Above: desperately trying to align the transom-hung emergency rudder onto Heineken not far south of Cape Horn… meanwhile, skipper Dawn Riley is getting messages asking why she is not in New York attending the announcement of the latest hopeful attempt at an all-women America’s Cup team. Heineken was the former Yamaha, the first Farr design built for Ross Field’s 1993/94 Whitbread Round the World Race campaign – it was also the first Whitbread 60 to go afloat. Field and Yamaha 2, again designed by Farr, went on to win the ’93/94 race in the new Whitbread 60 class; the pace of this first generation of water-ballasted crewed round-the-world racers being such as to spell the end for the event’s Maxi division
paddle. And it works. Better than every- thing else we tried. ‘We did the spinnaker pole, we did the
no time to make modifications or improve- ments to the boat. The sponsor of the race, which was also Heineken, said that they would sponsor the women’s team for the rest of the race or as long as I was the skipper. So it was contingent upon me being there. And I had to negotiate all this in, like, a six-hour period. ‘So, again, stupid. Or perhaps “not
advisable” is probably a better response.’ And Dawn’s overnight team line-up…
‘First, obvious to me, was Renee Mehl – who, by the way, just celebrated 18 years at the Naval Academy. Jeni Mundy, who was on Maiden with me. Last time I checked she was the Global Head of Mer- chant Services for Visa. So she’s quite good. And then there was a local woman from Uruguay, Laura Tuzzio, plus Marie- Claude who had also been on Maiden. ‘That first leg was one long lesson titled
“Know your equipment”. After I got on the boat the rudder broke three times. It wasn’t designed properly and the managers didn’t believe us that it was broken. You can’t have men in charge of a women’s team. ‘They didn’t trust me when I said that
the rudder was failing. They wanted to check and make sure, so we diverted to Punta Ala. Five days wasted and it was obvious that the bottom of the rudder just fell off because it was so badly made. ‘Then the second time it broke we sent it
back to (the builder in) Australia after we got to Ft Lauderdale. I said the stock doesn’t look good and I asked the Farr office, are you sure the engineering is correct or do we need a full new stock? And they said, nope, it’s fine. Then it broke again, this time when we were two hours off setting a new 24-hour monohull record. ‘It sheared off at the hull exit. And then
when we finally got to England they all go, oh, yeah, actually it wasn’t the same as everybody else’s… ‘So now I’m very good at steering the
boat without a rudder. You do it the way the Storm Trysail Club says, taking the rudder out of the boat and plugging the hole. Then you put a drogue of any kind on a snatch block. With the block running along a line, athwartship on the transom. ‘You just grind the drogue from port to starboard, just like you would a canoe
in-and-out drogues. The best thing, obvi- ously, is having a spare rudder. The Volvo 60s after that would have a cassette that would attach on the back of the boat and then you would have a blade that you would slot into the cassette. ‘We had borrowed a spare rudder from
the Uruguyan team. But to fit it we had to drill through the 2in Kevlar transom for the mounting bolts and then once we did that, then we had to try to attach it. You learn from experience… ‘The reality is that you have two people
in the water trying to line up pintles and gudgeons on a 60ft boat that’s bouncing up and down. Seriously. Who thought that would ever work? ‘But the sort of funny part is this. While
I’m out there the original all-women Cup team had stalled due to some power plays I wasn’t involved with, the usual sailing stuff. And then it restarted and when I was rounding Cape Horn they announced the organisation of the team in New York City at the Plaza Hotel. I was supposed to call in from Cape Horn, to a phone in the room during the announcement. ‘The message never got to me. And they
are pissed at me for not calling in. I’m, like, we just lost our rudder. We’re busy. I’m sailing around the world. What do you want me to do here…?’ Next up… Finally it all comes together q
SEAHORSE 53
STEPHEN MUNDAY
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