Bulletin: 19th December 2007

Questions without answers

Whilst the route promise to be a long one for Véolia Environnement, heading slowly towards Australia at a gentle pace under jury rig, at the head of the fleet Paprec-Virbac 2 and Hugo Boss are continuing to drive the race. Just 21 miles apart, the battle rages between these two boats.

Aboard TEMENOS II, the race has taken a back seat for several days, and it's to the detriment of the monohull’s performance, but in consideration of preserving the keel, that Michèle and Dominique are extending their tack North. For the time being the duo is preparing to tackle strong winds from a depression, which has been affecting the rear of the fleet for a number of days.

In a message sent today, Dominique looked back at the details of the damage to their keel: "We’re preparing for rough weather and expect to be pushed around a bit. We’ve stowed a fair amount of things and prepared the necessary sails. Thanks to our course to the NE we’re hoping to find less violent seas and spare the keel from more violent motion.

Since the start of the race we’ve received a large number of emails aboard, and since announcing the damage, the messages of support have doubled, which is always really nice.

Among these emails, there was one in particular that caught my eye, from someone who was surprised that rust could severely damage a keel. I realise that all this surely requires a more detailed explanation for any novices watching our progress.

In contrast with a cruising boat, the keel fin on TEMENOS II isn’t a large piece of cast iron, but rather resembles a knife blade made up of sheets of 12 mm thick high tensile steel. If one of these plates comes away, like a plane wing, the keel fin is damaged, leading to the risk of the boat capsizing. In our case, this sheet of steel is already corroded over a 3 mm area, that is a quarter of its thickness, and by the same token, its resistance is reduced by that amount. The growing crack is situated close to where the canting keel pivots, at the junction between sea and air, in the area where the water passes across it at high speed mixed with the oxygen from the keel box. This is why the corrosion is developing in this area in particular.

With this in mind the engineer from our naval architect firm fears a breakage in the medium term, and like an aeronautics engineer, he is advising us to land our 'plane' in Wellington. You have to understand that the stresses on this area are colossal on our boats and even if you can’t see anything moving with the naked eye, you know that something bad is gnawing away at the steel, which creates a situation that is a little oppressive to say the least. It’s also for this reason that we are seeking to avoid over-stressing the keel.

We cannot yet be sure of the diagnosis, or know if a repair can be envisaged without taking the keel apart. The situation still leaves a lot of questions unanswered, including that of a possible return to the race.

We’re currently exchanging a lot of emails with New Zealand in order to sort out the logistics on zone, the lifting out of the water, the welding work... all that's a bit tricky on a 1st January!

Dominique aboard TEMENOS II awaits the gales..."

Towards the end of the day, the duo still couldn't make out the initial signs of the bad weather despite the barometer dropping. In fact, it was quite the contrary aboard the monohull, slowed by a small area of high pressure situated at the front of the depression as Michèle indicated to us.

“We’re slowly making headway in less than 15 knots of wind. We got some seaweed stuck around the starboard rudder this afternoon. We had to reverse to get it off and fortunately it went well as the seas weren't big. Better it happen now, before the gales kick in.

We can feel the temperature climbing. I have been helming in just a fleece and we’re even beginning to get too hot in our extreme temperature duvet. We’ve had up to 12°C in the boat today.”

A nice little respite then before the arrival of the strong winds forecast over the next few hours.

Ranking 17:00
Rk	Boat	Dist to lead	Latitude	Longitude	Average speed
1	PAPREC-VIRBAC 2	0,0	47 54.78' S	119 43.83' E	17,7
2	HUGO BOSS	21,1	47 25.92' S	119 19.10' E	15,8
3	TEMENOS II	1339,3	48 19.47' S	86 35.81' E	12,5
4	MUTUA MADRILENA	1867,0	52 38.87' S	72 35.66' E	14,4
5	EDUCACION SIN FRONTERAS	2634,6	51 51.75' S	51 37.48' E	13,4