Onboard the V.O.60s

ALASTAIR PRATT
One of Australia's most experienced offshore crewmen, Alastair 'Alby' Pratt is a sailmaker and trimmer aboard the Australian-flagged entry, Team News Corp. This is the 30-year-old's third round-the-world race, following Whitbreads aboard Innovation Kvaerner and Brooksfield.

MAINSAILS
Our total sail inventory is 3DL. It makes a big difference with the mainsails because we sail with our mains double and triple reefed for days at a time. In the old days with panelled sails, when you put a reef in the threads in the sail weren't aligned to the reef patches; they were only aligned for a full main.

Now with the 3DL sails we've got a lot of threads going into the actual reef patch itself, so once you've reefed it's just like having a normal sail, and when you unreef the sail it's not all stretched and bagged out.

Our mains are Kevlar with a polyester/taffeta film coating on one side, to help out a bit with chafe. We also have a system with the reeflines, using rings running up the back of the sail, so when we put a reef in the reefline gathers the sail up in a bunch so it doesn't all hang down and flap under the boom. You can't climb out on the boom and tie the sail in because it's underwater.

The full battens also make a big difference. We've using standard Fredericksen battcars and they're very good.

Some other boats have been having trouble with their mainsail headboards. They've been using aluminium cars which are just too light for the loads generated by the roach of the mainsail when you're hard on the wind. Ours are bronze.

HEADSAILS
The big thing is the Code Zeros, which are these tight-luff sails set on furlers. We use them more than we use our standard, non-overlapping jibs. We'd use a standard jib for going dead upwind from anything like 13kt up to the storm jib, but for any sort of cracked angle wider than 50o true we use a tight luff reaching sail - so we're using them most of the time.

There are a lot of handling problems with the Code Zeros because they're such big sails and you're trying to furl them up, so what we're using is a PBO fibre cable up the front of them. It's a solid PBO cable with two covers on it and soaked in resin so it's really stiff. And then we have a furler which has a continuous line - it's not like a standard furler which has a whole lot of rope packed on the drum - it's a continuoous loop which you just keep winding and because the cable is so stiff it doesn't twist so it'll furl the sail. That's what all the Open 60 trimarans are using as well; they don't have rod forestays anymore.

The Code Zeros are classified as spinnakers under the V.O.60 rules, even though they're actually headsails. If you had to measure them in as a jib they could only be 83sqm, but as a spinnaker there's no mid-girth restriction on them so you can make them a lot bigger - up to 300sqm, the maximum spinnaker area.

They're a lot more refined now than in the last [Whitbread] race. One of the biggest problems then was we couldn't get the luffs very tight because we had the aluminium rigs which just caved; now the carbon rigs are a lot stiffer and stronger and we can run the luffs really tight. On our boat the [forestay] cable tacks to a 2:1 purchase on the bow and then it goes back to a 4:1 purchase on the deck and then to a winch. We wind that down tight and then pull the rig back on the hydraulic backstay - it's pretty powerful. Some of the other boats have got a hydraulic ram in the bow which they pull the tack down on.

We can carry six jibs; two or three of those are staysails, and then there's two jibtops (big overlapping high-clewed jibs set in the headfoil), and eight spinnakers including the Code Zeros.

SPINNAKERS
All the spinnakers are asymmetrics. We've got a mixture of standard nylons for the running sails, but for the reaching spinnakers the flatter ones are done out of Cuben fibre.

The Cuben fibre is a big thing this time; we can make our reaching sails flatter and a lot more efficient than we could with the nylon, which was just so stretchy. Last time we were making them out of Spectra but as soon as the sail flogged it would just delaminate.

We've blown out a couple of spinnakers so far - generally if you broach in 35kts with an ounce-and-a-half spinnaker on it's going to break (laughs). We've only damaged sails when we've broached.

RIG AND DECK HARDWARE
The carbon spars are probably the biggest single improvement to the boats. They're only 50kg lighter than the aluminium ones, but they're a lot stiffer and more reliable, you can get a lot more runner and topmast backstay load without the thing failing and you can just generally punish them a lot more.

