Monday, 19 July 2004
Event
Single - handed transatlantic race for Monohulls and Multihulls which started in Plymouth on 31st May. Golding won the IMOCA Open 60 Class finishing in Boston 12 days, 15 hours, 18 minutes and 8 seconds later. ECOVER averaged 9.23 knots during the race.
Sailing the 2,800 mile course from Plymouth to Boston, Golding took two days off the 12 year old record for the single-handed passage east to west across the North Atlantic!
Summary
Day 1
"No one's doubting that this is going to be a tough race, but personally I can't wait to get started," said Golding in Plymouth that morning. ECOVER makes a good start to The Transat, and Mike Golding wins an Omega watch for being first Open 60 monohull skipper to pass the Eddystone Lighthouse, a few miles out from the Plymouth start. However, the Omega watch is the last thing on Golding's mind as he discovers that the small electric pump which powers the hydraulics for his swing keel has burnt out.
Day 2
ECOVER maintains her early lead in the race, despite the keel problems. Golding has come up with a novel way of dealing with this. To hand-pump the keel across to windward would take even a very fit former fireman around 30 minutes of hard graft. "I'm going to have arms like Popeye at the end of this race," he commented. But he has minimised the effort on biceps and forearms by opting for an easier, if somewhat unsettling, alternative of laying ECOVER over hard to leeward before each tack, and letting gravity do most of the work. The result is that at its worst the Open 60 is lying at 80 degrees over to leeward, the mast and sails not far short of touching the water. "It must look outrageously dangerous from outside the boat, but so far it seems surprisingly safe,"
Day 3
While Golding has been pushing north, close rival Jean-Pierre Dick makes his more southerly route pay, and he seizes a 30-mile lead from ECOVER. "Of the 30 mile gap we've got right now, I'd estimate we lost nine of those to keel trouble, and the other 21 miles to weather differences. It will be interesting to see how we go now. We're broad reaching in 14 knots of breeze at the moment, but this mode of sailing is a grey area for me on this boat. It will be a good speed test." After a fraught couple of days, Golding is severely down on sleep and looking forward to grabbing some proper rest.
Day 4
A more relaxed 24 hours aboard ECOVER has allowed Mike Golding to take stock of his situation and prepare for the big winds that are forecast for the coming days. "I got the big sleep I was looking for, and I feel a lot better now, a lot more together," he said.
"But now it's big decision time," he continued. "We're heading for the same depression that the multihulls are just about to enter, and the question is whether you can get over the top of it, or whether you end up in the middle of it and get the smacking of your life."
Day 5
Mike Golding might have brought ECOVER to within a few miles of race leader Jean-Pierre Dick, but he's got bigger fish to fry. "We've got 35 knots going upwind in a big lumpy sea, so right now, making ground on the leader is irrelevant," he said. "It's a case of last man standing. These boats aren't built to go upwind this type of breeze in seas like this."
Day 6
Just as ECOVER pulls ahead of Jean-Pierre Dick to resume the lead, when disaster strikes for the Belgian. "I can't believe what happened to Jean-Pierre, poor bloke," he commented of the skipper whose Open 60 suffered a 360 degree roll and subsequent dismasting. Golding describes the extreme conditions as "outrageous", but ECOVER emerges from the 50 knot gale and 14-metre seas with little more than a broken splice and some damaged paintwork. Kiwi Mike Sanderson has been a constant threat to ECOVER's lead and comes through the gale apparently unscathed.
Day 7
"The hardest day ever" is how Mike Golding described his last 24 hours at sea aboard ECOVER. Today, the skipper can barely summon enough energy to talk as he describes the physically exhausting routine of the past day, a day that has seen him grab only 80 minutes of sleep. His keel problems have come back to haunt him in the light winds, as he has wrestled to move it from side to side through the gusts and the lulls. "In these conditions I have to give the keel my full attention," he explained. "I could just set the keel in the middle and sail the boat very flat, but that makes the hull sticky and slow in light winds."
