Golden Globe Race: Guy Waites shares his misery of geese

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The rampant growth of barnacles on the hull of Guy Waites’ Tradewind 35 means he’s struggling to get the boat going in the 2022 Golden Globe Race

The growth of barnacles on the shell and Keel the Tradewind 35 masthead sloop, Sagarmatha is now so widespread that its captain, Guy Waites can’t take them off, and he decided to sail to Brazil.

The 2022 Race to the Golden Globes the participant plans to stop in Itajaí to take the boat out and clean the hull before continuing his solo world Tour.

If so, that will put it in the Chichester class for race participants who make a stop.

Talk to Monthly Yachting from Atlantic Ocean, Waites said he was having trouble getting the boat going. “Sailing on the boat is like following warps or a drogue,’ he said.

RYA Ocean, 54 years old Yachtmaster applied Seajet Shogun to Sagarmathathe hull before the start of the race; it is the same brand used by the winner of the Race to the 2018 Golden Globes, Jean-Luc van Den Heede.

Guy Waites has been over the side of the boat several times to remove barnacle growth from the hull, but is making little progress. Gooseneck barnacles are now several centimeters long. Credit: Nora Havel/GGR

However, Sagarmatha has been in the water since May 19, 2022.

“I am surprised by the performance of the antifouling to some extent, but the problem was made a bit worse by the fact that I was delayed leaving the UK to get to Gijon in Spain [for the Golden Globe prologue race]. One of the things I had to give up was the final lift and the final anti-fouling of Sagarmatha‘, explained Waites, who cleaned the hull of the boat the morning of the start of the race, ‘removing some grass’ that had grown.

Speed ​​logs for the Golden Globe Race fleet

Speed ​​logs produced by Jonathan Endersby (ggr.underground.co.za) show the performance of the GGR fleet and the impact of gooseneck barnacles on Guy Waites’ performance

The British sailor said barnacle growth is all over the antifouling on the hull, but her feathered propeller, which is bronze and stainless steel, and “has no antifouling on it, is absolutely spotless, shiny and own”.

Waites, who prepared the boat in Whitby and is a member of the Scarborough Yacht Club, said he first looked under the Tradewind 35 after passing through Lanzarote’s photo gate; there was no gooseneck barnacle growth.

A sailor wearing a yellow coat at the helm of a boat

Guy Waites has previously raced both solo and crewed, including in the 2010 Jester Challenge and as skipper in the 2019-20 Clipper Race. Credit: Clipper Race

The first sign of the crustaceans was after it had crossed the Doldrumsbut they were small, and he chose to continue sailing to make the most of the southeasterly trade winds.

“As soon as the boat started moving in the southeast trades, the last thing I wanted to do was stop the boat. I naively thought I could get to The cap and do something about the barnacles there,” he said.

“Going down to Trinidade I put the camera on its side and the whole boat was covered in barnacles from the bottom of the keel to the waterline. A few days ago I went on its side to try to catch them. remove; I couldn’t even see the stern of the boat, the growth of the barnacles was so bad that it was completely covered. The shell part of the barnacles is about the size of a mussel, then their tubular parts measure about a few inches long and they are really stubborn. I wasn’t making any impression with the scraper I had. I also don’t have the lung capacity to hold my breath to keep diving to try and get them down.

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Waites chose to sail to Itajaí in Brazil as it is the nearest port and it is also a host city for The Ocean Race; it should take him between 10 and 15 days to land.

He hopes he will find facilities to lift Sagarmatha and to reapply a new coat of antifouling.

“Maybe the only thing I can do is scrape off the barnacles and give the antifouling on the boat some light sand to activate it and get the boat back in the water. Who knows what antifouling I will am going to use? It will just be a case of what is available,” he explained.

Waites said he believed he would still make the Hobart gate in Tasmania before the cut-off time of 1200 local time on January 31, 2023. If he doesn’t, he will become a GGR Voyager, which means that he will have to stop running and will only be able to continue towards Cape Horn after 10:00 a.m. local time on December 1, 2024.

