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Keeping the Clipper fleet racing
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
Hyde's sails have been powering the 10-strong Clipper fleet as they race around the
world, and at each stopover, the Hyde team has been on hand to help deal with the
inevitable wear and tear...
The race is hotting up as the fleet approaches Qingdao, the end of Race 6 and the midway point of the race. The Clipper fleet might be down to nine for the time being, with the unfortunate ‘Cork’ lost on a reef in the Java Sea, but a replacement boat will be ready when the race reaches Panama. Hyde is manufacturing the spinnakers for the new boat and working closely with Clipper to ensure her sail wardrobe gives her the same advantages as the other nine yachts.
Waiting to meet the fleet in each stopover to help with the punishing wear and tear a round the world race delivers to the boats and all their equipment, the Hyde Sails team has been busy ensuring that the driving force behind each yacht is checked, repaired and ready to continue the long journey home. Hyde's Martin Newman was out at the Cape Town stopover, ensuring the boats were ready for Leg 6.
Repairs by the crews
Pushing too hard, or messing up a drop can easily result in damage, but the crews have been trained to cope with this, Each boat had their own sailmaking training. Martin Newman outlines some of the work the crews undertook themselves... “Australia damaged the upper luff of her mainsail . An ingenious and rather impressive ‘get you home’ repair was performed by the crew on the leg (using bits of batten, nuts and bolts and some hand sewing).
"Other general work done by the crews during the race and at the end of the leg included replacing worn or missing mainsail slides, checking all slide webbings for wear and replacing as needed; replacing worn or missing headsail hanks, in some cases strapping luff slide eyes using webbing and hand sewing thread; checking for chafe from rigging and deck damage, patching using sticky or sail cloth and hand sewing thread."
Hyde on hand in Cape Town
Martin explains: "The boats were berthed at the Royal Cape YC for most of the stay, which supplied their regatta room for crews to check over sails and for Hyde and Clipper to assess any damage that may need to be professionally repaired. As much work as possible was done by crews with advice when requested from myself, a local loft was used for any thing that could not be done by crews, however any prep work that could be done before sending the sail into the loft was done by crews so as to reduce loft costs - all boats have a limited budget for repairs in keeping with the 'amateur' ethos of Clipper. Any over spend results in points deductions.
"A replacement medium spinnaker was waiting in Cape Town for Cork , their original sail had been damaged on the way to Rio and Gareth Heel (Hyde service manager) had declared it beyond economical repair. A new sail was manufactured during Leg 5 and shipped in time to meet the boat. Singapore blew out their light spinnaker on the final run in to Cape Town, with a large portion of the sail left behind in the ocean, this was a major repair done by the local loft.
world, and at each stopover, the Hyde team has been on hand to help deal with the
inevitable wear and tear...
The race is hotting up as the fleet approaches Qingdao, the end of Race 6 and the midway point of the race. The Clipper fleet might be down to nine for the time being, with the unfortunate ‘Cork’ lost on a reef in the Java Sea, but a replacement boat will be ready when the race reaches Panama. Hyde is manufacturing the spinnakers for the new boat and working closely with Clipper to ensure her sail wardrobe gives her the same advantages as the other nine yachts.
Waiting to meet the fleet in each stopover to help with the punishing wear and tear a round the world race delivers to the boats and all their equipment, the Hyde Sails team has been busy ensuring that the driving force behind each yacht is checked, repaired and ready to continue the long journey home. Hyde's Martin Newman was out at the Cape Town stopover, ensuring the boats were ready for Leg 6.
Repairs by the crews
Pushing too hard, or messing up a drop can easily result in damage, but the crews have been trained to cope with this, Each boat had their own sailmaking training. Martin Newman outlines some of the work the crews undertook themselves... “Australia damaged the upper luff of her mainsail . An ingenious and rather impressive ‘get you home’ repair was performed by the crew on the leg (using bits of batten, nuts and bolts and some hand sewing)."Other general work done by the crews during the race and at the end of the leg included replacing worn or missing mainsail slides, checking all slide webbings for wear and replacing as needed; replacing worn or missing headsail hanks, in some cases strapping luff slide eyes using webbing and hand sewing thread; checking for chafe from rigging and deck damage, patching using sticky or sail cloth and hand sewing thread."
Hyde on hand in Cape Town
Martin explains: "The boats were berthed at the Royal Cape YC for most of the stay, which supplied their regatta room for crews to check over sails and for Hyde and Clipper to assess any damage that may need to be professionally repaired. As much work as possible was done by crews with advice when requested from myself, a local loft was used for any thing that could not be done by crews, however any prep work that could be done before sending the sail into the loft was done by crews so as to reduce loft costs - all boats have a limited budget for repairs in keeping with the 'amateur' ethos of Clipper. Any over spend results in points deductions.
