The Transat - Safety Checks Are The Order Of The Day

All the boats have now arrived at the Plymouth Yacht Haven with the exception of the new Open 60s Bonduelle and Sill and Marc Thiercelin's Pro-Form. Since last week Bonduelle and Sill have been making good some teething problems with their keels, while Pro-Form, the sistership to Roland Jourdain's previous Sill, has also been late with her refit. All three boats will be making their qualification passages for the Transat en route to Plymouth.

Statistics from the past eleven editions of The Transat indicate that (based on averages) slightly less than three quarters of the race fleet will cross the finish line in Boston. For those entered in this year's race there is a probability that seven of the yachts will not complete the course due to retirement forced by equipment failure or injury sustained by a skipper, abandonment of a yacht or disqualification for an infringement of the race rules.

Since 1968, when 50% of the fleet failed to complete the course, advances in boat design and technology have been matched by an increased focus upon the importance of safety measures onboard competing yachts. Britain's Department of Transport first became involved in formalising the regulation of safety equipment on transatlantic race yachts in 1972 and today the role of ensuring that the current race regulations are met rests on the shoulders of The Transat Race Direction team. The monohulls and multihulls are also regulated by their independent class associations - ORMA for the 60ft multihulls, IMOCA for the 60ft monohulls and FICO the for 50ft fleet.

The Transat Race Direction team is working alongside UNCL. This highly experienced, French team of four UNCL officials led by Sylvie Viant, have been active since Saturday 22nd May and are entirely satisfied with the fifteen yachts examined so far. Sebastian Duclos commented this morning that the scrutineering team have been highly impressed with the level of attention to detail that all skippers and preparation crews have displayed and many have exceeded their obligations to comply with the rules and requirements, particularly in the field of emergency communications equipment. Duclos and the team's other members, Isabelle Jacquet and Didier Drust, spend approximately two hours on each yacht before a decision is made to declare that it can be raced in The Transat. Attention is paid to safety equipment on deck - jackstays and attachment points for harness tethers - and the escape hatch system and liferaft deployment methods while the supplies of flares, emergency rations and drinking water stowed in the vital 'grab bag' carried onto a liferaft in the event of an abandonment are rigorously checked.

Duclos also remarked that the French teams entered in the race now approach the preparation and provision of safety equipment in a manner that was, until relatively recently, witnessed only on British IMOCA yachts and it seems that an awareness of this important aspect has dramatically increased. The scrutineering team has also encountered a heightened level of secrecy over some systems on many of the yachts inspected, although this has had no negative outcome on the effectiveness of the safety inspections. Shore crews and skippers of all nationalities have become tight-lipped when asked to explain the function of a few features on their yachts; on Open 60 Skandia, skippered by Nick Moloney, Duclos met a reticence to fully discuss the new ballast system fitted in the yacht and when scrutineering the Farr Yacht Design monohull Virbac of French skipper Jean Pierre Dick, any attempt to enter and study the aft compartment of the boat was discouraged.

A concentrated and thorough preparation for this transatlantic race is essential and all the teams will be continuing to run checks on their boats during the final days before the start on Monday 31st to limit any risk of damage or equipment failure contributing to a competitor's retirement from The Transat. Lloyd Foster, a member of the race committee until 1989, warned: "There are still some who think they can throw the whole thing together in a few months, or even weeks, and get the odd gullible reporter to cover, for the benefit of a sponsor, that they have a good chance of success."

UPWIND SPECIALISTS

Mike Golding and Conrad Humphreys are inextricably linked in their Open 60 campaigns for The Transat and this November's single-handed non-stop round the world race, the Vendée Globe. Humphreys' Open 60, the Motorola-backed Hellomoto, is none other than the former Team Group 4/Ecover that Mike Golding sailed to third place in The Transat four years ago. Both skippers are also previous winners of the gruelling BT Global Challenge, sailing westabout round the world with amateur crews. Golding finished first aboard Group 4 in 1996-7, the second time he had skippered a boat in the event, while Humphreys won four years later on LG Flatron.

A feature the BT Global Challenge shares with The Transat is that both events are upwind against the prevailing winds whereas a majority of races like the Vendée Globe, the Route du Rhum and Transat Jacques Vabre, largely follow more forgiving trade winds routes. In comparison going against the direction of the weather systems in The Transat, skippers will see greater fluctuations in the wind and weather conditions but the main difference is that for much of the race the boats are likely to receive a punishing as they are sailed hard upwind.
Although The Transat will be his first single-handed race in an Open 60, Conrad Humphreys sailed this course as part of Mike Golding's crew in the 2001 EDS Atlantic Challenge. During this they experienced a prolonged bone shaker of a ride in 35-40 knot headwinds.
"I wasn't sure if I was sleeping well," recalls Humphreys from that event. "We were banging upwind, slamming off these waves, the boat jarring, everything felt like it was going to explode. The only way you could sleep was if you gripped the bunk. I had this dream where I was getting pummelled in a boxing match. When I woke up I realised that I had been banging my head against the bunk side. I had a big bruise on my head." Since acquiring Hellomoto Humphreys had modified the sleeping arrangements below to ensure he will not be thrown around as much.

In big upwind conditions the skill will be in skippers being familiar enough with their boats to know how hard they can be pushed without breaking. "Essentially what is most important for us is to nurse the boat carefully in the tough upwind stuff. It is the most likely occasion when you start to break bits of kit," says Humphreys. "I feel pretty confident knowing how we punished the boat in the EDS and that gives you a lot of confidence when you are punching upwind." For Mike Golding, the hull shape of his new Ecover is not as flat as his old boat but the ride will still be far from pleasant upwind. In big conditions, modern Open 60s such as Ecover have the ability to take on water ballast, giving them extra weight with which to punch through the waves. One of the few positives of sailing upwind is that you do nor have such large sail area to manage.

While the race is renowned for being upwind, typically only part of it is likely to be so. Had the start of The Transat been today the first week of the race would have been downwind, whereas the long term forecast shows the start will be a classic upwind affair. Launched last summer, Ecover has already competed in two transatlantic races, and Golding says he has been spending much time getting used to sailing his new boat having covered so many mile aboard his old one. "Last year we were struggling to adjust to a different style of sailing. You assume when you step across that you will sail it the same way. There are things like when you load ballast, because the boat is so naturally stiff we don't need to load ballast quite so quickly." Ecover is one of several boats capable of taking monohull line honours. In last year's Transat Jacques Vabre, she was the fastest boat upwind and this bodes well for The Transat assuming the weather conditions are typical. Owen-Clarke, Ecover's designers, were also part of the team that created Ellen MacArthur's Kingfisher, the 2000 winner. "I am genuinely looking forward to the OSTAR. I am quite excited about it," Golding says. This will be the third time he has competed in this event, the first was in 1988 when he sailed the tiny trimaran Gazelle. Golding feels some of the weight of the 44 year history of the single-handed transatlantic race. "It is the event from which all others began from this genre. It is a very important race and clearly this year there is a very high quality entry. It will be hard to win."

James Boyd/Ollie Dewar

UNCL
Race organisation
http://www.uncl.com
The UNCL (L'Union Nationale pour la Course au Large) was set up to promote and regulate ocean racing in France. Technical Director of the UNCL, Sylvie Viant and Rene Boulaire will be heading up the Race Direction Team for The Transat.

For latest information on The Transat, please go to: http://www.thetransat.com