys and teams will be smelling blood - "gale or no gale" they will be doing their absolute best to hunt Gitana down in the next three to four days. ]]>
Further back the fleet is much as it was on Friday. The biggest winner being Safran who, from looking at his track, has benefited from a far more rapid wind shift than the others. How he is coping onboard with a broken rib is anyones guess? These boats are tough at the best of times. Right now the leaders are in stronger and more definitive breeze, over the next 24 hours the whole fleet should see this same wind arrive. It's a horrible Atlantic slog to windward weather but it is the bread and butter conditions that The Artemis Transat has always delivered to its competitors since 1960. Don't be fooled though, this race is far from over and it's certainly not going to be "a drag race to the finish". The truth is that the boats still have the 1000mile slog down the coast even after they are past the Ice Waypoint. Apart from the weather, the Gulf Stream is going to be the next big thing for the fleet. If one of the boats spends just a few hours accidentally pushing current, the chasing boats will be past them in a flash. Satellite sea surface temperature charts will become as important as the weather data in plotting a winning track over the next 4 days or so. The current here can be as much as 4 knots and, if you get it wrong, it will be pushing you back towards Europe. However, if you get it right and the current is pushing you along great, but the current is then "against the wind" and the resulting sea state is something to behold - this could be a serious boat breaker! The satellite charts are not straightforward either, the current swirls and eddies around and no matter how good, or up to date the data is - on the spot conditions can be very different. Its "Snakes and Ladders" with a 1000 square mile board!

In summary there is lots of racing still to happen and only one thing is for sure - nothing is certain! ]]>
Britair is clinging to the tail of the lead group whilst Roxy leads the second pack ahead of Akena and Safran. Marc Guillemot looks like he is having a really tough time of it and I doubt we are hearing the whole story as he is much slower than we could expect - sailing a 2008 60 with any physical damage is hard and a broken rib will really hurt in every way.

At the rear of the IMOCA 60 fleet Steve White has done well in the North but again ultimately he may have to pay for this separation as above. Dee is having to come to terms with the power and complexity of Aviva over her previous boat, it must be frustrating for her but it was good to hear her sounding so perky on the radio vacs.

These guys are having a blisteringly fast race, clocking up some impressive speeds. I guess that they are on for beating the record time as past the ridge they continue to see similar conditions to the Ice Gate. The law of averages means that the last 1000 miles may well revert to type with a bitterly cold slog to windward.
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Some of these teams have already faced each other in either the TJV or Barcelona World Race so we have a reasonable inkling of what we can expect in terms of form. At the very front end of the fleet personally I can't split Michel Des or Loik Peyron, both great sailors with the ability and boats to win this race. Vincent Riou (PRB)and Seb Josse (BT) would fall into a ranking close behind these front runners as Vincent historically plays a longer game plan and the Artemis Transat is just too short for this. Seb simply will be coming to terms with, what is for him, a completly new boat and though I doubt this will take very long, the Transat is too short for him to make the catch up needed.

The forecast for the first few days is for light wind reaching and downwind sailing, given this and despite my prediction of the front boats being dominated by Bruce Farr designs, Marc Guillemot and the lightest boat in the fleet Safran (designed by Guillaume Verdier) may well dominate this early part of this race. I really like this boat, it is innovative, light and efficent and if the weather plays well for him he could even carry this through to a win in Boston. The North Atlantic over the coming weeks will almost certainly "revert to type", and the boats will see extended periods of heavy weather upwind slog, which won't suit this configuration of boat so well.

Brit Air and Generalli are both new generation Finot designs but despite the "on paper" quality of both the skippers and boats they have failed so far to deliver on the race course. If the weather does become tougher and upwind then these boats could come through to acquit themselves better than before and despite the results achieved to date these two skippers and boats could now start to deliver more consistent and better results. I guess I would put Generalli ahead of Brit Air but there's really not much in it.