"A replacement medium spinnaker was waiting in Cape Town for Cork , their original sail had been damaged on the way to Rio and Gareth Heel (Hyde service manager) had declared it beyond economical repair. A new sail was manufactured during Leg 5 and shipped in time to meet the boat. Singapore blew out their light spinnaker on the final run in to Cape Town, with a large portion of the sail left behind in the ocean, this was a major repair done by the local loft.
posted by Hyde Sails at
09:25
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Pipped for the podium
Thursday, 22 October 2009
Tom Gruitt and Cape Breton Island finish Leg 1 in fourth place..."So here we are! Cape Breton Island Clipper has finally arrived in Rio de Janeiro! We finished fourth overall at 0505 (Rio time) at the line due south of the headland at Cabo Frio in a fickle breeze with Cork chasing us hard all the way to the line, they only finished about 10 minutes behind us. It was an agonising finish to the race
with us mainly drifting in the tide over the line only making about 2 knots boat speed with sails flogging as we rolled in the swell. We were so pleased to have finished inside the time limit set by the race officials, if we had not finished by 1200 UTC then the positions would have been taken as the nearest to Rio, the satisfaction of actually crossing the line was great! After the finish was a 6 hour motor sail to Rio itself, this was due to light and flukey winds on the approach to Rio, it made sense to finish us on the headland were we could race in a better breeze."On arrival to the Rio de Janiero Yacht Club we had a quick beer before getting on with the menial task of cleaning the boat, all the boards came up, the bilges cleaned, and everything wiped down with antibacterial spray. I have serviced most of the winches on deck yesterday and today, getting rid of all the salt and other matter that end up in the cogs, it needs a good memory to put all the bits back in the correct place, only once did I end up with a bit left over!
"At the moment all the sails are being cleaned, mended and re-flaked with Hyde Sails adjusting all the light weight spinnakers by chopping a good few feet off the bottom, this is due to it catching on the forestay and the pullpit and ripping all the time, rumour has it Team Finland only used their heavy weight spinnaker never hoisting the medium or light.
"Once all the work is done today we are get time to relax and enjoy ourselves out and about in the city until nearer the start of the next leg where more boat preparations begin. I fly home tonight to a very autumnal England, I can't wait!"
posted by Hyde Sails at
19:33
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In 'stealth mode'
Saturday, 17 October 2009
From twisters, to daydreams of a Cornish pint, Tom Gruitt shares the story from Cape Breton Island, which is currently in 'stealth mode' and battling for second place."Sorry for the lack of communication, we've all been busy sailing trying to catch up the miles on Spirit of Australia and put extra miles on Jamaica. Currently we are in stealth mode, so none of the fleet know where we are. We are in stealth mode for 24 hours, this will end at midnight tonight unfortunately, but hopefully we will have been gaining on the boats ahead of us.
"Due to very unpredictable light winds near Rio the race has been shortened to a headland off of Capo Frio, this is roughly a 6 hour motor sail from Rio and we should be finishing in 3 or 4 days, depending on the wind. It's looking like it's going to be a close finish between us and Spirit of Australia for second place, we have a slightly different tactic that we are sure will pay off in the long run, keep watching the tracker to find out!
"Just a few minutes ago we sailed under a lot of grey clouds and even saw a small twister reach down to the water. I grabbed my shower gel in anticipation of a nice freshwater wash on deck but was sadly denied as only a gentle spit of rain actually fell on the deck, what little rain fell was refreshing all the same."The temperatures here are almost unbearable, the sun feels like it penetrates through any layer of clothing and no matter how much sun cream you apply shade is needed readily. We are all glad the watermaker is still working as we are drinking litres of the stuff every day, I just long for the taste of some orange squash in my water, pure water does get boring after a while.
"On board we have mainly been talking about all the things we are looking forward to back on land and the people we want to see. The main things seem to be steak and chips, a full English breakfast and to have the option not to eat angel delight nearly every day (it does get rather sickly when you have no fridge to set it in). I think the thing I'm looking forward to most is a nice pint of Cornish ale down my local and some cheese and crackers, we only had cheese on here for the first few days before it was quickly demolished. Fresh fruit and veg all rate pretty highly among the crew, along with having a bath and sleeping in a bed that doesn't wobble from side to side. On board we only have 7 different menus for food, this means that cous cous comes up much too regularly for my liking, I always look forward to the beef stew with mashed potatoes and the Thai green prawn (from a tin) curry, it tastes better than it sounds honest! Lunch mainly consists of bread and soup, or tuna, salami or corned beef rolls. A highlight from the night watch last night was that we found a few bags of M&Ms in the cupboard, eating nice chocolate again was a luxury, but it soon disappeared and we were left with the cardboard muesli bars that no one likes.
"Hopefully my next update will be about the close of the race near Rio!"
posted by Hyde Sails at
20:09
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