The Romantic Challenge
Page 24
He has also written: ‘I only succeeded in sailing at an average of 9 knots or more during the 22 periods during the first two-thirds of the 4,000 miles run. These 9 knots periods totalled 2951⁄3 miles. During the last third of the 4,000 miles, 9 knots speed was only averaged once according to the log, but the underwater units of the speedometer were much worn and greatly under-reading. This I discovered afterwards. I think 9 knots was exceeded during 21 periods of the last part of the passage. Of course, some of these periods were short, at an hour or two.’
Nine knots average gives a distance of 216 miles per day. It will be evident that since, on the fix to fix distances recorded in the table, averages of 215.5 and 231.5 miles were attained on two days in the latter part of the voyages, speeds of 9 knots must have been held for appreciable periods, as Chichester deduces. Here, incidentally, we may see one of the many sources of error in speed records, apart from the gay imagination. Logs sometimes under-read. They also over-read, and since wishes so often beget records, this fact is overlooked. The distance between two fixes must be the basis of claimed record speeds. Where the clipper ships were concerned, doubts of speed claims were sometimes most powerfully reinforced by doubts about the fixes recorded. It appears to have been the habit of some Masters to find it conveniently impossible at times to make (or at least to record) an observation. This occurred in the case of the Champion on the day following one when the mileage claimed was an astounding 465 miles. In a hectically competitive trade, some of the captains may have been guilty of fixing their fixes.
Of the boat’s behaviour and the general effect of her naturally high speed, due to length and light displacement, Chichester tells me: ‘Gipsy Moth V was the design of boat I wanted for the job, but I found two effects of her speed which I think will be something new to reckon with in fast ocean racers:
‘In a storm her speed was a great disadvantage. I could not slow her down. Running under bare poles, I once noted the speedometer reading 12½ knots. When I tried to slow her down by heading into the wind after setting a new small storm jib, she would not point into the wind with the helm hard a’lee. I reckon she would have sailed into the wind at 8 knots if I had trimmed the rudder for it, and this would have been suicide. Soon afterwards the storm jib was blown into strips and ribbons and the two 1½in braided nylon sheets parted. I think this occurred during the worst of the three knockdowns: perhaps afterwards but not before. There was too much din to tell.’
The fact that, even with the helm hard down, the yacht could not be coaxed into the wind is disturbing, but a similar effect was apparently experienced by USN destroyers during a Pacific hurricane. After running before mounting seas until yawing and rolling became dangerous, it was found that the destroyers could not be headed up. No doubt the windage and water resistance of their high foc’s’les contributed to this. As a result one or more was lost by capsizing. But it will be evident that the yacht of light and fine lined type, capable of gathering high speed very quickly, can be a source of danger in a high wind and sea, which the slower and heavier type would not be. The volatile character of the former might, under such conditions, be exchanged with advantage for the relatively stodgy performance of the latter.
Incidentally, the speed of 12½ knots under bare poles recorded above may cause suspicion. Unless the log held this speed for at least a minute or so one would be inclined to regard it as a momentary effect of the violently disturbed wave motion on the underwater unit, or perhaps an inertial effect on the needle of the indicator. But this does not call into question that the yacht was travelling dangerously fast.
Talking with him, I gained the impression that Sir Francis Chichester still believes his object could be attained. I confess that even in the pleasant atmosphere of a St James’s Street drawing room when a warm June evening makes everything hopeful, and miles of monstrous seaway are taken lightly, I remained sceptical. But then, last February I should have been sceptical of what actually has been achieved.
Copyright
First published in 1971 by Cassell
This edition published 2012 by Bello an imprint of Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR Basingstoke and Oxford Associated companies throughout the world
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