The rig loads on these boats are not that high. The hulls are Kevlar and quite soft; they won't take massive rig loads like a carbon boat will. So it gets to the point where you can get the forestay so tight and then the boat starts bending so you can't get it any tighter.

We might go upwind with about 8500lb on the forestay, where a maxi like Shockwave would probably carry something like 12,500-13,000lb.

We use hydraulics for our topmast backstay, boom vang, mainsail outhaul and checkstays.

We don't need to have the topmast backstay on when we're running because we have a strop at the back so we can tie it directly onto the runner block.

We just need to have the topmast backstay on when we're reaching and want to tension the forestay and bend the mast for a bit more support; that's when we hook up the hydraulic ram.

Our deck hardware is Harken and it's all pretty standard. We've got a couple of custom cars and that sort of thing which we've developed ourselves, but a lot of it is bought off the shelf.

Because the loads on these boats aren't massive, we don't need custom gear.

Most of the boats have the same cockpit layout. SEB is the only one with something different; it's quite radical with twin hatches. I prefer what we've got; the hatches leak so much that if you've got two, I reckon it's going to be twice as bad, plus with smaller hatches it's harder to get the sails out.

We've changed our winches [three speed Lewmar 80s] around a bit with a lot of work on the gearings. We've got two pedestals fore and aft in the cockpit for mainsheet or primary winches and we've changed our handles so we can get four guys winding one winch.

It's a big improvement in the gybes and it also means that when we hoist the Code Zero we can wind it to the top of the mast instead of bouncing it, so it goes up a lot smoother.

That's a lot easier on the guy in the bow because those sails are quite heavy; they weigh about 70kg so it's a big pull to get them up to the top.

WATER BALLAST SYSTEM
Our boat carries 2500lt of water ballast a side in three tanks, controlled by a hydraulically-driven pump running off the generator.

Our system is not super-quick to fill, but quick to tack. It takes about a 1.5-2 minutes to fill the tanks - a lot of the other boats are a bit quicker, but we decided to sacrifice a bit of that speed to be able to tack the ballast across fast, in 15-20sec.

STEERING
I'm about eight down the steering list (laughs). At high speed these boats are a lot more controllable because they're not getting taken anywhere by the keel. It's at low speed they have problems; they don't accelerate very well because the keel's so small.

We did a 450nm day [on leg two] which was the record at that time - but only for about 24hrs [until SEB set a higher mark of 460.1nm] which was very disappointing. That's averaging something like 18kt, hitting 25kt and touching 30kt sometimes in the surfs - and under control.

LIFE ONBOARD
It's really wet. There's probably the same amount of water coming across the deck as any normal boat, but because you're going a lot faster it's hitting you a lot harder, so it seems a lot worse.

Our watch system has two watches of five, four hours on, four hours off, with the two navigators on their own watch system. Every fifth off-watch you're on standby, if they need another guy on deck.

So when we do a manoeuvre there are five guys already on deck, and if they need more the navigator is the first guy up, then its the second navigator and if they need one more person its the off-watch guy on standby.

That allows you to do just about anything except a heavy air gybe, which is a full-crew manoeuvre with everyone up.

We stack the sails on deck, depending on conditions. We have two spinnaker poles and we stack them one on top of the other on the windward side - that makes a little wall and the sails go down between there and the liferails, with straps which go over the top. The spinnaker poles stop them from washing into the winches and keep the deck clear.

Most of the time we'd have 90% of the sails on deck, but if it starts getting really rough then a lot of the sails go below, because you can't strap them down well enough and they can get washed overboard and become a bit of a liability.

When we tack, the guys on deck tack the boat and move the sails on deck from one side to the other, while the other guys move all the food and everything down below.

The bunks we're using now are good - they're a lot more comfortable and secure than the pipecots to sleep in. We've got one long tube running the whole length of the boat either side, with hammock-type arrangements.

We only ever have six people sleeping at any time although we've actually got eight bunks on the weather side, so if it's light air we can all sleep forward and have two bunks spare at the back, and if its heavy air running we can all sleep back and have bunks spare at the forward end.

