Skandia Donates Her Keel To Neptune….:

Pity poor Nick Moloney. He survives the battle for sponsroship. He survives the Southern Ocean. He survives a brutal collision with an Unidentified Floating Object (UFO). He survives a variety of mechanical and charging problems. And just as he is approaching the downhill stretch to the finish of the Vendee Globe…Skandia’s keel falls off (Okay, maybe he didn’t survive that collision with the UFO). Here are the sordid details:

“The Open 60 Skandia overnight suffered a major technical failure to the keel, which has led to the keel breaking away from the boat, approximately 30cm below the hull. The boat is still upright, with no sails up, and water ballast tanks full to keep the maximum amount of stability possible.

Moloney was on day 80 of the Vendée Globe with under 5,000 miles left to go on the solo round the world course. It was his first participation in the race and it dramatically ends his long-held dream to complete 3 big round the world sailing goals – of crewed round the world [1997-98 Whitbread on board Toshiba], fastest non-stop round the world [2002 Jules Verne Trophy on board Orange] and, finally, his ultimate goal of solo, non-stop around the world which has now cruely come to an end.”

“Major technical failure.” Is that what they call it now when the keel falls off? Nick is now under engine power, headed toward Rio and a tow vessel. He’s had a chance to talk with his shore team via sat phone, and here is his description of the failure:

“Well I’ve been struggling to go round this weather system and as I started to see the end of the tunnel, I made my last tack to clear the coast north of Rio, and I tacked about 3 o’clock in the morning. About an hour later I just finished tidying up and sorting everything out. I sat down at the chart table and I started to get some sleep and I heard a bang, it sounded like plastic breaking and I wasn’t terribly concerned and I started trying to drift off to sleep and the boat just started heeling over more and more and as then the boat speed dropped to 4 knots. I went out on deck and I was saying to myself I think we’re going to tip over. I ran down below because I just thought the keel had released because I’ve had a problem with my keel dump switch and I tried to sort it out yesterday and I thought well maybe I’ve pulled out the wrong wire or something and the keel’s dumped to leeward. I went down there and the keel head was the right way and I was looking and I’m thinking, am I tired? Am I looking at this situation clearly or what? What’s going on? And then I tried to de-power and keep sailing and the boat was on it’s ear, completely on it’s ear. I just ran to the windward rail with a torch and I’m trying to look over the side to see the bulb, there were lots of waves breaking over the boat because there was about 25 knots of wind at this stage and quite big waves. I couldn’t see the keel and then I laid on the deck and hung right over the hull and I could see the bulb on the centreline of the boat and I thought oh this is wrong, because it’s gotta be out to the other side. So I went down below and de-powered a bit more, and went down and rang Mark [Turner, Project Director OC] and said I think I’ve broken the keel and we were sort of both talking about it and we both came to the conclusion that’s it couldn’t be possible – and that I must have a big net or something. I couldn’t get the boat speed over 6 knots and the boat was just tipping over, so we got Neil Graham [Technical Director, OC] on the line and Neil said if you are losing your stability there’s a problem with the keel, so get the sails off and just hang out until daylight to have a look. It wasn’t until daylight that I could actually see the fin. I chucked my goggles on and I hung out of the escape hatch in the stern and I looked under the hull and I could see the keel was vertical and swinging, and I obviously knew that wasn’t very good. So I ran back inside and I got the endoscope which is a small 90 degree sight tube and I saw the top, looked like the top foot of the keel was together and then the rest of it was snapped off and hanging down so the top of the fin was 45 degrees which it shouldn’t be with the rams pushing the head over and then the keel’s hanging vertically and swinging. I rang Mark and said the keels broken and it’s gonna come off and I really, really was sure it was gonna come off, so I got the rest of the sails down and filled the ballast tanks to try and stabilise the boat. Then it was just a terrible thing to have to do…to break the seal on the engine and engage the engine and that was it for me – the race was over. Then anyway I couldn’t motor upwind [towards Rio] as the engine kept overheating and we went downwind and we tried dropping the keel on to the centre line, and then soon after it snapped off completely.”

Totally brutal. Grant Dalton, who has been around the world more than most, always says that that part of the South Atlantic is the place he fears most in a round the world race. Boats are coming out of the Southern Ocean, fatigued and battered, and then they hit this zone, which often throws crazy weather and brutal head seas at them. The result: rigs come down…and keels fall off. Nick wasn’t the first to have his boat fall apart here. And he won’t be the last…



Bummer: “Uh-oh. We’re suddenly sitting very high in the water…”