Aviva the sister ship to our ECOVER 3 should definitely relish North Atlantic conditions, frankly even with the diversity of weather the fleet is facing at the start, I would feel very happy and confident to be in this race with this design, which is able to be both very light when needed, and extremely powerful in stronger conditions. Whilst it is still fair to say that Dee is learning her new more complex boat, with the experience of the TJV and most of the Ecover BtoB behind her, plus the training she has been doing in Portugal in the spring, it really is time for her game to start moving up. Realistically however, and given the high quality of the fleet I can't see her doing better than 6th or 7th on the water and even this will depend on her ability to battle against her own "up and down" morale. I also seriously doubt that Sam Davis will let Dee get away from her easily, Sam has quietly and professionally arrived in a position where she can expect to deliver good and consistent results despite the relative age of her much updated Roxy. Frankly if I were putting money on the outcome I would put Sam into Boston ahead of Dee based purely on her more extended IMOCA 60 experience.

Giving some of the newer boats a run for the money will be the Finot designed (ex Aquitaine Innovations) Cervan EnE skippered by Yannik Bestavan, the boat is much refitted but the design is now looking quite dated. Yannik is a highly skilled skipper and I feel he is determined to make good results to reinforce his strong reputation in France, but I put him 8th as despite his skill the newer boats will just be much faster all around. The back of the fleet will see a close battle between the French skipper Arnud Bossieres (Akena), the UK skipper Steve White (Spirit of Weymouth) and Spain's Unia Bassurko (Pakea Bisaka 2009). This is hard to call, but I feel sure that this will produce another interesting race within the race for overall glory.]]>
For instance, just last week and despite numerous previous geometry checks, we discovered a mm small but important error in the keel ram alignment. This is controlled by the positioning of the carbon mounts which support the two titanium rams which power the keel head from side to side. Earlier in the year we found quite serious hidden damage on the pushrod of one on the Cariboni rams, but worryingly we could not clearly say how the damage had occurred - so at last we have now found the reason for problem and can work on a solution. On the Vendee Globe this type of small problem would become a very serious race stopper. Had we gone into the Transat these checks could easily had been superseded by more pressing work and the problem could have remained dormant until mid Vendee Globe.

Meanwhile, Gilles is monitoring the progress on the new carbon keel build on a daily basis and is working very closely with the team at JMV and HDS. Progress continues to be fast, it grows each day but frankly it seems almost unbelievable that we were aiming to race ECOVER 3 in May, the schedule now has us beginning to sail in early June.

All this is not great for the IMOCA class, but we are not alone in being unable to race in The Artemis Transat. Several high profile French teams have withdrawn from racing it for one reason or another and at least one other Anglo Saxon team, Pindar is in a similar predicament to us. Their mast broke during the delivery to the Transat Jacques Vabre start last year. The boats are ever more complex and technically nearer the edge and regardless of the teams differing budgets, by far the biggest enemy is time. It must seem odd to an outsider that a mast can take nearly as long as a whole boat to build and a keel can take half that time.

Still some teams are having an easier time of it. Dee and AVIVA arrived back from Portugal last week and having spoken with both Dee and Joff it seems that AVIVA seems clear of many the difficulties we have faced over the past few months - whilst as our technical partner I am pleased for them - I can't deny that it makes our predicament somewhat more frustrating. Next time I'll definitely take the second boat!.

Looking over the dock in Ocean Village I have been watching the new Simon Rodgers 60 Artemis launched and prepared for Jonny Malbon, Gringo and his technical team have (unsurprisingly) done a fantastic job of putting together what looks to be a very cool race yacht. With a caravan-sized coach roof and huge beam, Artemis certainly has all the bells and whistles of a state-of-the-art 2008 IMOCA 60. But what stands out most from the shore is the huge cord rotating wing mast and concealed sail control systems. The choices, and there are lots on this boat - look great and if the boat works (and is fast) then I not sure how we are going to figure out which bit or bits are working - perhaps only time will tel!. The Artemis team know that they have a lot of catching up to do in terms of time on the water, this is (almost) the last of the new boats to be commissioned for the Vendee Globe but it represents another really serious Anglo Saxon entry into the race.

