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10:53 AM Mon 16 Feb 2009 GMT
With five days remaining until the start of Leg 3 in the round-the-world Portim?o Global Ocean Race on Saturday 21st February, the fleet of four boats continue preparing for the forthcoming 7,500 mile voyage from Wellington, New Zealand, to Ilhabela, Brazil.
In addition to the vital mental and physical preparation required for a potential 36-38 days in the remote and harsh Southern Ocean latitudes of the Pacific and the likely demands of variable weather in the South Atlantic after rounding Cape Horn, the Wellington stopover represents the 'halfway mark' in the circumnavigation and scrupulous attention to the yachts is essential. This debut appearance of Class 40 yachts in Australasia has also triggered events that will have exciting and far reaching consequences for both the class and for shorthanded sailing.
In addition to the standard, pit-stop job list of servicing the sails, the hardware, electronics, engine, autopilots and a thorough rig check, any damage or wear sustained during the 6,000 mile Leg 2 from Cape Town, South Africa, to New Zealand must be confronted. Overall race points leader, Beluga Racer, appears to have the shortest job list with repairs needed to the Lombard-designed Class 40's rudder foils and the majority of work has been undertaken by the yacht's German crew, Boris Herrmann and Felix Oehme. In second place overall, the bright red, Guillaume Verdier-designed Desafio Cabo de Hornos of the Chilean duo, Felipe Cubillos and Jos? Mu?oz, has a slightly busier work schedule with repairs to a bruised and cracked hull-skin from an underwater impact between midships and the starboard rudder; repairs to the trailing edge of both rudders due to chafe from sheets trailing in the water; re-faring and painting of the keel fin and bulb and repairs to a few cracks in the structure of the galley furniture.
For Michel Kleinjans - the remaining solo skipper in the Portim?o Global Ocean Race - the only major work has been fitting a new sail drive to the Belgian yachtsman's 12 year-old Lutra Design Open 40, Roaring Forty. Currently in third place in the double-handed division, Jeremy Salvesen and David Thomson's Lombard Design Class 40, Team Mowgli, took the full force of gales over Christmas and New Year experiencing wind speeds peaking at 80 knots and the British duo's yacht sustained extensive damage in enormous following seas combined with brutal, hurricane-strength squalls and the team's job list reflects these exceptional conditions. Repairs to the deck have been made due to the removal of the antenna post during a Christmas Eve gale; a new radar and BGAN antenna have been fitted and a new boom has been purchased with the existing, split spar repaired as a spare.
The choice of yard for the work during the Portim?o Global Ocean Race stopover in New Zealand was simple for the Race Director, Josh Hall: 'Hakes Marine has been the ideal resource for our entries here in the mid-Southern Ocean stopover of Wellington,' he explains. 'They have applied their expertise to preparing the fleet for the next, tough leg of the race and have embraced the work lists and the skippers with enthusiasm - a truly great yard!' As Project Manager at Hakes Marine, Will Otton has been tasked to assist the Portim?o Global Ocean Race. 'The boats are in remarkably good shape,' says Otton, a former Global Challenge skipper. 'They got fairly well mauled in some draughty conditions on the past leg which has smashed a few bits up here and there, but it hasn't actually affected the structure.' While the Southern Ocean continuously battered the fleet, Otton believes that some repairs are not related to active racing: 'A few have got some lumps and bumps and dents,' he continues, 'but that's sometimes due to action off the water: a badly placed propstand in a boatyard, for example. They do seem to have stood up to some fairly dramatic conditions really very well. By the time they got here, they were still actively racing, not just limping home.'
Shortly before the weekend, progress at Hakes Marine was running smoothly: 'We still have to put Team Mowgli back together,' reported Otton. 'But that's really a function of waiting for products from abroad. Everything that has broken on board comes from France and sourcing some of the damaged items has not been particularly straightforward.' There is also the issue of making custom items for the British Class 40: 'In the case of Team Mowgli, we've had to design and manufacture an aft stanchion arrangement to support the wind generator. It's all on schedule and we're not anticipating any major dramas,' he confirms. For Otton, the speed of completing the repair work is due to a number of features. 'Josh Hall has been extremely good during the stopover, coordinating the activity and keeping everything calm,' he explains. 'Also with the skippers, I've been very impressed by their spirit of cooperation,' continues Otton, a tone of surprise creeping into his voice. 'They're not climbing over each other going, 'ME! ME! ME!'. They all understand that there are a certain number of resources and we haven't had any fighting or slapping going on, which is really nice to see in a race!'
Hakes Marine is highly familiar with performance, offshore racing design and build techniques and were the chosen yard for British solo sailors Mike Golding and Dee Caffari for their latest generation IMOCA Open 60s, Ecover 3 and Aviva, but the recent introduction to Class 40s has had a major impact on the yard's Managing Director, Paul Hakes: 'I think the Class 40 is a brilliant boat,' says Hakes. 'It's inexpensive for top level racing and I don't think that you could come up with a better formula. It's just right.' The Class 40 box rule is a key ingredient for Hakes: 'By restricting build materials and configurations it does mean that they will continue to be within the reach of people who want a bit of adventure in their lives, but who don't necessarily have huge funds,' he believes. 'Its part of the romantic appeal of these boats and from a building perspective, it's a good-looking, fast boat if you have the right designer onboard and that's always inspiring for the guys building the yacht.'
However, Hakes and his team are not content with merely repairing and admiring the boats: 'For sure, the Australasian market for Class 40s is completely untapped and in a class that's as big as this, there just has to be a flow-on effect,' he says. 'These days, it's fair to say that most reputable builders of racing boats and general yachts are capable of building good, lightweight structures and the few cowboys left out there are a dying breed and we want to get them out of the marketplace because they don't do the industry any good,' Hakes continues. 'Structurally, you have to build a good, sound, lightweight boat, but the added difference of building the boat here at the yard will be in the finishing and the detailing. Having a look at the Portim?o boats, they're good, they're firm, but some of the finishing and detailing can be improved upon.'
As for business strategy and production plans, Hakes is already underway: 'We haven't selected a designer yet and we're looking for an owner/investor,' he admits. 'We have a plan in place to look at the feasibility and whether it's going to be right for us. We have a strategy in place and we just have to work at it one step at a time. Schedules, costs and marketing.' However, a fundamental objective has already been identified: 'One priority is a partnership with a designer who will work with us and produce a boat that we believe - and the yachting public believe - is the perfect Class 40,' states Hakes. 'Then we want to take a different approach and construct and build the boat in a unique way that doesn't detract from the performance of the boat, but really enhances the build procedure.' This plan for production is highly ambitious and will require considerable, up-front investment. 'We're not going to approach it in the typical way of getting one owner with the option of taking a female mould for a second boat,' he explains. 'We actually want to attack it straight away as a full, advanced production set up...and that's probably all I can say at this stage.' While the details of the project are still being hammered out, Hakes is realistic about magnitude of the task ahead: 'There's also the challenge that you have a very limited budget to play with and you really have to put your smart head on to come up with some innovative solutions to actually build a boat that surpasses anything else on the market,' he reasons. 'That's going to be the aim.'
www.portimaoglobaloceanrace.com/
by Oliver Dewar
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Sailing
