Once in a while the illustrious NY Times pens a few words about sailing. When they do, it’s usually insightful and well-written. A great piece today on the Vendee Globe and the demise of so-many of the front-runners.
The agony that Yann Elies is enduring as I write this:
who broke his femur Thursday morning after being slammed to the deck by
a large wave. Elies has morphine on board his boat, the Generali, but
is in such pain that he has not been able to get to it, according to
Véronique Teurlay, a spokeswoman for the race. Two competitors are
heading his way to help and an Australian frigate is expected to
retrieve Elies by Saturday.
Why Golding’s mast collapsed:
Owen said that Golding had discovered why the mast fell this time.
“The wind had built from 25 to past 50 knots and the boat speed passed
30 all within two minutes,” Owen said. “The autopilot usually heads
down wind to bleed the pressure while Mike takes the sails down, but
the load was too great and bang.”
Golding discovered Wednesday
that the running backstay, a line holding up the mast, had melted under
the load on its winch and eased the mast forward, hyper-loading shrouds
not meant for that kind of pressure. “We’ve never seen this happen,”
Owen said. “If the rope didn’t slip, something else would have gone
‘bang.’ ”
the guy is in so much pain that he can’t crawl to the morphine he needs? I am wincing as I read and re-read this. I hope by the time I’m commenting that the frigate has picked him up and got him medicated and mending.
As for 50 knot winds, what can you say? That’s a mighty blow.
Thankfully he was picked up and is on his way back to Perth. That’s what I call tough