Day 16, Sunday October 11, 1988

Somewhere © Foto Marek Slodownik

Marc Thiercelin and J.P. Mouligne were still leading their class divisions. Thiercelin has maintained the lead, but the three positions behind him have changed frequently. Marc continued to make bigger gap between him and Golding, which grew up to 60 miles today. Thiercelin was reaching best average speed of more than 11 knots. Right behind Thiercelin, two Englishmen Golding and Hall, had their own duel. This day Josh Hall was nearly 30 miles behind Golding on third position. Autissier, who won Leg 1 in the last BOC Challenge race by five-day lead, is not one to give up. Since five days ago, when she suffered a broken tang on the genoa stay, she was not able to push the boat as hard as she would have liked. Soldini, who early in the race took a promising northeasterly route, was almost 360 miles behind Thiercelin. Soldini had hoped that he would squeeze between the gap in the two high pressures, but that did not happen and he ran into light wind that slowed him down. He had secured the fifth position in the last five days, but he was finally turning south with a better easterly position.

The race was divided into Class I and Class II but the leading boats of the Class II were giving the bigger boats a run for the money. In Class II, Mouligne this morning held a 17-mile lead over Mike Garside and 35-mile lead over Brad Van Liew. But while the top leaders were continuing in their battle, there was equally competitive scuffle for the fourth place of Class II, taking place some 300 miles astern.

Cray Valley © Foto Marek Slodownik

This morning Stricker from the United States was overpassed by two-time BOC Challenge veteran Robin Davie. Davie had his share of troubles. His engine alternator went dead, followed by a breakage in the drive unit of his main autopilot. Davie fixed those problems, but he was still working on the pump for his water-ballast system. For now, he was removing the hose on a thru-hull fitting, deliberately flooding his bilge with salt water, and then using a spare bilge pump he pumped the water into his ballast tanks.

Rapscallion III © Foto Billy Black

Another race two-timer, Minoru Saito, was in seventh place. Saito was only 10 miles behind Petersen earlier today. Saito was on his way to logging his 200,000th mile under sail on this circumnavigation, and to become the oldest sailor to complete an Around Alone Race He will be 65 in January. Only 25 miles separated Davie, Stricker, Petersen and Saito.

Minoru Saito © Foto Billy Black

Class II second place Garside did only 55 miles during the last 24 hours and while watching the leaders escaping from him he was meditating on advantages of swing keel versus water ballast: "It has made me question the idea that the swing keel is superior to water ballast. Here's why: Sailing in very light upwind conditions there should be no difference between the two. The swing keeled boat has no need to cant and the water-ballasted boat has no need to take on water. The drag below the water line is identical."

  Michael Garside © Foto Billy Black

"Once the boats begin to heel and to meet even small waves on the nose, the situation changes. The water-ballasted boat takes on water to increase righting moment and in doing so increases weight. The keel remains in line and prop drag remains the same. The swing keel yacht however deploys its keel and is thus asymmetric under water in such a way that it needs a daggerboard added to keep a straight line. This increases underwater drag, as does the prop drive shaft casing which is no longer in line with the keel."

"Admittedly the swing keeled boat is still lighter but even in small head seas this is quickly a disadvantage as the boat lacks power through weight and is easily stopped by the waves. The solution is to add water ballast in the front section of the boat!"

"Jean-Marie Finot's young partner, designer Pascal Conq, tells me that drag is a substantially more important factor than weight. That is why Magellan Alpha is the only yacht in the fleet to have a fully retractable prop and drive shaft. Josh Hall decided against this innovation on the grounds it was unnecessary with his simpler and lighter fixed keel design. And Josh has been giving both Mike Golding and Isabelle Autissier, with their swing keel racers, a good run for their money."

  Josh Hall © Foto Billy Black

"I now feel sure the swing keeled boat, contrary to the accepted line of thought, has a disadvantage in the conditions we have had in the first two weeks of Leg 1 of the race. When we will start surfing down wind on the waves of the Southern Ocean the picture should change. Then the lighter boat should have an advantage. We'll see."

Positions:

Class 1

Class 2

© Richard Konkolski
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