On long passages, it’s a campaign against attrition of gear and the electrical system
Issue 121: July/Aug 2018
When I started sailing solo, I realized that I’d have to learn to deal with breakages if I wanted to continue. However well maintained the boat, equipment gives way under continuous use. As my sailing exploits got more extreme, so did the breakages I faced; falling off big waves into Southern Ocean troughs (which feels just like hitting concrete) regularly tests a boat. But it’s the electronics, I learned, that were most vulnerable to failure. Electrical wiring and connections corrode quickly in the salty environment and the result is a dead instrument. I was advised early on that corrosion causes 99 percent of onboard electrical problems. Perhaps the GGR18 skippers are fortunate in having minimal access to modern electronics during the race and thus fewer potential failures to worry about.
Electrical problems aside, the 2018 Golden Globe Race boats are likely to encounter any number of failures. When sailing relatively heavy boats like mine and those in the GGR, the biggest mechanical risk to dooming a nonstop circumnavigation of seven to nine months is the vital broken item that the skipper cannot mend while under way. For any of these racers, the event that is most likely to result in a vital item broken and in need of repair is a bad knockdown (as I once suffered near Cape Horn). The outcome can be one or more major breakages — mast, boom, rudder, windvane steering, wind generator, dodger, washboards — plus wet chaos down below. Another risk in a knockdown is a personal injury that can exacerbate the effects of even minor damage to the boat. Under these circumstances, we hope a sailor would be able to continue on, perhaps under jury rig or with an emergency rudder.
Even if the seas are kind to them, each racer will still certainly face many other mechanical problems, simply due to the stresses of ocean sailing 24 hours a day for months. Typical problems I’ve dealt with during multiple circumnavigations include:
- broken shackles (running backstay, pole support)
- split pins and turnbuckles working free (gooseneck, lifeline)
- life-raft straps and bolts loosening
- blocked cockpit drains (flying-fish scales!)
- faulty rigging connector (forward lower shroud undone)
- genoa wrap
- windvane steering mechanism needing fixing
A racer’s ability to rebound from these certain challenges will depend on positive thinking and a comprehensive kit of tools and spares. I never set sail without plenty of wood, shackles, clevis pins, rigging components, strong line, Gorilla tape, strong cable ties, stainless steel wire, electrical wire and connectors, and sealants. Skippers should also have on board items that are particular to their boats and their capabilities. One of the most useful items in my tool bag is a length of copper pipe — to give me extra leverage when something refuses to move.
In the end, barring catastrophe, succeeding in sailing around nonstop demands daily checking and a determination to figure out a solution when a needed part is not in the spares kit. I wish all the 2018 racers my best.
Jeanne Socrates started sailing dinghies and windsurfers at 48 and was introduced to big-boat sailing in her 50s. She retired from teaching in 1997 and sailed away with her husband on a cruise. After he unexpectedly passed away from cancer in 2003, Jeanne continued sailing the world singlehanded. She has since completed multiple solo circumnavigations and feels at home in the Southern Ocean. In 2013, just shy of her 71st birthday, she completed a nonstop circumnavigation of the world solo and unassisted in 259 days, and was recognized by Guinness as the oldest woman to have accomplished that feat. She is leaving this fall to try to do it again aboard her 2009 Najad 380, Nereida (see www.svnereida.com).
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
