Surfing down to Vietnam
giying us a kick every so often as we
lrantically tried to control the beast. ìùf'e alternated the helm every hour and then every half-hour throughout the night and the following day. It was becoming rrery tiring. 'We burned through two spinnaker sheets that first night as we triecl, mostþ in vain, to keep the beast on her feet. The initial raclio reports
sterze Ellis of Ernph-a-sis pul>lica-tions took tkre krandicap tronor-rrs in the first n-rn of the \zietlaa-rra R-a-ce- For Ste.rze, the cre'./ a_nd sterze,s tlrorouSEtrbred lll:arìcer, \lizard. it uza_s ttre e><perience of a- lifetirrreAnd he sa¡rs they os/e a big debt to Elob- \üt tro,s rlob? Rea_d o'.
showed we wer€ where
he inaugural Vietnam Race took place over Chinese Newyear. It
Nha Trang Bay. The Wizard won in fine style. you can't get any better than first place in both CHS and IMS handicap divisions, although a line-honours yictory would
with celebrations well under way, I knew I needed only another 90 minutes for ayacht not to apper on the horizon. And then Wizard did. It was enough to make a sailor cry into his 333.
saþ
tears
The key to the Wizard,s victory was the preparation of the yacht and the campaign. We strþped !Øizard of all excess weight, which included four of our usual 12 crew, one life-raft ancl
400kg of lead that woulcl normally reside in the bilge. The idea was to make the yacht "surf' the waves and
stay on them longer. 'lf'e also expanded tlre sail inventory to include a heavy-
cltrty l.5oz spinnaker
with narrow
shoulclers fo¡ use in strong reaching and nrnning conditions. All of this worked, but our biggest gain came from employing the services of Bob Rice, ourninth c¡ewmember. Bob is a weather fo¡ecaster who lives somewhere in middle America. He makes his living believe it or not
-
rHD C0RRESPOITDEilT Aprit 1996
Showers, money and drains. But fate works in wondrous ways. !Øe hadn't heard any fatlady singing. Maybe she was on holiday. Bob had said that on the Monday morning, we would find ourselyes as the western_
The Wizard was in lighr displace_ ment mode and she screamed down the face of the waves. Spraywas flying and our heafts were pumping furi_ ously with, first, fear and anxiety and then excitement as we burst through one wave on to another and then an_ other. The sheet trimmer and grinder worked together, fuantically trying to keep the bow out ofthe water. Speeds of 16 knots
were common. The driver would see a hole
heading for the nor-thern tip of Hainan island. But something was amiss. The breeze was not swinging in the predicted direction. It had,
Island and finished, for us at least, in twilight on the following Monday in
gesting he was simplytoo fast and had sailed out of the weather pattern. But he was not amused. Not would I have been if, 12 hotrs after tinishing and
disappeared as fast as the boats
ahead of us. 'We were not happy chappies.
we wanted to be to - by leeward of the fleet first 20, then 30, mi,les,
started in pretty cold, dismal condi_ tions on Friday, Febmary 16, off Lamma
have made us overbearing. But Sam Chan put paid to that when he impor-ted a near-new 65ft ULDB (UltraLight Displacement Boat) for rhe race. Sam won line honours and, for a good while, looked a good bet for handicap honours as well until our good fortune and his fate- intervened. Later, we tried to console him for his loss of handicap honours by sug-
we got properly trnd,er way again. Thoughts of winning the race hacl
in fact, clocked to
ahead and aim the $Øizard into it. The speed wouldincreaseto 17and I8
would appear on
110
us further to the west than plannecl. s-
ç)
è Ellis Qeft) and his creu.t aboarcl Wizard, aÍter tbe! had Vielnam race.
Steue
- from advising window-cleaning companies
when to clean windows. He also dabbles regularþ and very successftilly at advising yachties of weather conditions and what direction to point their yachts in to make the most of those conditions. Bob's advice was one of the many contributing factors behind New Zealand's win in the last America's Cup. He's a good man to have ,,on board',.
