Australia's Nick
Moloney out of Vendée Globe
The Open
60 Skandia, competing in the Vendée Globe solo non-stop
around the world race, suffered a major technical failure
to its keel at approximately 0500gmt today. The keel finally
broke away from the yacht just after 0830GMT.
Skandia skipper,
Nick Moloney, was able to stabilise the yacht by dropping
his sails and filling the boat's water ballast tanks (approximately
5 tons in total), giving the boat sufficient stability to
remain upright even without the keel.
The weather conditions
are moderate to calm, and Moloney has been able to hold his
position at approximately 135 miles south of Rio de Janeiro.
Nick is unharmed,
and safe onboard Skandia and dealing with the situation as
best he can. 'I'm all right, but I'm gutted and completely
devastated.
Half of me is just
shattered and the other half of me is very relieved that we're
still upright, and that this didn't happen in the south.
I'm really really
shattered but I am so focused on just trying to fight back
you know. And that's my occupation right at the moment, to
try and keep this situation under control.
I was saying to
Conrad [skipper of Hellomoto, also in the race] when we were
in the Indian Ocean that in proportion of our projects we're
95% of the way there.
When you talk about
all the work and all the planning and all the dreaming and
all the effort that goes in to do this, we're not 80% through
the race, we're 99.9% of the way to the finish and for me
everything was safe and I felt like I was making some reasonable
decisions.
In the past few
days I felt like I was getting closer, I've been talking to
my family and friends talking about what's happening afterwards
and what we're going to do and how great it's going be and
my head was going home. And now it's all over.'
A vessel is due
to leave Rio de Janeiro shortly to make its way to Skandia's
latest position and assist with a tow to speed Moloney's return
to a safe port.
Conditions onboard
remain stable and Moloney is able to make some miles under
engine towards Rio when the winds are light.
It is hoped that
a tow will be in place by sunrise tomorrow.
The keel
of Skandia was a conservative, well tried and tested design,
an evolution in terms of safety of the same type of keel used
in the last Vendée Globe when the boat competed as
'Kingfisher' with Ellen MacArthur as skipper.
A collision
with an unknown object one week ago could have been a contributary
factor, but it will be difficult to provide any further explanations
before a more complete inspection.
The keel
was well within its safe mileage, having been replaced for
the Route du Rhum race in 2002.
Moloney
was on day 80 of the Vendée Globe with fewer than 5,000
miles left to go on the solo round the world course.
It was
his first participation in the race and it dramatically ends
his long-held dream to complete 3 big round the world sailing
goals - of crewed round the world [1997-98 Whitbread on board
Toshiba], fastest non-stop round the world [2002 Jules Verne
Trophy on board Orange] and, finally, his ultimate goal of
solo, non-stop around the world which has now cruelly come
to an end.
Andre
Oszmann, Group Marketing Director, Skandia: 'We obviously
share Nick's immense disappointment at the damage to the boat
and the premature termination of his Vendée Globe race.
However,
Nick's safety and well-being is our primary concern. Skandia
is extremely proud to be associated with Nick and his sailing
career.
His determination,
talent and will to succeed are an example to us all. We are
sure that he will overcome this disappointment to continue
his search for new challenges.'
The
keel of Skandia is made from high tensile steel,
to a relatively conservative design by Roger Scammel. In design
safety terms, the keel was an evolution from the original
keel that was fitted to Skandia in her original configuration
as Kingfisher, that successfully completed the Vendée
Globe in 2000.
The keel was replaced
with a new one for the Route du Rhum at the end of 2002. The
boat has since raced the Transat Jacques Vabre and The Transat,
and in between each race the keel has been carefully and meticulously
inspected. The inspection that was completed successfully
in March 2004 including taking the shell plates (the outside
skin) off and fully checking the internal structure of the
keel visually and with dye penetration tests.
The keel was well
within the mileage limit of this type of design and construction.
The design and construction of the keel was in no way cutting
edge in terms of performance, but rather a solid and well-tested
solution. This was the choice of the campaign and skipper,
even though lighter and higher performance options were available.
Just over a week
ago (night of 17th/18th) Nick suffered a collision which almost
brought SKANDIA to a standstill. It was a pretty violent shock,
but the keel is designed to withstand this kind of impact,
in safety terms if not in terms of performance damaging disfiguration.
There
is no evidence to suggest there is a link, and at this stage
it is not possible to make any clear case for why this has
happened. Further inspection on arrival in Brazil may possibly
shed more light.
(Sail-World.com)
CLASSIFIEDS AUSTRALIA
