It was the final day of the first leg from Las Palmas, and I was happily slumbering through my last off-watch and dreaming of our triumphal arrival into Mindelo with a celebratory beer or ten. Suddenly, the crack of a rifle shot ricocheted around the boat and shot me out of my bunk and into the cockpit in a milli-second. O MY GOD. Not a rifle shot, but instead, our forestay was hanging by a thread and our (brand new) genoa sail was loose and flogging. I’d spent the last 500 hours or so of the reasonably terrifying trip from Las Palmas running every possible disaster scenario in my head ….. except for this one.
The conditions felt pretty intense: the wind was blowing force 5-6 and the waves were around 4 metres from 2 different directions, causing the boat to heave and lurch fiercely. We had been sailing downwind under twin headsails and fearing that the chaos could bring down the entire rig, we straightaway furled the jib and tried to undo the genoa halyard from the mast to bring it down in a controlled fashion. But after trying repeatedly it was clear that it wasn’t happening. The only solution was to cut it, bringing everything crashing down in complete anarchy, and try not to be hit by flying gear or be knocked overboard into the tumultuous sea, from which there would be little hope of rescue.
The forestay and much of the sail ended up under the boat with the rest of the gear thrashing ferociously all over the deck in the high wind. With the sea conditions and little headway, our autopilot was unable to cope and with so much of the gear under the boat it was essential to make sure we did not get any lines around the propeller. So being 2-handed I took over the helm, leaving Malcolm dealing with the sail alone. Our genoa is so heavy that even in a sailbag, the two of us can barely lift it. Incredibly, with the boat motoring backwards and on a pitching deck, he somehow managed to drag the water-filled sail and the stay back onboard. Even now I am literally in awe of this achievement - although in his usual understated way, he says it’s amazing what you can do when you are desperate - and when you don’t want to lose your brand new sail!
We tied everything down as far as we were able, including the spinnaker halyards secured to the deck to support the remaining forestay. ARC+ rally control confirmed that they were ready for us with an easy berth, and with 2 of the other ARC+ boats standing by, we began to limp the last 85 miles or so to the Cape Verdes. It was already late morning on Friday and only 7 days until we were due to start the second leg across the Atlantic. So, thanking our lucky stars for our recently installed Starlink, we set about booking the one and only boatyard in Mindelo, BoatCV, to make the repairs, and contacting suppliers in the UK for spare parts. We are very fortunate to have a consultant in the UK, John Eustace, who was the project manager on the build of Aqualuna so we mobilised him to start sourcing the parts that we were likely to need.
We arrived in the dark after a particularly hairy passage through the wind acceleration zone off Mindelo, which caused the ties strapping down the sail to slip down and the sail to fill with wind again. The ARC+ and marina teams were so efficient at helping us moor - and so welcoming - that it took a huge amount of stress away from both of us. And the following day, the wonderful Gilson from BoatCV told us that we were his top priority (although I suspect he gives everyone the same reassurance) and immediately got onboard with his team to take everything off to the workshop in order to salvage and repair as much as they could, and to manufacture what they couldn’t. On an island with very limited resources, their level of expertise and manufacturing capability was mind-blowing.
In only 7 days, 2 of which were at a weekend, a new spinnaker pole had been made, the sail repaired and the entire rig reassembled. This was achieved in no small part to John Eustace managing to track down the parts that could not be salvaged or repaired in Mindelo and undertaking a 500 mile round trip to collect them from Plymouth, before jumping on a plane at Heathrow to bring them out (disguised as windsurfing equipment, in order to get around the 1.5m limit imposed by TAP unless it was sports equipment!)
Did we manage to leave for the 2nd leg on Friday with the rest of the fleet? Well, not quite. We could hear the countdown to the start on the VHF as BoatCV were desperately finishing off the final rigging and checks, and it was very hard to hear the start announced whilst we were still attached firmly to the pontoon. However, 2.5 hours later we crossed the start line in splendid isolation, with everything re-rigged except our steaming light - and given that we are not supposed to use the engine, I don’t think we’ll lose any sleep over that!
So what happened, and what did we learn? Well the cause of the problem was that a spinnaker halyard had become wrapped around the genoa forestay, making it difficult to wind the sail in. We had experienced a problem with the genoa furler a few weeks earlier, that had been fixed in Las Palmas before the start of the first leg. Assuming that we had the same problem and anxious about the deteriorating conditions at sea with a full sail out, we had kept winding the furler using the electric winch. We did eventually realise that the spinnaker halyard was wrapped and managed to untangle it, but unbeknown to us the damage was already done. The metal strands of the forestay had in fact unwound inside the foil (which we couldn’t see) but it had stayed up until the genoa was unfurled fully again, causing the strands to snap and a complete failure of the stay.
We learned a few very important lessons:
- If the furler is not turning properly, a very likely cause is that it is being jammed by a spinnaker halyard wrapped at the top. It turns out that there was a very high number of skippers on ARC+ that had experienced furlers jamming for exactly this reason.
- The electric winches are hugely powerful and whilst we are aware of this, it was yet again another reminder that if something is resistant, do not keep winding. There is a reason for it that needs addressing.
- NEVER assume that you know what the problem is without double / triple checking. I had assumed that because the symptoms were the same, this issue was the same as before.
We were extremely lucky: this happened on the last day of the voyage and in daylight. In the dark, the outcome could have been very different. And once again, I am so thankful to have a well-built ocean-going boat - in this case, the twin forestays made the difference between a problem and a disaster. The outstanding level of support and commitment from both BoatCV and John Eustace enabled us to join the 2nd leg only a short time after the rest of the fleet - and incredibly on the day of the restart. And finally, the practical support, along with the positivity and encouragement we received from the other ARC+ crews cannot be underestimated. All things considered we count ourselves very lucky indeed.