CHRIS NICHOLSON
Chris  is a helmsman/trimmer aboard Amer Sports One, on his first venture into long-distance racing. The 32-year-old is a three-time World champion and Olympian in the 49er class, as well as a former 505 World champ and leading skipper in the 18Ft Skiff class.

STEPPING OFFSHORE
Before this I'd done two Sydney-Mooloolabas and maybe a Coffs Race, that's about it. There's been a fair bit of 'winging' going on with this whole program, let me tell you (laughs).

But before the start we'd done our 2000nm qualifier and probably about 4000nm in training, so I was sort of sorted out. Still, I'd have to have the least amount of miles in this whole fleet by a long, long way. Even though I've done probably 15,000-20,000nm now, I reckon I'm still relatively new to it.

Time on the water is the hard part for me, being used to 30 minute races compared to 21 days.

It's different [from dinghy sailing] in the fact that you don't have camaraderie with everyone - there are differences in personality on this boat just as there would be on on other boats in this fleet. When you've got 12 people you've got a football team on the boat and you have a few differences.

SEASICKNESS AND ELECTRICS
Basically I'm sick for two or three days early on and then I get better and better, and usually by the end of the legs I'm going well. My role on the boat is basically helming and then pack mule, and I'm responsible for the electrics as well. We've had a few issues there.

It's been killing me: I've been down with my head in the bilge in the junction box - the circuitboard got wet so I had to hardwire all these tiny little fine cables - and ooh boy, it wasn't pretty (laughs).

Grant [Dalton] said don't do it, he knew I was going to get sick, but he knew as well as I did that we needed the numbers up and working.

On the first leg we kept losing our alternators for the main batteries. I took four back-up systems and we ended up on the third of those, so it was starting to get a little desperate towards the end.

On the second leg fortunately we had no problems with the batteries but we got water in the Brookes & Gatehouse [electronic wind and navigation system] box, so we had a lot of trouble with our 20/20s, and then in Bass Strait we blew the weathervane off the top of the mast but we got that repaired, so I guess all in all it hasn't been too bad.

We're using a B&G set-up which is pretty much standard We've got six 20/20s; I see Assa Abloy uses eight and I don't know what else they've got, but there's more than enough information on ours to confuse the best of them, I think.

I'm only new to steering by the numbers and when we did lose them and had to sail at night without them, two or three of our steerers were completely lost.

AT THE HELM
At speed these boats are quite responsive and surfing big waves in the Southern Ocean [on leg two] was great fun. But I'm not really happy with our rudder; it tends to let go at different times and basically all the drivers have broached at some stage.

We're pushing hard but I don't believe it's hard enough for the rudder to let go. You're not allowed to change your rudder so we've just got to live with it.

I don't mind [steering the boat] uphill; it's just tight reaching that I don't like. There's so much load on the rudder, there's probably only a couple of us onboard who are really strong enough to drive it properly and its just a pain.

Coming up the NSW coast [at the end of leg two] was pretty big; it got to 35kt and we had a full main and masthead kite.

I'd been steering with that combination a lot at nighttime and now I can understand why I had my hands full. We were doing 25kt, it was just a horror show and it was only in the daytime that I got to appreciate it more.

Our big 'Chinese gybe' off Sydney Heads was proceeded by three wipeouts during gybes. We got the layline wrong so we were running at 165&$176; True Wind Angle and it was just dodgy; a recipe for disaster.

One problem is we haven't done a lot of manoeuvres in that kind of breeze with that rig set up.

I was grinding and when we rolled in I just hung onto the pedestal for a little while. I knew we just had to get the spinnkaer halyard off before we pulled the rig out, so I went to leeward onto the pit winch to grind the halyard lock off and sent the bowman forward to blow the lock. It was quite amusing grinding the halyard off; the winch was underwater.

THE FUTURE
This is a great break from the 49er for awhile. It makes you keen to go back and do some dinghy racing, when you're sitting on the gunwale [of the VOR60] getting smashed going uphill.