Day 8
A new strong weather system brings two new players into contention for the lead of the IMOCA Open 60 fleet. But almost no sooner than they have arrived to challenge Golding and Sanderson's lead, Bernard Stamm and Vincent Riou suffer catastrophe within hours of each other. Riou's rudder strikes an underwater object, causing the rudder to kick up. With the boat now out of control it crash gybes and brings down the rig as a result. Stamm's fate is even worse, as his swing keel separates from the hull and his boat capsizes. He is rescued by the crew of a nearby tanker.
ECOVER has been flying along, but news of his rivals' demise prompts Golding to take his foot off the pedal. "When we heard what had happened to the others we put in a second reef. It's a whole lot safer and actually it doesn't seem that much slower really. I'm not going to fully wind all the sails on. If I overcook it on the sheet, the boat is going to break something."
Day 9
With the wind becoming lighter as ECOVER approaches the notoriously foggy Grand Banks off Nova Scotia, Golding has resorted from survival mode back to tactical mode in his game of cat and mouse with Kiwi sailor Sanderson. On the leaderboard they have been taking it in turns to seize first place from each other, but Golding believes the actual distance to the finish in Boston to be largely irrelevant. "I realised the positions were changing a lot but that doesn't bother me. It would be easy for me to get into the lead by heading up a bit. But it's more about where you are on the wind ladder."
Day 10
Since the beginning of the race, it is as though Mike Golding and Mike Sanderson have been racing with a piece of string tying the two Owen Clarke-designed Open 60s together. But today Golding made a 'seat-of-the-pants' decision, which has propelled ECOVER into a 25-mile lead over the Kiwi. "We were sailing along the edge of a depression, and the routing plan took us right through the bottom half of it. I was a little more headed than expected, and suddenly found myself having to bear away massively.
"Suddenly I was miles off course, one moment I was matching Pindar on the same routing plan, the next thing I was careering off in a completely different direction. The long and short of it was that I got such a big windshift, I thought, what the hell, let's give it a try. There was no time for niceties, no time for stacking gear on the new side, I just threw the boat round." Half a day later, the quarter ton of sails and equipment is still lying on the wrong side of the boat, but Golding is overcome with fatigue. "There is a point where energy is better expended on other jobs, and believe me, there is plenty else to do. I should feel guilty but I'm too knackered."
Day 11
The early morning reports show Ecover to be ahead by 40 miles. Mike Golding must defend his position while keeping ECOVER in one piece. The signs of wear and tear, particularly as every manoeuvre must be carried out at least twice the number of times due to ECOVER's keel canting problem, are beginning to show.
"I'm knackered. We were going fine and then we had to tack, then the wind crapped out and a horrible sea was left over and it was impossible to get going. I didn't really want to put the Code Eco out in it, because the Eco's looking a bit tired. It got a 4ft tear in it yesterday and I didn't want it slapping through waves so I ran with solent for a while, so I probably lost a little bit but at least I still have the Eco."
Day 12
With the boats passing to the south of Nova Scotia, Dominique Wavre has been making great gains on a more southerly route and is challenging Mike Sanderson for second place. For Golding attempting to cover his lead position is now doubly difficult. While he is making good progress Golding is concerned about light winds between his present position and the finish.
"There are some 5 knot periods in the forecast ahead but 5 knots could be nothing or it could be nine knots. But at the moment the breeze we have got is getting more and more steady."
Day 13
Golding maintains his margin over Wavre, who has indeed pulled up to second. Approaching the land Golding faces the fresh challenge of shoals and the potential for collision with the mass of fishing boats on George's Bank. "There were clusters of boats and they all came over to have a look [at his hitech Open 60 racing yacht], which was annoying because you didn't know whether they'd seen you or not."
Golding finishes at 04:18:08 GMT 13 June in a new record time of 12d 15h 18m 8s
