The 2002 Bermuda Ocean Race (BOR) Annapolis -
Bermuda
Date: June 7 to June 22, 2002. The start
of the race was Friday June 7 at 4:10 pm in front of EYC at Annapolis.
Chantecler was the first Division III boat to cross the finish line in
Bermuda on Thursday June 13 at 4:40 am. We started the return trip on Monday
June 17 around 10:00 am and arrived in Annapolis on Saturday June 22 around
3:00 am.
Rhumb line length: 751.3 nm. Actual
distance sailed: 786.4 nm. Excess distance sailed: 35.1 nm
To illustrate, the round trip length on
the rhumb line is about 2800 km (equivalent to the round trip Paris -
Algiers - Paris).
The Start
This picture was taken from the RC boat by the
Vice-Commodore of the St George's Dinghy & Sports Club. Chantecler (Sail
#536) is reaching just behind Singularity and Shanty Irish is on our leeward
side, going above proper course in an effort to gain clean air by preventing
our passing.
More pictures and text at BOR
Start
In Bermuda
The BOR team gathering on Chantecler around our silver
trophy. From left to right:
First row: Tim Quist, Jaffar Bentchikou, Paul Hillier, Larry
Vazzano.
Second row: Santiago Dellepiane, Chad McMullin, Bertrand
Bellegarde
More Pictures and text In
Bermuda
More pictures of The Crew
Impressions
Jaffar:
click =>
We are under spinnaker at the bottom of the Bay, battling
with two boats nearby. The wind is strong and the narrow
opening of the Chesapeake Bridge-Tunnel is fast approaching. The wind is
quite high on our port side and whatever room we had on our right to douse
the spinnaker in case of sudden blow is fast disappearing. The causeway is
now our lee shore and it is becoming closer and closer. I take the helm
because our margin of safety was becoming narrower and ask every body to be
ready for a douse. I aim at the mark that will give us our official
Chesapeake Bay time and plan to leave it on Port, although I did not
remember reading the Sailing Instructions that we had to leave it on a
specific side. Port seemed at that time like a logical way of rounding that mark
but a re-reading of the SIs after the race confirmed that both Port-
and Starboard- roundings were legal. The dark-hulled boat takes the shortcut and leaves the mark well off Starboard. We record
our time and prepare for the douse as we have to turn left and the wind and
the waves in the ocean appear much stronger than in the Bay. The douse is
slow and difficult and I go to the navigation table to look at the computer
for the next heading. Believe it or not, but we had no waypoint set yet for
the ocean race. We knew what we had to do in the Bay and we were planning to
follow Jenifer Clark's route in the Ocean, but no waypoint was yet setup on
the computer. All of a sudden, the task of setting waypoints on the computer
from JC's charts seemed more difficult than in the morning of the start when
we were at her briefing. The boat is moving around violently in all
directions like a small cork and looking at that computer screen starts soon
to become dizzying. I get a quick heading and head back fast to the more
stomach-friendly cockpit.
I did not know at that time that the sea conditions were
only going to be worse for the next 24 hours and that the Gulfstream and
water dripping inside the cabin would make us shut down the computer.
Furthermore, because dizziness slows your brain, I did not anticipate that
we will have increasing discrepancies (due to the current) between boat
heading and actual COG, Course Over Ground. Thus instead of following JC's
route South of the rumbline, we slowly crossed that rumbline because
of the Northward push of the Gulfstream and next time we checked, we were
North of the rumbline. We had lost about one hour (to Singularity) in the
Bay and may have easily lost a few more hours right there because the lack of a
proper Gulfstream waypoint made us deviate quite a bit from our optimized
route.
Chad:
click =>
June 12 the wind is
building we anticipate a stronger breeze as we approach Bermuda on this
final night push. Our path and that of ‘Silver Bullet’ were finally
converging after 3 plus days of horizon sightings. It offers comfort to see
and hear others, even competitors, in this vast ocean. Bertrand, Santiago
and I take watch at 22:00. ‘Silver Bullet’ is now ½ mile off our bow on the
same heading…finish line bound. We check our course heading a few times,
keep our speed up by flying the 89 m2 spin, a little chit chat, and we roll
past ‘Silver Bullet’ to starboard. It is so dark that she is nothing more
than running lights. We found out later in St. George’s that ‘Silver
Bullet’ had been struggling to handle their spinnaker in building winds and
eventually had to douse for control. Hence we were able to overtake them…
After so many miles it was very exciting to power by an upper-class
competitor so close to the finish.
As we near the waypoints
to round the Bermuda reefs our VHF starts chirping, ‘Harbor Radio Harbor
Radio this is the vessel Cat’s Paw…‘ We sighed collectively as they are not
in our class. At 15 miles out the calls to Harbor Radio are more frequent.
It was a real convergence on that morning. We made our call and continued
to fly along under spinnaker in steady winds of 15 to 20 knots and gusts up
to 25. The air was very heavy with humidity and we were humming along
nicely at speeds above 14 knots. By this time, 2:00AM, all hands were on
deck and below deck. It was Jaffar, Larry, and Paul on watch but none of us
were going to sleep or relax until we made the spit buoy. I went below to
call out headings; we rounded the reef, into the wind, set the number 3, and
peeled off the spinnaker. Pound pound pound all the way to the finish. One
more call to Harbor Radio at Mills Breaker. By this waypoint checking we
had not heard our division competitors again on the VHF. This meant, by all
our accounts and communications, we were leading our division and the finish
would produce at least one trophy. Spit buoy: Q(3) 10s…finish June 13, 2002
4:40AM.