Guy Waites updated the rest of the Golden Globe Race 2022 fleet on his barnacle experience.  Credit: Nora Havel/GGR

Guy Waites updated the rest of the Golden Globe Race 2022 fleet on his barnacle experience. Credit: Nora Havel/GGR

“I had to resign myself to the fact that I’m no longer in the race. but may as well take the opportunity. The only thing that keeps me going is the thought of spending the rest of my life regretting this because I didn’t keep going, so I keep telling myself every day to keep going.

“I’ve gone too far in the whole project, with the support and financial help of so many other people and sponsors, I just don’t want to let anyone down by just giving up. At least I can say that I circumnavigated the world solo via the Three Great Capes, which is something in itself,” he added.

UPDATE: On November 3, 2022, Guy Waites tweeted that he had now decided to head to Cape Town “to keep the race alive”.

Guy Waites has shared his barnacle experience with the majority of Golden Globe Race 2022 skippers, and many of them have taken advantage of St. Helena’s high-pressure system to clean the hull of their boats.

Jeremy Bagshaw used Coppercoat antifouling for the bottom of his OE32 and is worried about the growth of gooseneck barnacles as he heads towards Cape Town.  Credit: John Stickland

Jeremy Bagshaw used Coppercoat antifouling for the bottom of his OE32 and is worried about the growth of gooseneck barnacles as he heads towards Cape Town. Credit: John Stickland

South African Jeremy Bagshawwho painted the hull of his OE32, Olleanna, with Coppercoat, tweeted a few days ago that he had scrapped gooseneck barnacles.

Anglo-Turkish sailor Ertan Beskardes also had an “early morning swim to clear unwanted guests” from the hull of her cattle rustler 36, lazy otterwhile Abhilash Tomy in his Rustler 36, bayanat thought that “I wish I had the perseverance of a barnacle”.

Pat Lawless, who painted the hull of his Saltram Saga 36, green rebel with Seajet Shogun, spent the weekend scraping barnacle growth.

‘I was fed up when I saw all the GOOSE BARNACLES on Saturday. But 60% are gone now. I will continue,” he tweeted yesterday.

Barnacles on the hull of Tapio Lehtinen’s Gaia 36 after circumnavigating the globe in the 2018 Golden Globe Race. Credit: Christophe Favreau/PPL/GGR

Participating Companion Tapio Lehtinen also made sure to limit the growth of barnacles. He knows all too well the impact they can have on a boat’s performance, and has been sideways several times in the race to remove crustaceans from the hull and rudder.

During the 2018 Golden Globe Race, gooseneck barnacles covered the hull of his Gaia 36, Asteriaslowing the boat so much that it completed the race in 322 days, 10 days longer than Sir Robin Knox-Johnston’s circumnavigation in the 1968-69 Sunday Time Golden Globe Race.

Lehtinen, who comes from Finland, finished fifth in 2018 and raced hard in the 2022 race to stay ahead of the fleet.

Current positions of the 2022 Golden Globe Race skippers as of November 1, 2022 at 1600 UTC

Simon Curwen(UK), Biscay 36, Clear
Tapio Lehtinen, (Finland), Gaia 36 years old, Asteria
Kirsten Neuschäfer(South Africa), cutter Cape George 36, Minnehaha
Pat Lawless, (Ireland), Saltram Saga 36green rebel
Abhilash Tomy, (India), Rustler 36 years old, bayanat
Damien Guillou(France), Rustler 36, PRB
Michael Guggenberger(Austria), Vizcaya 36, Fed
Ertan Beskardes, (United Kingdom), Rustler 36 years old, lazy otter
Jeremy Bagshaw, (South Africa), OE32, Olleanna
Elliot Smith(USA), Gale Force 34, Second breath
Ian Herbert Jones (UK), Tradewind 35, Puffin
Arnaud Gaist(France), Barbican 33 Mk 2, Hermes phone
Guy Waites (UK), Tradewind 35, Sagarmatha

Retired:

Edouard Walentynowicz(Canada), Rustler 36, Noah’s joke
Guy de Boer(United States), Tashiba 36, Spirit
Marc Sinclair (Australia), Lello 34, Coconut


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