The Good, The Bad and The Ugly...

On the passage from Antigua to Bermuda, Windancer IV and crew experienced a true indoctrination into how heavy weather sailing would affect the vessel and those within her while enduring 60+ knot winds and 30 foot seas (see Jim's description of THE STORM in a previous blog entry). The vessel performed like a champion, and her crew, after a short respite and swapping of a crew member in Bermuda, were ready to depart on the longest leg of the ARC Europe 2008 rally - St. Georges, Bermuda to Horta, Faial, Azores.

As the crewed completed final provisioning, customs and immigration check out procedures, and the installation of the new reefing lines and Windancer IV was ready to go - a day ahead of schedule. We reviewed weather GRIB files with the Chris' aboard Sea Squared and Richard aboard Fuerte, who both decided to depart a day early on Tuesday, May 20th - a day ahead of the fleet to stay in front of a very strong frontal system.

So as I made some final phone calls, quick update of the blog (which suffered lack of attention during our Bermuda outings), clear up the dockage tab and make our departure declaration with ARC organizer Fionn McKee, and off we go. Oops, forgot the trip to the fuel dock, wait in line, two sailing vessels ahead of us, no worries, time to complete the securing of the dinghy and sailboard, contact Bermuda Harbour Radio, where we receive final clearance out of Bermuda and best wishes for a safe passage to the Azores.

Our sailing began as expected, good wind of 25-30 knots from the southwest - perfect. As nightfall approached, we took the usual safety procedures and prepared to put the second reef in the main to continue throughout the night in case of squall activities and the development of big winds. At dusk, a pod of dolphins swam with us for several minutes, and someone commented "I think dolphin bring you luck.......... BANG - BANG". The words weren't out of his mouth when the brand new reefing line failed, snapping the new, less than 24 hours old, line and releasing the boom and luffing the mainsail!

After the "all hands on deck" call was made, the second reef was "permanently" installed for the balance of the passage. No worries, we all confident in that reef since it is the same procedure we used to sail through 60+ knot wind. We will review the cause of the failure once we arrive in the Azores. Could be chafing, a sharp edge on the sheave, the rough bolt at the end of a misplaced batten. That is not our concern now and the night went along - our first night at sea en route to an expected passage of two weeks.

As dawn rose on our first full day at sea, we review the watch schedules and decide they went well and shortly after dawn, the crew sat on the bridge, enjoying the first morning of the passage. Then, around 1000, we noticed OTTO, the autopilot self-steering device, was causing the vessel to "swim", to over steer 5 degrees left then 5 degrees right, then 10 degrees left then 10 degrees right, then more... I quickly run to the open the port engine compartment to review the issue, and upon opening the access door, horror fell upon the crew.

The port rudder post pin had snapped - clear off - and the vessel was steering wildly as a result of having only one rudder control and the autohelm sensor receiving erroneous information. Holy crap - that is not good! As a mater of fact - the broken rudder post control pin is the UGLY in my story.

So calmer heads had to prevail. First consideration, crew is safe - YES, vessel is safe - YES, calm down, think of a temporary solution to at least allow the vessel to sail forward safely. Jim and I begin the repair, albeit very temporary solution, with the help of Bob and a "green faced" Steve, and after a little more than an hour, some 5 mm and 10 mm line, and the port rudder is working - kind of.

So now we're looking at the big decision "Do we go forward or turn back?".


The Good and the Bad - Decision time.....

The Good is that we succeeded in our quest to cross the Atlantic Ocean - safe and sound. The Bad, and it really wasn't Bad (I just used that from the title of the classic western movie with Clint Eastwood) was the challenges brought about by the failure of the rudder post pin. The following is the excepts from each crew members personal thoughts and log entries. Please read through the details of how each member of Windancer IV's crew felt and assessed the problem at hand and to what conclusions each person came to - we respect and welcome any and all comments including those who can share other personal experiences.

Jim Rapelje - personal observations on the broken Rudder linkage incident:

We had left Bermuda only a day earlier, the conditions were rough with wind in the 20-30kt range and waves building, currently at about 6-10' range. The linkage to the Port rudder broke, sheared off the pin connecting the linkage to the rudderpost. Initial thoughts were very negative, only one day out and a major failure, I didn't see how we could manage manual steering at he helm, this boat is difficult to steer manually when everything is working correctly. Then there was the potential for progressive additional failures ending with ultimately manual steering using the auxiliary tiller, a 2 inch steel pipe bent into a tiller shape that attaches to the top of the rudder post. This would require someone manning the tiller 24-7 and we just started. 2 weeks of that was untenable I thought.

