 |
8:40 AM Tue 30 Dec 2008 GMT
Giant dockside scales are looming large for the Volvo Ocean Race shore crews who are frantically trying to calculate whether their boat repairs over the first 15,000 nautical miles of the race may have taken them over the permitted weight limit.
All eight boats were measured at the start of the race in Alicante to make sure they did not exceed the maximum 14 tonne limit set down in the rules. In Singapore, at Pasir Penjang Wharves to be precise where the boats are being repaired and refitted, they will be weighed again.
In between, there has been significant damage to keels, bulkheads, rudders, bowsprits and daggerboards, all of which have required patching up, replacing, rebuilding, laminating, painting and much much more.
Like for like materials have been used where possible and the supposed gains and losses logged but shore crews, who are under strict instructions to keep as much weight as possible in the keel bulb ahead of the next heavy weather leg to Qingdao, are now anxiously inspecting every nook and cranny for excess grammes.
'All the boats except for Telefonica Blue are up against the maximum weight limit in the rule so they are all out of the water, having all the moisture sucked out of them to make them lighter, lighter, lighter,' said Telefonica shore manager Campbell Field.
'We have definitely added to the weight of our boats but we know pretty much by how much. With the Blue boat, we have a lot of leeway but with the Black boat we had just eight kilos of margin so we were just under the maximum weight.
'Whatever you do on the boat, even if you sand back a piece of paint and repaint it, it will make a difference to the weight. Might only be grammes but multiply that by a hundred times and suddenly it becomes significant.'
The search for unwelcome loads had almost become forensic on the Green Dragon, admitted shore manager Johnny Smullen.
'These poor girls find a way of gaining weight over time,' he said.
'It could be just a matter of water being trapped somewhere so we are going through the whole boat making sure there is no water anywhere.
'All the boats have added weight and we are very conscious of what we have added since the start but there are things that you can't help if you are making constant repairs.
'If something has broken we have tried to replace it with an identical piece of kit so the weight shouldn't really have changed.'
by Kate Laven
|
|
Lord Howe Island Windy Point, NSW
