Sea of dreams : racing alone around the world in a small boat by Mayers Adam

Author:Mayers, Adam
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Hatfield, Derek, Spirit of Canada (Yacht), Around Alone (Race), Single-handed sailing, Around Alone (Course de yachts), Navigation à voile en solitaire
ISBN: 0771057539
Publisher: Toronto : M&S
Published: 2004-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

LEG IV

ROUTE: Tauranga, New Zealand, to Salvador, Brazil

DEPARTURE: February 9, 2003

DISTANCE: 7,850 nautical miles

Playing Catch-Up

“I could feel myself not far from death.

I had passed the first threshold of descent.

It is that knowledge that led me to say, much later, that I had returned from the kingdom of the dead.”

- RAPHAEL DINELLI, RESCUE FROM BEYOND THE ROARING FORTIES

UL UROPEANS SETTLED NEW Zealand in the middle of the nineteenth century. It followed a treaty with the Polynesian Maori in 1840, in which the Maori ceded sovereignty of the islands to Queen Victoria. The native people thought they were retaining territorial rights, but a series of battles over the next thirty years ended with their defeat and subjugation.

New Zealand has about four million people living on the two islands separated by the Cook Strait. With ten thousand miles of coastline, New Zealand is home to a huge sailing fraternity.

The Around Alone stopped in Tauranga, rather than Auckland, because the America’s Cup, which ran from February 15 to March 2, 2003, had laid claim to the larger and better-known port. Tauranga is a popular resort town on the eastern coast of North Island,

surrounded by miles of white sandy beaches, with mountains just inland. Mount Maunganui serves as a landmark for sailors approaching the harbour. Inside the sheltered bay there are two marinas with room for more than one thousand boats. The city is home to New Zealand’s boat-building industry and offers all of the related marine services.

Bernard Stamm, who had plenty of time on his hands, visited Auckland to look over the America’s Cup fleet. He spent three days as a guest of Team Alinghi, the Swiss entry in the match series. (They crushed host New Zealand 5 - o to become the first European team to win sailing’s oldest trophy, and the first from a landlocked country to win.) From a trial boat that follows the fleet during the races Stamm watched a tune-up race. He drew comparisons between the two types of racing, the one wide open and solo, the other a team effort with as many as sixteen crew on board, competing in short, intense sprints. The boats are built of the same materials, rigging and sails are similar. America’s Cup boats are seventy feet long while the biggest Around Alone boats are 60s. America’s Cup sailors were puzzled when Stamm referred to his sleek Bohst Group as a “truck.” He was amused by their reaction. What he meant was his boat was tough enough to stand up to the Southern Ocean, even though, at twenty thousand pounds, it was three times lighter than Alinghi. However, the America’s Cup boats can’t manage more than eighteen to twenty knots, while Open 60s exceed thirty knots at times.

The big difference in design reflects their use. America’s Cup boats are built to sail around a course that is usually triangular, with each leg giving a different point of sail - upwind, beam reaching, and downwind. The boats have thin, sheer lines. Open boats are pizza-shaped wedges, with wide, flat bottoms.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.