A fine and eventful run to
the finish. Well-done team Chantecler!
Larry:
click =>
I had been looking forward to my first offshore race &
sail to Bermuda, it was a great first experience & I am ready to do it
again. We had been learning to sail together as a team since the spring,
but more importantly, unknowing to us at first, our practice taught us to
think & act as a unit and individuals stood out as they were called upon.
The Gulf Stream made a very exciting night, but I wouldn’t have expected
anything less. I left watch at 2200, wind around 15k and the boat moving
along fine, momentarily thinking we might want to reduce sail in preparation
for the Gulf Stream. I had been asleep only minutes when the call came for
more crew. The GS roared, 10+ waves and a NE wind 25+, every wave over the
deck, and there were many, was like a warm shower. I was glad I did not
have to go forward for the sail change to the #4, we moved from the mini-reef
to reef #1 as
well. For the next few hours we worked our way through the wind & sloppy
chop, tacking a couple of times. Later we found ourselves sailing too far
north, at the time there were not enough healthy crew available to consult the chart
as the navigation computer was stored in a dry place as water was getting
inside the cabin. Regardless of the foul weather gear used,
everyone & everything was wet.
The J-105 is an
exciting boat to sail and seems to exceed hull speed often. There were many
nights under the stars in 15+k of wind I did not want to leave the helm
sailing Chantecler at speeds exceeding 14k, Santiago held the speed
record returning in the Gulf Stream under small spinnaker & 30k of wind at
17.9k! This BOR had a little of everything for me; a fast exit out of the
Bay, heavy wind & seas, exciting sailing, light wind, flat seas, boring
sailing, through-hulls flooding the forward cabin, flying fish in the
cockpit, dolphins, shooting stars and an exciting finish, first in class to
cross line.
Tim:
Yesterday when I picked up the mail I was
reminded of one of the most amazing journeys of my entire life. There it
was, a thank you card, not from an old friend or some place that I purchased
tires from, but from a small country. That county was Bermuda. I found it
odd at first that a place that I visited for a few days would send a thank
you card, but after a few moments of thought, it did not seem so out of
place. The people and the hospitality of such a small world was amazing to
take part in, and the camaraderie that was made between five men over the
span of over a week was just as awesome.
How do you sum up a trip like the one that
we had on the way back from Bermuda? Some words that come to mind are
tiring, long, monotonous, stressful, scary,
and at times hell on earth. Others are beauty, awe,
thrill, and joy. The first day threw at us a test that would
bring us all together for the rest of the trip. As Santiago and I started
our first shift of the trip, we noticed that the bow of the boat was burying
itself under each wave we went through, this seemed quite odd, and after
investigation we discovered that we were taking water in the compartment
under the V-berth. Upon a further look we noticed that the lockers were full
with water, and overflowing at an alarming rate. We quickly awoke the rest
of the crew, and like we were automatic bilge pumps we began to pump out the
flooded V-berth. We all came together in a way I have never seen people come
together before. No one panicked, no one sat to the side and we all pitched
in together. Used at full capacity were the main electric bilge pump, the
forward electric pump, the fixed manual bilge pump, the large hand pump and
the two buckets. After a few minutes of realizing that the water was still
coming in, we discovered what the origin of the problem was that the depth
sounder transducer had popped out of its thru hull and we fixed it
immediately. None of us gave up, and there was not a stressful feeling on
the boat from this ordeal, until after we finished and realized just how
lucky we were. The thing that I always say with that story, that is what I
feel saved us the most, is that until the point that we left Bermuda right
up to the point that we realized we were taking on water the wind was
blowing 20 plus knots, and the waves were quite large (6-9 feet in the
forecast we got before leaving the dock), Once we started to bail the boat
out, the wind calmed and the waves appeared gentler. After the boat was
bailed out and we were ready to go, the wind picked back up, and off we
went.
When I say the wind picked back up, I mean
that we did not have a break from that moment on. We skipped from squall to
squall. Wind gusts well over thirty. In the early morning, middle of the
day, and middle of the night. The most amazing squall we went through was in
the middle of the night. That was when we realized that Mental Floss was
with us on our journey back. They were in the distance and in the dark night
we could see their lights on the horizon bouncing up and down with ours.
Lightning crashed, and thunder rumbled. Few times have I been that excited.
The funny thing is, we all stayed the same as in the past situation, no one
panicked, no one gave up, and we stayed like a machine.
After rumbling on and on, we then came to
the Gulf Stream, oh yeah. Winds were at a strong 30 plus going in, and we
were having a wild ride under spinnaker, yes I said spinnaker. I can be
corrected if I am wrong however I do not believe that the boat has made it
over 18.5 knots since then, and it may be some time before it does. Needless
to say reluctant me, took the helm, and had the less than privileged honor
of ripping that shoot right in half. After about an hour of silence post
destruction we all were able to have a laugh and joke of our new water speed
record.
The Bay finished
us off in only the way that the Bay can. Calm and glossy. Luckily we had
plenty of fuel, however I would have preferred wind as the time would have
gone by faster. I have only been out sailing once since then, it made me
realize and respect many things. One is Mother Nature. You must respect the
elements, and the weather when taking on a trip like that. The other is the
power of teamwork. We could not have done a better job if we had a full
crew, so that fact that we were down one person was something that makes me
proud I was part of the adventure. Thanks should be mentioned to Jaffar. He
really held us all together throughout. His leadership, and patience helped
that boat win the award that it did, and make us the crew that we are. I
will always hold a place in my heart for Chantecler and crew, and the
adventure that we all shared that few weeks in June.
The email exchanged with the boat is at: Email
