South Carolina © Photo Billy Black
Robin Davie had very rough time fixing his breaking rudder. After some silence he once again reported his situation: "It's been a couple of days since my last news report, and just about all of it has been spent in the stern compartment of the boat - seems like I might as well move everything back there - the galley - chart table - bunk and even the can..."
"Having got the rudder bearing sorted out and a good rudder working again, we then needed to start work on the tiller stock. It's a 2-and-a-half inch thick wall stainless pipe, and it had sheared away at the key way, and the shear was slowly tearing its way in a spiral around and up the tube. This meant no hand steering, and no monitor windvane steering either - a bit of a problem on a good day "
"As with all good bodge up jobs a few spare rolls of duct tape came in handy to hold stuff in place as it's assembled around the tiller arm - and all this is being done by torch light - until with all the bits taped in place - out came the Spanish windlasses "
"After some 10 hours we had it all cinched up tight, and it seemed to work, we got underway. Whilst hand steering was still spongy it was OK, as I could ease and pull the tiller gently without any shock loads. But with the vane steering, it's a much stronger pull and therefore higher loading "
"Within 2 hours it was all working loose, and rather than stop again and dismantle it all, we added extra support beams, and one by one replaced and remade the windlasses, winding inmassive pressure turns this time. Eventually we had 17 windlasses in place "
"This held for a night - but still was being torqued and worked, so more support and a further 12 windlasses added, by now I was running out of available tools to sacrifice to the cause "
© Photo Richard Konkolski
Place |
Skipper |
Boat |
Latitude |
Longitude |
Dist. to go |
Speed |
Dist. to first |
Time |
1 |
Soldini |
Fila |
Auckland |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
Thierceli |
Somewhere |
Auckland |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
Autissier |
PRB |
Auckland |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
Hall |
Gartmore |
Auckland |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
Konioukhov |
Mod.Univ.Human. |
Auckland |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
6 |
Golding |
Team Group 4 |
Retired |
Auckland |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Place |
Skipper |
Boat |
Latitude |
Longitude |
Dist. to go |
Speed |
Dist. to first |
Time |
1 |
Mouligne |
Cray Valley |
Auckland |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
Garside |
Magellan Alpha |
Auckland |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
Van Liew |
Balance Bar |
Auckland |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
Yazykov |
Wind of Change |
Auckland |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
Saito |
Shuten-dohji II |
Auckland |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
6 |
Petersen |
No Barriers |
Auckland |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
7 |
Hunter |
Paladin II |
Auckland |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
8 |
Davie |
South Carolina |
36 34S |
167 07E |
475 |
4.6 |
475 |
2144 |
9 |
Stricker |
Rapscallion III |
Retired |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Copyright © Richard Konkolski
Return back to Second Leg
Return back to First Leg
Retyrn back to Sailing Round the World Races
Return back to Seven Oceans