Movistar Abandoned, Timeline From Headquarters
Movistar Abandoned, Timeline From Headquarters
The following reports are provided for Volvo Ocean Race Headquarters
May 21, 14:05:00 UTC
Following a night of fighting their keel problems after the aft end of
their keel pivot bearing broke away from the hull, Bouwe Bekking and
his crew have abandoned their vessel and have safely transferred to ABN
AMRO TWO which has been standing by since approximately 2200GMT last
night.
The crew used the liferaft to transfer safely between the two yachts.
Bekking ((NED), and his crew, Andrew Cape (AUS), Chris Nicholson (AUS),
Jonathan Swain (USA), Mike Joubert (RSA), Noel Drennan (IRL), Pepe
Ribes (ESP), Peter Doriean (AUS), Stuart Bannatyne (NZL) and Fernando
Echavarri (ESP) are now all safely aboard ABN AMRO TWO and are heading
for land.
The transfer was completed in the eye of the low pressure system that
is passing over, when winds dropped to seven knots. The forecast is for
winds of up to 50 knots to come in from the west imminently, which
hastened the decision to abandon movistar.
Throughout the night the crew of movistar had worked to stabilise their
Volvo Open 70 by securing the 4,500 kg canting with ropes, and had
achieved some degree of success. They had managed to keep the water
ingress under control and even apply some cant to enable the boat to
make progress towards Lands End. At the time the crew transferred to
ABN AMRO TWO, they were 307 miles west south west of the south western
extremity of England.
Food and personal items were transferred with the crew. movistar has been left with her generator running and her
Sat C communications system operational so that she can be tracked for as long as possible.
Outside assistance was on its way to the two yachts, the Royal Navy
having immediately responded to a request for help by sending the
Fisheries Patrol vessel HMS Mersey, a River Class Offshore Patrol
vessel from Milford Haven in Wales. HMS Mersey is heading for a
rendezvous with ABN AMRO TWO with all possible speed, should be with
them in about eight hours and will shepherd then to the nearest coast.
Report from Bouwe
Once he was safely aboard ABN AMRO TWO and heading for dry land, Bouwe
Bekking took the time to send a full report of movistar's troubles and
the subsequent abandoning of his command, "The hardest decision I ever
taken in my life was the call to abandon ship.
"This morning we gybed over on the other board to check how the keel
would cope with that angle. Straight away we saw that the water intake
nearly doubled and had to start the second emergency pump. That made me
realise that we were actually in way bigger trouble.
"We had survived for nearly 24 hours, but in light winds and the seas
had calmed down, but with a forecast of 35 to 40 knots and peaking up
to 50, I just wasn't sure the boat would hold out.
"The breeze died to around six knots and now the boat was rocking hard
as the seas became more confused. The keel pin started moving more as
well, so in the end I took the tough decision. Ten lives at stake, with
a similar number of families, the right call.
"Seb and his crew have been fantastic over the last 24 hours. We all
realised that turning around had been a very hard call for them, and
hopefully they can find a little comfort that they have saved ten
lives. A boat is just a boat, you can replace it, but lives you cannot.
"Saying thank you is not big enough right now, it is more than that. I am sure we get even a better friendship with them all.
"Once the call was made, I spoke with Seb on the VHF and went through procedures.
"We decided to us one liferaft, and move over safety gear/food/media
equipment etc, etc. We slid the raft of the transom, and one person
jumped in and collected all the gear. Then four persons followed and we
slipped them off.
"The transfer went perfectly and was done in a couple of minutes. The
four went aboard ABN AMRO TWO and the raft was pushed off again with
Mikey still in it. This was planned, so we could motor over, and throw
him a line, which went OK at the first attempt. I checked once more
downstairs, had a final look and stepped on deck.
"In the mean time the four others had slipped the second liferaft in
the water, but didn't inflate it, as we wanted to keep it in one piece,
so we had a third liferaft on ABN AMRO TWO, as Seb had requested.
"That was it, boat abandoned, and our way across. Had a short chat with
Nitro, and he was happy we got off, he could remember clearly Cape Horn
in 50 knots, he couldn't imagine doing a transfer in those conditions.
"Seb drove his boat precisely beside our raft, and we could throw the
line and make the transfer in a whisker. I thanked him and his crew,
and said how tough this must have been for them as well, especially
after what they have been through.
"So now here we are on board, on our way to England. Spoke with Seb,
what he wanted us to do, feel like home. He would like to remain to
race in the spirit of the rule, sailing with his own boys. Fair enough.
"There is no mirror onboard here, but I could face myself, we have done everything possible.
