Fossett
Challenges - Forestay Re-attached as 16 Hour Repair
Salvages RTW Record Attempt
Fossett
and Cheyenne Back at Speed and On Course
Monday 23 February 2004 - 1710 GMT - 773 nm SW
of Cape Town (but not heading there...): After
a day of extraordinary tension and teamwork, Skipper
Steve Fossett reported late this afternoon that
the giant catamaran's wayward Forestay, displaced
during the previous night, had finally been reconnected
- and Cheyenne and her team of 13 were once again
sailing at speed and on course in their attempt
at Bruno Peyron's 2 year old Round the World Sailing
Record of 64 days 8 hours 37 minutes. The bars
of Cape Town can now stand down.
At
1710 GMT this evening Cheyenne and crew were traveling
E/SE at 21.8 kts in a 23 kt westerly breeze. Before
this morning's drama, Cheyenne was over 500 nautical
miles ahead of the 2002 record track of Orange.
Even during the 16+ hour repair process, excellent
downwind progress along the course was made, the
big cat covering 196 nm over the past 12 hours,
and 446 miles over the past 24 hrs - at an avg
speed of 18.6 kts.
Not
bad for 'running repairs'.
Steve
Fossett described the repair undertaken:
"The crew of Cheyenne has reconnected the
Forestay. Cheyenne has gybed to the Southwest
and is continuing its attempt to break the Round
the World Sailing Record.
The
forestay cable, which supports the mast, pulled
out of its end fitting. None of us on board has
ever seen this fitting fail before. The repair
process took over 16 hours and was accomplished
using hand tools - where this type of work is
usually done in a rigging shop with specialized
heavy equipment.
This
is defining of the most professional distance
sailors. They can fix things at sea where normally
we would have to retire to the nearest port. Despite
meticulous preparation, these high performance
multihulls cannot be expected to make it Round
the World without mandatory repairs at sea.
-
Steve Fossett, Skipper"
Pictures and descriptions to follow - after everyone
gets a little well-deserved rest.
For
further details and regular position updates,
please see: www.fossettchallenge.com
