Paul Cayard


Asked and answered


No sooner did I write ‘what America’s Cup’ and they have all suddenly appeared. At this time ETNZ and American Magic have just launched and American Magic has foiled. It looks like they have managed equality in


delivery of the foil arms and therefore launch dates. Luna Rossa and Ineos look set to launch


very soon. After the months of delay waiting for foil arms it must be a huge relief for the teams to finally get sailing/flying. While they are beautiful pieces of technology the frontal view of


these beasts looks menacing. I am envious of the guys on the team who get to learn all that science from the aerodynamicists, software engineers, and so on. I was very impressed to see Terry Hutchinson in the gym at the


end of a race day in Porto Cervo last week. He said, ‘Well, yeah, the tactician on these boats will definitely need to grind… that is if there is a tactician onboard.’ Is that good? I guess these days that’s good? Or maybe it’s just the way it is. I supposed it is required that all teams show up in Cagliari for


the first AC75 event next April but the compressed schedule will make that trip stressful for some. Also impressive is a video of the latest Hugo Boss, foiling pretty


steadily in relatively smooth seas. I don’t think they will do that in the Southern Ocean in 45kt of wind but it will crank up the pace sailing down the North Atlantic and on other parts of the racetrack. I wonder what the VPPs are putting out for elapsed times for the


solo race. Remember, these are also the boats of The Ocean Race, the follow-on to the Volvo Ocean Race, so some of these boats will


32 SEAHORSE


be refitted from solo layout to accommodate five crew. Let’s hope these craft are solid… they will be pushed. Speaking of solid, when I wrote my last piece I was about to race


to Hawaii on Pyewacket for the 50th anniversary of the Transpac. Lots of anniversaries this year by the way! Well, we didn’t make it to Hawaii but we did get back to LA with our boat and some nice ‘new’ friends. On the second night of the race, at approximately 01:55, our


navigator Ben Mitchell, as he was getting dressed for his watch on Pyewacket, overheard a conversation between the US Coast Guard and a vessel in distress. Ben caught his breath when he heard the name OEX – a Santa Cruz 70 that was taking on water fast and in need of assistance. It turned out that OEXwas just four miles away almost directly in front of us. By this time, with the radio coms lighting up, those of us off-watch were up and dressing. We straight- away shifted from race mode to rescue mode. At 16kt of boat speed we would be there in 15 minutes. At about


the same time we saw two flares shooting a couple of hundred feet up into the air. The OEX crew were abandoning ship and getting in their liferafts. Once we’d got the headsails down and secured, checked for lines in the water, it was time to drop the main and get the engine on. By the time everything was finally secured we were just 100m


abeam of the two liferafts with their strobes flashing away. We motored up along the leeward side of the rafts and quickly got the nine sailors onboard. OEXcould be seen a couple of hundred metres away, decks awash, mast and mainsail vertical. With the crew onboard and seemingly uninjured, we proceeded to hoist the two


VAN DER BORCH


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