SPIRIT OF CANADA WAS PITCHPOLED
10th March 2003

09:39:07 local time (12:39:07 GMT) Bernard Stamm crossed the finish line off Salvador, Brazil to take line honors for Leg 4. The wind was light and fluky, but Stamm was able to get 4 knots of boat speed and smiled broadly as the gun fired. Photos and full report to follow.

Latest update - At 09:15 local time Bobst Group Armor lux was 4 miles from the finish. The rain has stopped, and so has the wind. The Swiss skipper is becalmed just a stone's throw away from the line while Thierry Dubois continues to storm along at 14 knots. He is still more than 20 miles back so at this point is not a threat to Stamm.

Latest update - At 08:30 local time Bobst Group Armor lux could be seen short tacking through heavy squalls 8 miles from the finish line. His ETA is for 09:30 local time.

Latest update - Bernard Stamm on Bobst Group Armor lux has sped up overnight and at 06:30 local time (09:00 GMT) was 22 miles from Salvador sailing at 14 knots. Stamm continues to astound everyone especially his friend Thierry Dubois on Solidaires. Bernard has opened up a 30 miles lead on the French skipper likely causing Dubois to be searching the boat for sharp objects. In typical Stamm arrival fashion it's raining here in Salvador, but at least it's not the kind of conditions that greeted him in Tauranga. Despite facing a 48-hour penalty for stopping in the Falkland Islands, it's line honors that Stamm wants and now it appears as if it's what he going to get. After passing Solidaires yesterday morning, Bernard opened up the after-burners of his rocketship boat and will add another impressive finsih to his long line of voctories.

Original story - Derek Hatfield is now safely in Ushuaia in southern Argentina and he has had time to reflect on what happened. He also has some thoughts about moving forward. Because his communications equipment was damaged he was not able to give full details of what happened until now. I can assure you the story he tells is harrowing. Audio clips are available by cutting and pasting the links below into your browser or by going to the audio section of the multimedia files and clicking on the links. The story is best heard in Derek’s own voice, but in case you are not able to hear them here is a summation of what happened.

Spirit of Canada was the last boat in the Southern Ocean. He and fellow competitor Alan Paris had been watching an intense low pressure system approaching and they knew that they were in for some rough conditions, but they did not know that the actual wind strengths would be way in excess of the forecasted ones. About a day and a half before getting to Cape Horn the wind started to blow. Once it got above 40 knots Derek had to hand steer the boat because that amount of wind, and the size of the waves, was too much for the autopilots. So began a long, long stint at the helm. "The waves were really starting to get huge as I approached cape Horn," Derek said in a phone interview. "They were at least 40 to 50 feet with breaking crests. I knew that if one of them got the boat we would be in trouble, but because I was on deck at the helm I could see them coming and steer away from them." As Derek and Spirit of Canada got closer to Cape Horn the waves began to increase in size as the continental shelf caused the water to shallow. They were also getting dangerously steep.

Hatfield had stood way off land and figured he was about 10 miles south of Cape Horn when he passed it’s longitude. "I never saw the land," he said. "And I was glad of it, I wanted to be far away because the visibility was very bad. We were getting slammed by a hail storm and the wind was picking up the waves making a real mess of things." It was sometime mid-afternoon when the wave that had his name on it came up from behind. "I have lost the timeline a bit," Derek said. "I was so exhausted that I could hardly think, but when I heard the wave I knew that I was in trouble. I was not as big as some of the others, but it was breaking and it made a huge roar as it approached the boat. In seconds we were falling down the face of it until the bow dug in and then we pitchpoled. The boat went straight up and then fell over sideways. I was at the back of the boat and got flung forward, and the next thing I knew I was in the water under the boat." Spirit of Canada had just undergone the worst possible scenario; an end-over-end capsize. The boat slammed down trapping the skipper underneath it. Derek continued his story. "I heard the water gurgling and knew that I was under the boat, then all of a sudden I heard explosions. Loud explosions that reverberated through the water and I knew in that instant that the mast was breaking. It was unreal. Gurgling water and huge bangs. Suddenly without the mast the boat came back upright and I was dragged back on deck." Hatfield estimated that he was under the boat for about 15 seconds. Had the mast not broken who knows if it would have ever come back up again and how Derek would have got out from underneath the boat. It boggles the mind to think about it.

Once the boat was upright Derek went below to get his phone. There was smoke pouring out of the computers which had been shorted out by the water and they were busy frying. "The cabin was full of smoke. I tried to find the fire extinguishers but they had been ripped off the bulkhead. Fortunately by the time I found one down by the keel mechanism the smoke was clearing. I was able to make a quick call, but the rest of my instruments, including the autopilots were useless." Below deck was a disaster area from everything that had flown about the cabin when the boat went over. Derek admitted that he was probably lucky to have been on deck and not below when he capsized. He also felt that he was lucky that the mast had snapped. Despite the problems he had encountered, his ordeal was far from over.

During the pitchpole the keel had come loose. It had already been a problem, but now the whole thing was loose and banging around. Once he had cut the mast away (salvaging the boom in the process) Derek began to motor slowly towards land. "The crazy thing was that my engine was running before we capsized," he said. "When we came back up again it was still running and continued to run until we made landfall in the Beagle passage." I forgot to ask who the engine manufacturer was.

This morning when the sun came out and Spirit of Canada was alongside the dock in Ushuaia the problems that lay ahead looked insurmountable. There was no mast, no sails or rigging. The keel problem needed to be resolved. The electronics were ruined. "I could not think how we could get back in the race given where things stood," Derek said. "But then I opened my email and started to talk to people and I am amazed and gratified by the outpouring of support we have been getting. It’s overwhelming. There is still a lot to do, but I am starting to feel the littlest bit confident that we might just be able to get back into the race. My goal is to get a new mast, get this boat sorted and return to the spot where I capsized. If I do that and then sail to Salvador in time for the last leg, and do well that leg, I believe that I can maintain my podium place. That’s my goal. To finish in the top three for the Around Alone." Those are fighting words spoken by a man who is amply capable of making things happen. The obstacles are enormous, but so is the will. None of us here in Salvador are surprised by the outpouring of support. Derek Hatfield is an easy man to support. You know that he will give it a 100 percent effort and don’t be surprised if you see this great sailor on the start line for Leg 5. Tomorrow I will recount the other part of this adventure. A story of what happened before he got to Cape Horn. A strange, but true story.

Interview links

Part 1 - rtsp://video.aroundalone.com/aroundalone/settingthescene.rm

Part 2 - rtsp://video.aroundalone.com/aroundalone/pitchpoled.rm

Part 3 - rtsp://video.aroundalone.com/aroundalone/below.rm

Part 4 - rtsp://video.aroundalone.com/aroundalone/gettingtoland.rm

Part 5 - rtsp://video.aroundalone.com/aroundalone/lookingahead.rm

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

Source: Around Alone Official Site