Our revised sailing program will now include the SNSM (St Nazaire - St Malo) Race, which many of the none Artemis Transat 60's will race. We won two years ago and it will allow us to pitch up against at least some of the high quality Vendee Globe competition - many of whom competed in the Barcelona World Race. After the SNSM we will begin to work the boat into Vendee mode with a complete rigging change followed by a longer solo sail perhaps down to the Canaries, then a crewed return with the shore team before the Artemis Challenge during Cowes Week. After this we head down to Plymouth for some two boat testing with AVIVA before moving down to Lorient to base the boat for the final race preparations and then heading into Les Sables d' Olonne.



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During the shipping period I joined Dee and the Aviva team for sailing trials in Cascais Portugal, one advantage of our alliance. The boat looks great and Joff and his team have done a great job in finishing, shipping and getting the boat sailing in such short order. We had near perfect sailing conditions and we were joined by Bruno to test some of last seasons sails against some new designs we have for the Vendee, though I was only with them for a few days I think we all came away with the feeling that we had progressed our programs which considering our current predicament is superb.

The boat mast and container are all now safely at JMV and first major job and the team are working flat out to install the new fully bench tested Golden Arrow Lomardini engine/charging and bilge pump system. This is a now completely different installation to the original setup and the old engine now lurks sulkily in the corner of the container - repaired but no longer trusted. The various (and many) systems changes that have happened during the Palma refit are now being finally installed and tested. All in all it's still a huge and complex job, not made easier by the fact that we need to fight fairly hard with suppliers to get warranty compensation for the defective blade. Clearly this problem has cost us a great deal of both time and money and the only thing we can hope to win back is some of the cost. Still progress is being made on this front and hopefully a proper resolution is not far away.

The additional workload has meant that we need to reinforce the technical support team and I am delighted to welcome the very experienced Gilles Campan as Technical Team Manager. Gilles brings with him an entire career in race boat preparation and management in every area including Mini and Figaro and right through to round the world Maxi Multihulls and ORMA trimarans. He brings with him a new perspective and enthusiasm and we are pleased to have him with us.

I am also delighted to welcome the very experienced British Mini and Class 40 sailor and boat builder Nick Bubb to the team, Nick has sailed with the team before and I have followed his well communicated career over recent years, I am very pleased that I have been able to twist his arm into altering his 2008 sailing plans to make a commitment with us going forwards to the Vendee. Nick has ambitions to move into the Open 60 circuit and I hope that MGYR can provide him with both experience and opportunity to do just that.

Matt Cowpe, who has led the team since the boat was launched, remains as Boat Captain and together with Tim Carrie welcome the additional support from both Gilles and Nick. Westy (our semi resident Kiwi boat builder) will rejoin the team for a period later on this month to finalise his work on the various systems he has been dealing with over the winter. All in all it is now a very strong line up and in particular both Matt and I welcome all this additional brain trust.

Merv and Tim from OCDG have been helping with the integration of the new HDS designed fin and the boat the work on which is progressing smoothly thanks to the JMV build team who are working in shifts to maximise the speed of the build. It is good to be working once again with Jean Marie Vaur the head of JMV shipyard - it seem like only yesterday Merv and I were here building our first Finot designed Open 60 here.

Ecover have been great - understanding the fact that this has been somewhat out of our control but at the same time giving us the space and time to make what needs to happen - happen. It helps so much to have an experienced sponsor who can take the rough with the smooth.

We are pushing to make the Transat Race, right now we are still capable of making this schedule but without doubt it will be a close run thing. As an event ‘The Transat’ is important for all sorts of reasons, not least of which is the fact that its a race to be won but in the end, we do need to keep our eye on the "main prize" and the biggest challenge ahead of us, ‘The Vendee Globe’. We have been going at this for months and can't wait to see ECOVER back on the water and sailing, as I have said before these boats spend way to much time in repair and in a difficult phase like this, it is all too easy to forget that we are doing this for the pleasure and excitement of sailing the most fabulous 60ft boats in the world.
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As for me, I am here in rainy, windy Southampton, buried in information and spreadsheets - trying to make the difficult choices that will best ensure our success over the next year. Having had numerous technical problems on the TJV and Ecover Bto B the natural choices would be for us to cover all the bases, take no risks and ensure that the systems on the boat are robust, reliable and will never let us down. This would be sooooo easy if this was the right way but such a choice line would almost certainly entail a significant increase in weight and a subsequent loss of competitiveness. But on the other hand if you don't finish the races - then even the best weight saving is totally worthless. The balance is an impossible one as the fact is that all mechanical/electrical systems can and will fail from time to time - especially when subjected to the stresses and strains that this generation of boats put things through.