Bob gave us daily weather information leading up to the race and a threeday prediction for the race in itself, from start day. His prediction took a while to kick in, but it was to prove invaluable. The conditions for the race were not difficult. The Royal Observatory was predicting winds of force 3 to 4 to start from the east to north-east,
building to force 8 down the track. Bob, on the other hand, thought the
winds would be from the east at force 4 to
for the first 24 hours and then gradually lifting to the northeast and building to force g. Not much in it. 5
u.tc¡n the
first Hong Rong to
The course was to take us over the
top and down the back of the Lemas, passing a light on'Wan Wei Chou to starboard, down to North reef off the Paracels to port and then on to Nha Trang. A distance of 690 miles as the crow flies and downhjll all the way. A total of 19 yachts started on that cold Friday afternoon.'Wizard got away to a very ordinary staft, eating bad air all the way to the weather mark. We
had to tack out to pass the tip of the Lemas,
whichwas alsonotin the game
plan. But things improved as we hoisted our spinnaker and ran off below the other yachts down the back of the islands. Bob says "Go \ùØest,,' and we did. The breeze was from the east, as predicted, at force 5. Our strategy was to head west so that when the breeze liftedto the north-east, we could maintain our apparent wind angle and
lift with it at optimum boat speed. 'We experienced a wonderful night's sailing. It was as black as pitch and the spinnaker was propelling us along '¿t mighty speeds. Tlne Wizard, was behaying true to her pedigree,
We decided it was too soonto cutBob loose. It would have been foolish to ditch th e game plan at such an early stage in the race. There was no
oLrr star-
board quarter and the driver would turn thc Wizard to run with it. Now it was 19.74 knots. And we kept this up for nine terrific hours.
east south-east, pushing
ò' È
knots. But the ride was
not over. Another wavc
As hundrecls
of vìetna'mese uatch from tLre beacb of NLta Trang, steue Eilìs and his creut sail Wizard across tl:e.fínislt line.
gain in coming up to the
rhumb line as we would onl1. lose ground to weather. Our best chance back. Spinnaker pole to the forestay, we attempted to parallel the rhumb line and not sag off any further. This proved moderately successfuI, but the V7izard doesn,r like being harnessed this way. If we broached
of this torment. With a loud bang and a scream of "All hands!" (yes, we do saythat sort of
thing), I was aroused from my slumber to learn that the steering chain had
pated companywith the quadrant. A force 5 wind and three-metre seas added to the interest level. As quick as you can say "Oh dear, we have lost the race. How unfoltunate" (or something like that), we had the emergency tiller on. The wheel was quickly separated
from the pedestal with the use of a power drill (every yacht should have one), and we set about fixing the chain with a shackle, a bit of spectra line and a great deal of sweat. It didn,t take all that long, but it was two hours before
ing. He was 140 miles ahead of us. On handicap, we had to average
over 12 knots to win. He later said he thought it was impossible, and so did we af the time . No wonder he was in earþ celebration mode. But over the horizon we came, sailing boat for boat with Neil Pryde on Hi-Flyer, our orher principal riyal on CHS handicap. \We entered Nha Trang
was to pray that the wind would swing
once, we broached 50 times. Damage was done, butwe didn'tknowaboutit until the Sunday evening, when the 'Wizard decided she had had enough
Sam, inhisULDB, finished at five that morn-
bay to-
gether, gybing back and forrh on
Wizard
Orion Exþress ba.ttting it out off the coast of Nlra Trang. ¿¿n¡l
most yacht, approximately 100 miles off the coast of Vietnam. He also said that, should we feel a tickle of wind from the north-west, we should waste no time gybing into ir. And ifwe should have a lightweight spinnaker up at the time, we should change it pronto to a heavy one, for the wind would likely build very fast to about 35 knots. \ù7hat transpired oyer the next nine hours was the most thrilling and exhilarating time of my sailing career. The wind howled and the wayes roamed the seas, looking for unsus-
pecting victims. The watch system was cancelled, not by decree but by common consensus to get everybody as far aft. as possible. We
took off.
a
dying breeze. 'SØe could sense that victory was oufs and we knew it was when Mike Sinfield, the visionary behind this wonderful race, gave us the thumbs-up. And then we heard the melody. The fat lady had bursr inro song.
Bob is welcome on board the rù/iz-
arl at any time . I have this image of him sitting in front of a bank of computers, plotting the weather, talking to yachts thousands of miles away as they seared through the treacheries of the southern ocean . . . savouring theirvictories, sympathising with their defeats. But always a member of the team.
E@
The wiza¡<t is 4lÍt ove.ail. Sñèìa¡rièiãäìreo spreader masthead. She was designecl by Iain Murray afldAssociates and was built byBashforcl Howison Boats, both of Australia.
Àprit I