THE NEVER ENDING WORK LIST
31st January 2003

With just over a week to go until the start of Leg 4, the Around Alone skippers still have enough time to be relaxing rather than stressing about the upcoming sail. And Tauranga is just the place for kicking back and enjoying a few days away from the never ending work list. Next week there will be a return to the mad scramble, but for now all is quite. Bobst Group Armor lux goes back into the water on Saturday after a fairly major job repairing the delamination that occured the night before Bernard Stamm arrived in Tauranga. Tommy Hilfiger Freedom America is already back in the water as is Everest Horizontal. Only Spirit of Canada, Spirit of yukoh, BTC Velocity and Ocean Planet remain high and dry. Their skippers hope that they will be back in the water early next week.

Most of the work has been preventative maintenance. Even though more than half of the sailing is behind them, New Zealand has always been regarded as the half-way point in the race, and so it’s a time for hauling the boat, checking the keel and rudders, and adding a fresh coat of paint to the bottom. Most boats have had their masts removed and each skipper and their shore team have spent hours painstakingly going over every inch of it looking for a potential weak spot. Wear and tear, hairline cracks and chipped paint are all good places to start. More deep seated problems are harder to pick up. Unless the rigging is X-rayed it’s hard to see a potential problem, but much preventative maintenance can be done and the halfway point is a good time to do it.

Other than the delamination work on Bobst Group Armor lux, the only other major job has been replacing the mast on Tiscali. Simone Bianchetti has been sailing with the spare mast from Bobst Group Armor lux since his broke on Leg 2, but his new mast has arrived and it’s time to pack up Stamm’s spare and ship it back to France. There was a slight scare on Everest Horizontal when the boat was hauled. When Tim Kent was being towed into port after finishing the leg, the boat hit a rock in the entrance to the harbor. Tim hauled the boat to fix the ding, only to find that the bulb on the keel was slightly off center. After consulting Jim Antrim, the boats designer, Tim felt confident that there was no major damage and after filling and fairing the bottom and adding a coat of paint, Everest Horizontal was relaunched.

With an extended stopover there has been time for some R&R for all the skippers. The local gliding club was kind enough to extend a free flight to them all, and many of the skippers dragged themselves away from their boats to enjoy the thrill of soaring like an albatross. The day was spectacular with not a cloud in the sky and each skipper was treated to the wonderful views of Tauranga and the surrounding area. Tonight they will be in even more unfamiliar territory; it’s the black-tie ball night and tuxedoes have been provided. For these sailors used to rough, unwashed clothes and matted hair, it will be an odd sensation to be scrubbed and cleaned and dressed to the nines. "Heck I think we should all show up in tuxes and sandals just to show that we are still sailors at heart," said Everest Horizontal skipper Tim Kent. Tomorrow’s report and photos will show if in fact Kent convinced his fellow skippers to start a new fashion trend.

--- Brian Hancock great.circle@verizon.net

Source: Around Alone Official Site