Sailing Magazine
By Richard Crockett
In today’s offering, South African Nick Leggatt, is part of the ‘Playstation’ crew who broke the “route of discovery record” – sailing from Cadiz to San Salvador.
Reading Leggatt’s editorial, this was no easy passage despite the record. And, having an average speed of 16,93 knots one may wonder what all the fuss is about as it’s a pedestrian speed in terms of what sailing vessels can achieve today!
Crewing aboard these mammoth catamarans back in those days was not for the feint-hearted as can be seen from this editorial extract: “25 knots … 26 knots .. 27 knots, Playstation powered up again with up to 15 tons of pressure coming onto the mainsheet. Then another big wave, another sudden stop and a drenching shower of spray. Again and again the cycle repeated itself through the night until suddenly we heard a sharp crack from the leeward hull, 60′ away in the darkness. For a moment the gennaker sheet went slack in Dave’s hands and then it whipped tight with such a force that the cover melted onto the winch. Scrambling to their feet the four standby watch crew members rushed across the heaving trampoline to investigate.
“Watch captain Dave Scully was soon back with the news that the gennaker sheet block had exploded under 10 000kg of pressure, scattering roller bearings all over the boat. Fortunately the Spectra safety strops looped through the sheave had prevented the larger pieces of the damaged block from flying off. Working quickly, the crew furled the gennaker and then unrolled the big solent jib, barely slowing ‘Playstation’s’ pace. A replacement block was fitted and the boat was soon fully powered up again, but with the crew vividly reminded about the dangers of the “arcs of death” – those zones between the sheets where an exploding block could destroy anything in its path.”
READ THE FULL REPORT HERE: Pages from 2003 09 – SAILING Magazine – OCR
