Damien Guillou, one of the favorites for this year’s solo Golden Globe Race, has to deal with repairs to his steering gear in the South Atlantic while Britain’s leader Simon Curwen is stuck in his mast
French skipper Damien Guillou, one of the solo pre-race favorites this year Race to the Golden Globesfaces his second major wind vane breakage, which will require extensive repairs in the open sea if he is to remain in contention in the race.
Damien Guillou, a very experienced offshore racer and IMOCA boat captain, pilots a Rustler 36 with the sponsorship of PRB. Given his racing past and his extremely well-prepared boat, Guillou should have been among the first in this “retro” solo non-stop round the world race. However, he had to return to port just four days after departure to fix the bracket for his Hydrovane automatic steering system.
The screw vane/starboard axle attachment to the transom of his Rustler 36 had broken while sailing in 30 knot headwinds and rough seas in the Bay of Biscay in the early stages of the race.
“I was going upwind close-hauled in a strong headwind and rough seas, which is not a pace where the wind vane is under strong pressure”, explained Guillou at the time. “Once this [lower starboard] the screw broke, and we lost one of the three fittings, the rudder acted as a lever. I tried to use lines to stabilize the system and install a new axis, to no avail in the wind and sea conditions that night.
After returning to port and fixing the axle – partly with the help of Vendee Globe PRB’s legendary skipper and longtime sailor Vincent Riou-Guillou set out again, six days and some 700 miles behind the fleet.
Guillou sets off to restart the Golden Globe Race after having repaired the support of his wind vane after suffering damage in Biscay. Photo: GGR
Guillou makes a ‘Desjoyeaux’
Guillou quickly made up for the miles and reconnected with the main Canary peloton. His race resembled that of Michel Desjoyeauxof the 2008-09 Vendée Globe, who was one of the four skippers forced to return to Les Sables d’Olonne following damage Funcia in the early days of the race, but then restarted. Desjoyeaux then relentlessly moved up the fleet, taking the lead before Christmas and winning the general classification. Desjoyeaux himself noted Guillou’s feat by tweeting: “He is making a ‘Desjoyeaux’, but better. If I can [say so]!”
Guillou moved up to 4th place yesterday as the leaders chased after them in the South Atlantic. Race leader Simon Curwen was approaching the latitude of the Cape of Good Hope, some 2,000 miles to the east. The fleet faced confused seas in excess of 4m, with average winds of 15-20 knots but gusting to 30-40.
Guillou called race management yesterday to report that the stainless steel rudder pin of his wind vane had broken at the top of the rudder. The rudder was secured by a lifeline so was not lost, but Guillou has no working self-steering, although during the night he was still maintaining boat speeds of over 6 knots.
It has a complete spare rudder shaft on board PRB. In order to complete the repair, he will need to remove the main transmission gear from the automatic steering unit, remove the broken shaft, then slip in a new shaft before replacing the main gear. He will also have to replace the rudder at seawhich will require him to jump over the side of the boat to get in the water.
Guillou told race control he could do the repair, but needed calmer conditions to do so. An anticyclone is currently located southeast of the leaders, or an alternative option may be to head towards the shelter of Tristan da Cunha. He may not lose too many miles as an expected northerly wind shift could potentially give Gillou a more direct route to Cape Town.
Curwen leads the Golden Globe
British skipper Simon Curwen on Clara at the start of the Golden Globe Race. Photo by Sébastien SALOM-GOMIS / AFP via Getty Images.
In the meantime, the position of General Simon Curwen’s leader seems solid, with nearly 500 miles ahead of Guillou, and well placed to catch the westerly winds of the Southern Ocean. However, he too faced difficult maintenance issues, which at one point saw him stuck in the mast of his Biscay 36 Clear.
After breaking his genoa halyard early in the Southern Ocean, Curwen took refuge off the island of Trinidade, a mandatory passing mark of the course (but not a film drop “stop”). He climbed the mast to try to repair the halyard, to no avail, and had to unclip from his safety harness and climb back down after it was damaged.
“There wasn’t enough shelter behind a small little island, so I set sail as there was no chance of anchoring. I was in the mast for a few hours, but the problem was I just got bumped into the mast. I reached the top [of the mast] and mostly went back down, but my bosun’s chair started to crumble and I fell partially out of it and had to break free and descend freely.
“I lost my mouse line, which I might be able to get back. At the moment I’m not much better off than I was,’ Curwen told organizer Don McInytre during a weekly phone call.He now hopes to carry out repairs to the Cape Town harbor shelter during the next ‘film drop’ (where skippers are met at a waypoint for media interviews etc. but only go not on the ground).
Irish skipper Pat Lawless had a halyard break in the South Atlantic. Photo: GGR/Nora Havel
Other skippers also suffered damage after six weeks of racing: Irish skipper Pat Lawless had his Solent halyard broken, Ertan Beskardes unable to store energy in his batteries after dealing with a major power failure on board, including a small fire on board; Abhilash Tomy reported a gas leak, which has now been repaired; and Elliott Smith suffers major starboard deck/hull leaks on this long windy port tack to Trinidade.
Several skippers have already reported problems with barnacleswho were the bane of many during the last edition of this relatively slow round the world.
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