Take our Lombardini engine for instance, on last year's races we had two very serious oil leaks - not great for a brand new engine. Obviously we thought we should explore changing the motor brand completely, so away we went to trawl the stands at the London Boat Show, collected all the brochures. We honed our choice down with our list of needs and requirements and came to the unsurprising conclusion that - the same Lombardini engine is still the best suited to our needs by a significant margin.

OK, so now we have dilemma - from discussions with various experts it seems that the original engine most likely has a faulty oil pressure relief valve, causing both leaks. This engine had a complex upbringing - it was originally supplied by a dealer in Auckland, shipped and fitted by the yard in Wellington and added by local engineers' firms to a spec from the build project management team - on reflection this was not the best coordinated design / installation and many of the problems we have had are the result.

So this time, we are again ordering a new Lombardini engine but this time we have appointed a local supplier - Golden Arrow Engineering - based just up the road in Southampton. The engine will be built up from scratch with alternators and a bilge pumping system, then it will be fully bench load tested before it gets anywhere near the boat. The whole thing will then be placed into the boat as a working entity so while this is not quite a "blue print" solution, it is a significantly better process than what went before and - (no pressure here!) there will be a clear line of responsibility.

The same story crops up throughout the boat , the original considered choices - on the whole were correct but as a team we need to do a better job of realising the outcome through careful distribution of responsibilities and better planning. ]]>
Mike put in to Tenerife and a small team of Tim Carrie, Simon Clarke, Ronan Grealish and I flew out to meet Mike and turn the boat around so she could head up to Portugal. On arrival in the Algarve it was hammering down and howling for days, the whole place completely awash just before Christmas. Little did we realise what this dousing had done to Ronan until he returned from his Christmas holidays - engaged!!! ;-) In all seriousness congratulations Ronan and Amy!!

So where are we now? After a two week break the team has regrouped and has been busy planning and organising the mini refit this winter. Time is really squeezed due to our plans to be sailing pre Easter, testing with our sistership AVIVA and the Artemis Transat being a month earlier than normal this year. After the Artemis Transat press launch at the London boat show and meetings with key suppliers we left a rather wet and windy England to return to Ecover. We almost got the band back together for the delivery to Palma but Ronan's pink ticket seems to have got lost in the post (wedding planning is what we hear Ronan) and so a University friend Eddie Craighill jumped on a plane and completed our quartet.

So that's the plan really. Hide from the worst of the UK's winter weather in Palma de Mallorca where the milder and drier climate should maximise productivity and where he have access to a huge infrastructure of high quality services and suppliers.

So we are at sea again and in true Med style - All or nothing!! We left Portimao in a good breeze which soon switched off, literally a line across the sea. Most of yesterday was spent motoring (Open 60's excel at most things but certainly not anything under engine) Still we had the compensation of a beautiful warm afternoon, clear skies and a Green Flash sunset. All enjoyed with a lovely drop of PG and a slice of cake, which was really kindly dropped off to us in Portimao by the family aboard the yacht CAPE.

The forecast for the trip was light Easterlies for our whole leg through the straights of Gibraltar and the Alboran Sea. Anyone who sails this area knows that the funnelling of the wind in the Straits, between the Pillars of Hercules in Spain and Morocco is dramatic. As we passed Cape Trafalgar, as expected, the wind picked up quickly from 10 knots to touching 45 knots at times as we spend the next 18 hours beating our way in to the Mediterranean. By Gibraltar as the Alboran opens up and the wind quickly died down to the 12 knots we are now sailing in. Tranquillity has returned, the dolphins are back and life is good aboard the good ship ECOVER.

Next week it's in to the yard and it's all on again... for now. Where's that Cake... ?
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