Editorial Andrew Hurst There but for the grace of God


Some articles are harder to write than others. And this one is a toughie. You see, Vestas Wind navigator Wouter Verbraak is quite liter- ally my next-door neighbour and so when ‘the news’ arrived my immediate thoughts went to his wife and son… for whom a school week- end was about to be tipped into chaos.


Fortunately, under Chris Nicholson’s immensely gracious leader- ship, it was quickly established that all the crew were safe, albeit shipwrecked on a reef 250 miles from the nearest-populated land mass of Mauritius. And as Volvo Race CEO Knut Frostad quickly and correctly reminded us, in such a violent incident, when a large composite yacht hits a reef at night at 19kt, the fact that no one was injured was remarkable… and the number one priority. As with most serious incidents, it will no doubt be established that there was a string – or cascade – of events leading up to the Vestas grounding. The reef was originally in an exclusion zone for the fleet and until you really, really zoom in to its precise location it remains virtually invisible on even the most up-to-date electronic charts. Mistakes happen all the time at sea; it is just very rare that one has such dramatic consequences. After the initial shock, and relief, my next thought was that there cannot be many – any – serious race navigators out there whose reflex reaction was anything other than gratitude that they were not sitting at the Vestas Wind chart table. We have all taken chances offshore, sometimes unwittingly. And usually we get away with it. The irony is that Wouter was not taking any chances: he had laid a course that should have kept his VO65 well clear of any shoals. It just didn’t work out as planned. Staying on a personal note, I was soon reflecting on some of the close shaves I had had offshore… and how easily things might have turned out differently (there were also of course the times that did not go entirely to plan!).


stream. I pored over my small screen and gazed at the one Mumm 36 still to weather and decided that there was just about room… We hitched one more time, were beautifully set up as we rounded the ledge and went on to win the race. And with all three of our boats scoring well in that double-point offshore stage the Netherlands also took the Admiral’s Cup. That’s the good news. The rest is that as soon as we tacked up that last time I realised I had almost certainly misjudged the depth and the distance we needed to sail and that we would at best have about 25-35cm under the keel when we flipped back as the windward boat. Sweating is an understatement, I was simply left silently mouthing ‘tack back soon please…’ But of course we were out of runway unless we were to tack straight into dirty air. In the event, that night the sea stayed flat and the boat kept moving… and I threw an extremely big thank you up aloft. So, Bouwe, now you know.


Tacking into the surf line while taking a One Tonner around a rough Portland Bill at night in search of every ounce of tidal advantage still raises the hairs if I think about it… the wonders of being younger and therefore of course immortal. However, more pertinent to the Volvo Ocean Race grounding – and this is confession time, folks – was one 15-minute period at night during the long offshore race of the 1999 Champagne Mumm Admiral’s Cup. My role that night was as current Brunel skipper Bouwe Bekking’s navigator on the Dutch Admiral’s Cup team’s Mumm 36 Mean Machine. We were short-tacking against the current slap-up adjacent to a solid and immovable piece of England known as Christchurch Ledge.


Needless to say, all the competing Mumm 36s were in close contact but only one was going to be the last to hitch up that one final time to set up inside the fleet as we hit the maximum


‘ team.


CLASSY It’s clear that human error was responsible and as skipper I take


ultimate responsibility – Chris Nicholson, Vestas Wind


It’s the most beautiful night I’ve ever seen and the worst night I’ve


ever experienced – Nicholson


Right now we have nine guys sitting on a sand spit in the middle of the Indian Ocean on a reef famous for being


riddled with sharks – Neil Cox, Vestas Wind


Fortunately we went through there in daylight; it’s really hard to even see it [the reef] on an electronic chart and at night you wouldn’t see


anything at all – Ian Walker, Azzam


Listen, there’s a small low developing… we


a 30° course change! – Bouwe Bekking, Brunel


Beautiful though the scenery undoubtedly is, there is nowhere that Vestas skipper Chris Nicholson would less wish to be as he burns through what battery power remained on his satphone…


Glass houses come to mind… remember that reef was originally in an exclusion zone that


should crack off 30° – Andrew Cape, Brunel That got my attention…


How my heart goes out to Wouter, Nicho and all of the Vestas q


was only opened up at the last minute because of a tropical storm. As such, it’s unlikely to have received much attention during


pre-race prep – Alistair Skinner


I’m not sure our modern shorthanded world would even exist had it not been for [the


late] Bob Salmon – Charles Darbyshire, OC Sport


Seb [Vettel] is a competitive guy. He doesn’t like losing at backgammon. Unfortunately, when he


plays me, he does – Bernie Ecclestone Ballet… I just can’t understand why they have these girls dancing on their toes; why not just get some


taller girls? – Ecclestone MIAOW


For the first time ever Christian won’t be the worst karaoke singer at


our Christmas party – Anon… Red Bull F1 boss Christian Horner announces his engagement to Spice Girl Geri Halliwell


Seahorse magazine and our associate raceboatsonlybrokerage site are both at: seahorsemagazine.com The editor is contactable by email at: andrew@seahorse.co.uk


SEAHORSE 7


BRIAN CARLIN/VESTAS


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