"Bouwe Bekking"
Interview with Glenn Bourke
Once the immediate safety of the movistar crew had been assured, Amanda
Blackley talked to Glenn Bourke about the situation as it transpired,
the future of movistar the boat and the ramifications for the Volvo
Ocean Race,
"I think it's been an incredibly difficult period for all of those
boats: Brunel and in fact everybody in the fleet has had a really tough
time on this Atlantic crossing. The weather has been absolutely
atrocious.
"But what I can say is that ABN AMRO TWO in every single case has acted
incredibly professionally. They've done exactly the right thing at the
right time and Bouwe Bekking in similar cases, made good decisions.
I've been speaking to him now for over 24 hours, probably even longer
than that, and he's remained rational the whole way through, he's come
up with good ideas, he's kept the boat afloat, he's kept his crew safe.
And then ultimately he made absolutely the correct decision to get off
and to get his ten crew members safely to boat.
So ABN TWO will be accompanied into land by a navy vessel?
"That's our understanding at the moment. HMS Mersey will escort ABN
AMRO TWO all the way into land until they are comfortable and happy,
and that will probably take something in the order of 15 to 20 hours
before they reach the Lizard and its our understanding that they will
stand by and watch over the guys.
"If the sea state became flat enough and they could deploy a RIB they
might choose to take some of the crew members off ABN AMRO TWO and onto
Mersey, but we are not sure about that right now.
What is the future of movistar?
"Well there are only a couple of things that can happy to movistar really.
"She has drogues out the back so she'll be running stern to the wind,
and as the wind increases and the storm comes through the motion of the
sea will become quite violent. What that could do is it could actually
break the
fin away from the hull and if that happens the boat will quickly capsize and fairly quickly after turn upside down.
"But the good thing about these boats is they have six collision
bulkheads, and so they have enormous air reservoirs inside them. If the
keel was to fall off the boat would stay afloat, upside down for a very
long time.
"The other alternative is that the keel doesn't dislodge: that the rope
and the webbing and whatever the boys did to secure the keel inside the
boat is sufficient, and that the storm passes through, that the boat
stays afloat, and basically hangs on. A salvage vessel can come pick it
up and slowly tow it back to port where it can be fixed.
Glenn, what are your thoughts on how these incidents impact the Volvo Ocean Race?
"Well every incident like this impacts the Volvo Ocean Race. We have to learn from it. The sailors come in and
give us their thoughts on what went well, what didn't go well. It's a
learning experience for absolutely everyone and we will all be touched
and altered by all the sequence of events that have happened out here.
I don't think any of us will ever be the same.
"And yet we have to press on. We have an event, we have racing sail boats out there. We have a winner of the
race in fact, in ABN AMRO ONE coming into Portsmouth. And we have to
continue to learn and improve and modify, and create a great finish for
the race."
May 21: Leg Seven, Day 11: Movistar was sailing in 25-28 knots of breeze, on an open angle, 120 TWA Seas
were big, 5- 6 metres and therefore we sailed with 3 reefs and a number
4 jib. All of sudden a loud crack was heard and immediately we headed
downwind.
First we checked the rams shelves but they were ok, then the keel pin, and here we saw water streaming in. So we
dropped the main instantly & got the pumps out. Closer inspection
showed us that the keel pin had moved 50mm in the structure sideways,
and we could see the keel pin move up & down. We informed
headquarters, and asked for assistance of other competing boats.
It was pretty hard to ask the ABN 2 boys to come back, as they are
having plenty on their plate. Brunel were willing to come too, but
found out that they have some issues as well, so we agreed to make a
decision later if we needed their assistance.
The water never rose as high as the Cape Horn incident, and we could
keep it level immediately. In the mean time all the guys had put on
their survival suits/lifejackets, just for worse case scenario. Carbon
fibre doesn't give any warning when it will break.
We drilled a lot of holes in certain positions (under guidance from a
structural engineer) in the structure and tightened ropes through there
and then around the keel, to avoid the keel from further dropping, plus
as well two halyards on strops around the keel pin.
So situation is stable, one pump is running all the time and the good
news is that we have visual contact now with ABN2 who will escort us as
long we need them. We are very grateful that they are there under the
extreme circumstances they are in. Once we had visual with ABN2, I
informed Brunel that they could continue towards England.
I have to say the coordination with race headquarters and the Falmouth
coastguard has been excellent, and thank you Thrane & Thrane for
the Comms equipment, it makes live decisions much easier in such a
situation.
So just keeping our fingers crossed the boat will hold out, and that we
can bring it into port safely. One thing for sure it was nice that it
was daylight, that way you have a much better overview. And the guys?
They have been top, like always
Keep you posted,
Bouwe Bekking - skipper