At least I'll have the opportunity to jump back into the ocean racing later if I want to, and [financially] if I didn't do this, then the next attempt at the Olympics would be much different than what it could be.

NOEL DRENNAN
Competing in his first round-the-world race, 'Nitro' is a sailmaker, trimmer and helmsman with the current race leader, illbruck. A multiple Australian champion in the E22 and Soling classes, the 40-year-old Irish/Australian has also contested 17 Sydney-Hobarts.

SAIL MANAGEMENT
I look after the sails and try to co-ordinate between the boat and the sailmakers. We've got a team of sailmakers that varies from two or three guys up to five and they're always pretty busy with recuts and progressive maintenance. You're trying to keep the sails on your sail card as long as possible.

One of the interesting things with the whole sail program is that you have to plan so far ahead because of the sail delivery - getting the 3DL sails from the plant to the loft and manufactured in time. Quite often we end up with a lot of sails ahead of time - they just basically sit in the container until required, but its safer to do it that way than to have a rush at the last minute.

SAIL CHANGES
We're using the Code Zeros all the time now upwind under 13kt and wider angles over that and it's changed the whole game dramatically - you can go just as high upwind as a jib, but there's substantially more load on the boat than before. The carbon rig has certainly helped.

With the reaching sails, some including ourselves are using Spectra, and we have one or two sails of Cuben fibre. That's forced a little bit because the sails are so full that its just easier to make the sails out of conventional materials for the really full reaching sails, where it's hard to get the 3DL mould to get enough radius.

The crossover to a spinnaker is very much sea-related; the flatter the sea the earlier you'd go to a spinnaker. So some of them are very flat, from 115° TWA and probably the lowest you'd go is 140-145° TWA. The angles are a lot tighter than we're all used to in conventional racing.

We don't use symmetrical spinnakers because you'd just be running the bow into the waves all the time.

DRIVING
We've got three primary drivers that do all the frightening stuff downwind. I'm quite glad it's them. The rest of the time there's probably six of us that drive on the boat.

They're great to steer upwind because there's just so much horsepower available. Tight reaching I've had a bit of trouble getting used to it because it's so much more loaded on the helm compared to what I'm used to - conventional IMS boats or Etchells.

And you're travelling so fast all the time; you get used to going everywhere between 15-23kt.

It's great when you're sailing in the 19-22kt range because you're not going to trip up on waves, you're going to blast through and if the mainsail trim is a little bit wrong going down a wave it doesn't really matter because you're going so fast, until you start to slow down and then you've got to get the sails eased. It's definitely easier when the boat's going fast - until it gets really fast. A couple of times we were hitting 28s and 29s in bursts - and when you come off that burst you've got to be pretty careful.

WIPEOUTS
It's very rare that something doesn't break when you broach. It's usually the spinnaker, because the top spreaders are so wide.

We've got a sewing machine and try to do the best repairs we can in the one metre squared loft - the cabin floor.

It's actually surprising what you can do, but the difficult thing as a sailmaker is that when you repair a spinnaker, you never really get a chance to lay it out, so the first time you put it up again you're waiting to see if there are any more holes...

We spent 14 hours fixing one sail. It really disrupts the whole watch system, because everybody else has to cover for you and put in a lot of hours. It's better not to break sails.

We damaged the steering pedestal and lost one of our primary winches [on leg two]. There are lots of ongoing repairs; it's just staggering, the nuts and bolts and bits of Spectra rope and all sorts of things that get used.

We have several watch systems but the primary one is four hours on, four hours off, during the night and six hours on, six hours off, during the day, with the skipper and navigator floating.

The plan is that when you're off, you're off, but if there's major damage you just have to fix it, and there's a plan in place to keep the boat racing while the repairs are carried out.

RACE LEADERS
Being one of the first boats sailing and the preparation has helped us. Two wins in the first two legs were a real bonus. But its getting closer and closer; every time we get alongside another boat we can't see the difference.

There's still a long way to go, and later in the race some of the legs are only a couple of weeks apart, so one boat could go out there and get two wins within a two week period. And its just so easy for things to go wrong.