Quixotic said..Chris 249 said..
Hmm. I had assumed that they were on a longer passage and got caught out in the middle of it.
That looks to me like an old racing #3 or 4 and a furled and covered mainsail. So perhaps they put out to sea under that rig, which would explain why they sagged way offshore and why the sail tore. Under jib only they may not handle at all well upwind and may have needed a lot of helm.
Perhaps the issue is once again not using proper storm sails. A storm jib and storm trysail combo will keep the boat controllable, won't blow out and get hung up, and would allow the boat to be steered more easily.
Certainly a torn jib and furler problems should not cause a round the world boat significant trouble. There's a fairly easy way to get a boat of that size to self-furl a jib in windy conditions - just go around in circles and as the jib blows to leeward each time it will furl itself. It's really quite easy, and then one can secure it by wrapping halyards around the sail.
EDIT - after seeing Ramona's pics one can only hope that the problems had been well and truly fixed and good trials done before the boat left in those conditions. One can understand that the leak may have been something that could only be fixed in a major port, but in that case you'd have to wait for benign conditions.
I hope the RMS officer provides a report to the relevant authorities.
Reported rudder problem may have precluded circling to furl jib. Without main, might be hard in a gale to get her to point up and through the wind even with a working rudder. No mention of the engine, and whether that was part of the mechanical difficulties. Partly raising the main to get a bit of lee helm perhaps only feasible if already rigged with a decent 3rd reef. Alternative might be a storm trysail, if there was one on board, or better still one on the deck in a bag by the mast with halyard connected and sliders/luff in a separate track.
As I understand it Volvo 60s were designed with 5 watertight compartments and were virtually unsinkable. Perhaps that changed, or this boat was modified. Also standard at one stage were gudgeons on the transom for an emergency rudder. Of course even with these and if there were an emergency rudder on board, mounting it in 5m seas and a gale might be impossible or far too risky to attempt, especially if the boat could not be pointed into the waves. A sea anchor or drogue might have been useful, at least to slow her down and get her facing into the wind/swell.
In the end if they were too tired and too seasick (as I think one said when they were back on shore), and had no means to slow or manoeuvre the boat, better to seek help before getting blown even further offshore, and physical capacity deteriorating further. She reportedly covered from 80nm offshore when EPIRB triggered around midday to 160nm offshore by the time the crew were rescued the next morning.
Yes, if the rudder had gone before the jib then circling would be an issue, but like you I believe that Volvo 60s needed proper emergency steering and some of them clearly have gudgeons. If they didn't have a cassette rudder they could mount in those conditions two handed them IMHO they should not have been out there in those conditions two-handed.
Like you I think a storm trysail should probably have been used and if it couldn't be used they shouldn't have been out there with that forecast.
To make it clear, I reckon it would be OK to head out into the forecast conditions in a two-handed Volvo 60 IF the crew and boat were properly prepared and did the right thing. A Volvo 60 can lope along at slow cruising speed under storm trysail alone and be faster than the vast majority of other boats and most of the loads would probably be lower than that of the typical 40 footer with full gear up in an afternoon sea breeze.
But to go out with gear that is unreliable enough to suffer multiple breakdowns, using the sort of storm sails that the pros didn't use for very good reason, is another matter entirely. I'd also say that the breeze may not have been all that strong - if the breeze had been really strong, then what looks like an ageing #3 or #4 racing sail would probably have been torn to tatters and split from luff to leach in multiple places very quickly.
