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OceanPlanet News
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New York to Newport on the world's fastest ocean racing sailboat...
The overnight ride from NYC to Newport aboard
Orange II was in great conditions... WNW at 20-30kts, so despite using a double
reef and trinquette (aka staysail/small jib) this turned out to be a really
thrilling ride.
The Orange "operation" never seems to lose the
opportunity to get good pics, so we did a few zings up and down the
river in front of Manhattan before heading out the Ambrose channel. The ever
present, famous photographer Billy Black was originally going sailing with us
but wound up taking shots and then having to drive to Newport, where he met us
for more shots the next morning. I took some shots myself, and rather like
this one, of legendary skipper Bruno Peyron, on the way out the
channel:
Seems to capture some of the
legendary skipper's flair and spirit!
Note that all the working sails on
this monster boat are Cuben Fiber, same as OceanPlanet's mainsail. It is amazing
the great condition they are in, despite having been around the world (and lots
more). There is no doubt Cuben Fiber is really tough stuff:
(Fellow guest sailor)
Dennis Greenwood and I had a long laugh with a joke about walking into a West
Marine, finding the newest, yougest, and most inexperienced kid you could, and
hefting a huge hunk of Orange II gear up on the table and saying you'd like a
set of them right away. Just to see the look on their face...;-) How about this
toggle assembly for the boom:
After clearing the Ambrose
channel I went below to check out the Nav station scene. Bruno was using viewing
the navscreen and communicating via radio to a loudspeaker in the
cockpit(s). He instructed them to turn left, up to a heading which brought
us from nearly DDW (Dead Down Wind) up to nice broad reach that paralleled
Long Island. The speed immediately skyrocketed...you literally have to hold onto
something as the boat accelerates...and Bruno pointed out the small window
towards the windward (starboard) hull. I could see the hull semi-lifting out of
the water, exposing the top of the rudder and shredding the water into mist as
we settled into the 25-30kt range. With a chuckle, Bruno commented that at this
speed the ETA to the next waypoint off Block Island was about 4.5hrs.
As
it turned dark, I was allowed the opportunity to drive. Wahoo! The
quartering wind was from 20 to 25, and eventually gusted to 30. Make
that a double wahoo. I would getting about 2hrs of blissful sailing at
the highest speeds I have ever seen. The Monster Machine was steadily in
the mid to upper 20's. When the TWS (True Wind Speed) did get up to 30kts, and
went forward to a TWA (True Wind Angle) of 110 degrees I saw 32.7kts on the
speedo. I wasn't watching that all the time, however, as the digital compass had
a slow time delay and had to gauge my short term steering by
watching the bow-horizon interface. In any case I hoped I
wouldn't screw up and embarrass myself somehow. The sensation of speed, immense
power, and the astronomical loadings being carried through the structure of the
huge craft certainly had my attention, to say the least. Dennis said he actually
saw 34kts while I was driving but I missed it. Keep in mind that at 34kts of
boat speed, in 30kts of wind at 110 TWA, the AWS (Apparent Wind
Speed) is something like 45-50kts. It's like sticking your head out the
window on the freeway.
Later on, when I was taking a short nap in the
windward "vestibule" (feet forward!) I was awakened by the loud shriek of
tortured rope on a winch, and then the noise and thunderous shock waves of the
jib luffing. Turns out the jib trimmer had lost attention for a mere second
while switching his hands, and the 4 wraps around the Lewmar 120 were suddenly
not enough. The sheet loads were so high the line just took off and he had
to be really careful not to get swallowed by the anaconda of rope and not sucked
into the winch drum. Several shadowy bodies flew into the cockpit to the winch
pedestals (I jumped up and into the grinding too) to bring the sail back in.
You'd think that 4 strong guys could bring any jib in quick, but even the
staysail on this 120ft cat is huge....it took some time to do it and you
could hear our desparate lungs gasping for air over the noise of the wind. It
took a long time for my heart rate to come back down, even after lying on my
back again.
We arrived off Newport at about 4am, too soon to enter the
small harbor. So the crew put the boat into "park" (in irons) and pretty much
everyone went to sleep until the sun came up.
There a bit of upwind work
in the glorious morning sun, then Billy Black appeared in his trusty photo boat
(with equally trusty crew dog, Milly) to do the photo thing once more.
After getting the sails down (a bit of a process as a guy has to go in the air
to remove the top two mainsail batten cars before sail will come all the way
down), we pulled into Newport Shipyard. There they will make the final
preparations for the Transatlantic record attempt, including removing the
propellers and shafts.
The crew that will be aboard will have only a
couple of the guys we sailed with on this trip...turns out the
"varsity" crew will be a sort of reunion of the group of the Jules Verne
Record team. That group went around the world in the astounding time
of 50 days 16hrs and 20min. The current Transatlantic record they are
shooting for is held by Steve Fossett, at 4 days 17hrs and 28min. Sure wish
I could sneak on...;-)
I was in a sort of trance...perhaps I still
am...didn't want to get off. But of course it was time to go. Sigh.
Just to give you an idea of the size of this boat:
Now I'm back in NY,
wondering if I'll ever get to go that fast (on a boat) again. However, the
next best thing is surfing on OceanPlanet, so you can get a speed fix yourself
in the next few weeks if you want to. This could be your last
chance! Btw, there's been some schedule changes, so if you are interested
drop me a note at
bruce@bruceschwab.com and let's
talk. |
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