Jonthan McKee

After our starboard rudder repair on Saaturday morning, everything seemed to be falling into place. We were in rough weather for sure, 30 to 35 knots, big breaking waves, heavy rain and getting cold. This felt like the Southern Ocean to me. I was sure we would see lots worse, but at last we were experiencing the tough conditions that we had prepared so hard for. We sailed quite conservatively Saturday night, with the Jib Top, Staysail and one or two reefs. We wer trying to keep the speed down below 22 knots on the surfs, to not crash too hard into the wave in front. Of course it was pitch black and you could not see a thing, and most of the time we were downstairs controlling the pilot from the nav table.

By Sunday morning it had lightened a little so we shook the reefs out and continued barrelling toward the southeast. The repaired starboard rudder had been pretty well tested during the previous 24 hours, which was encouraging. The breeze picked up again late Sunday morning as the low approached. We were back to 2 reefs in the main.

Then disaster struck, as the port rudder popped up and instantly sheared to the side with that ominous sound of splintering carbon.
Being on starboard tack we headed up into the 35 knot wind, all sails flapping furiously. There was so much force on the headsails they were very difficult to furl, and kept coming unfurled again. Finally we go most of them away and were somehow able to bear away to a run with only the windward rudder. It was quite difficult to steer, due to the very confused seaway and one rudder; you had to go by the lee with the boat heeled to windward, but occasionally a wave would knock you up and you would have to try to bear away downwind again. Everything was in a a bit of a mess, with runners wrapped around the boom, sheets tangled, messy furls, stuff everywhere. We managed to grind in the 3rd reef and tidy up the furls a bit, then free up the running backstays so we could jibe onto port, where the good rudder was now to leeward, a much more stable situation. All this took about 2 hours of constant grinding and scrambling.

Once on port jibe and somewhat tidied up we pulled out the staysail and took stock of our situation. It was obvious that the damage to the port rudder was somewhat worse than what had happened the previous day to the starboard. The big carbon tube that holds the rudder bearings in alignment was shattered and it was hard to tell if the rudder stock itself was ok. It seemed like we would struggle to repair this one onboard, and more to the point it was now clear that our rudder issues went somewhat deeeper; we need to do proper repairs to both sides, and find a way to keep the rudders permanantly down. This was going to require more facilities than we had onboard, and it seemed prudent to get it sorted out before heading off into the most isolated stretch of ocean on Earth.

So we made the decision to head to Cape Town, 630 miles to the northeast. This was a very difficult thing for me to concede, as we were no longer going to complete the course without stopping, one of my major goals. But there seemed little choice, so we have spent the last 36 hours heading for South Africa instaed of blasting off into the Southern Ocean with the rest of the fleet. We are currently 400 miles away, and expect to arrive on Wednesday. Today we did a temporary repair to the port rudder, so we can at least sail on both tacks now. The wind is quite light which is good for keeping the load off the rudders, but bad for ETA. Facilities and manpower are being organized for our arrival, so we should be able to get going again pretty quickly if that is the call.

Estrella Damm Sailing Team
Barcelona World Race