The suggestion to turn back was made. I seriously thought that might be a good idea at this point but didn't like it one bit. Weather would be much worse back there according to our weather reports and with the boat "damaged" I struggled with the thought.

I have great confidence in my ability to fix things, jury rig something, but was feeling very negative when the first jury rig was begun. John and I used rope to lash the linkage to the rudderpost arm, it wasn't pretty but I thought the linkage was at least moving the rudder in the right direction but with too much slop. I gained confidence with that even still. However, the thought of the extra strain on the Starboard rudder linkage and it's potential failure was still heavy on my mind.

We realized the first jury rig was inadequate and stopped the boat for a focused effort to improve the jury rig. That resulted in a significantly improved rig and greatly reduced my anxiety. At this point I thought we could pull it off. Maybe re-rigging daily or every other day, but doable. My confidence was bolsteed greatly, I was in favor of going on fully by now, we'll make it. It's also important to note that John and Steve had convinced me by now that this boat can easily manage with only one rudder, there had been several reports of successful experiences that way. I was committed to going on now.

Finally we added tie straps, big ones, to the rig and that proved to be the clincher. The rig has held now for 9 days straight without any changes, a major success. We've done it and can be proud of the accomplishment.


The thing we did not talk about - Steve Southwood

On May 21st, before the end of our first day out, the pin connecting the port rudder assembly to the steering / auto pilot linkage broke. This meant a number of things :
1.Steering, both manual and auto, was going to only the starboard rudder
2.Greater stress was being put on the starboard pin
3.The port rudder was now swinging free.
4.As the autopilot rudder sensor was attached to this assembly it was now reading all over the show.
5.The autopilot was getting confused by these readings.
6.The autopilot was overcompensating (see point 2 again)

This set off a debate. We essentially had two main options. Jury rig and head back to Bermuda for proper repairs or jury rig and press on to Horta.

The natural thing to do would be to turn back as we were only a day out from Bermuda. However, we had left some bad weather behind us. Turning back would require us to go into wind (taking 2-3 days) and stress the remaining pin / jury rig close to land.

I was in favor of making a decision after we had exhausted our imagination jury-rigging the port side assembly with a preference to pushing on. I'm always astounded what human ingenuity can conjure up and I was assuming we would come up with something that would sway minds in favour of pushing on. Initially, it appeared to me that the crew were evenly split with two wanting to go on and two wanting to turn back. I don't know how much my seasickness at the time contributed to my opinion. I must admit that heading into a storm worse than we were experiencing did not appeal to me. But I think my position was taken logically.

I was also concerned that the situation should play out and that we did not rush into a decision. I was aware that the decision was not an easy one and that this was weighing on everyone's minds. In some ways dreams were at stake but a wrong decision would put much more on the line. Again � this meant it was important we allowed time to play out and let the solution evolve. Bottom line was we had two engineers aboard and I had read of plenty of examples of cats going for weeks (often without knowledge) with one rudder missing. I must confess I wasn't overly concerned but I know the rest were.

Given my condition at the time there was no way I could stick my head down and help with the work on the jury rig. I was more than able to take over the manual steering (which required me to focus on the horizon) and keep the boat reasonably stable while John and Jim went to task assisted by Bob who fed tools to them.

Not all the things they tried worked but in the end a combination of lashing with spare lines and monster cable ties did a pretty good job. John also hooked up the rudder sensor to the starboard rudder so it would get a precise reading. The jury is certainly not as solid as a metal pin but it certainly went a long way to reassuring us we might be able to press on to Horta. We decided to check on the jury rig every hour throughput the second night to make sure it wasn't coming apart and reconsider our decision in the morning. You already know from the log that we didn't turn back.

Finally, we made a group decision to keep this situation off our communicated logs until we arrive in Horta. Given the time and attention we had put on the problem we felt we had a good handle on our situation. However, we weren't sure we could reassure all our families reading our logs so we felt holding this information back until we arrive would be the best. This decision was unanimous.

One thing I would like to point out, and thank, is Capt John's leadership style. He consulted with all the crewmembers on major decisions. At the same time there is no indecision on his part. While we may not always agree, we all get a chance to contribute and influence to outcome. Good job John.

In hindsight. The jury rig has been remarkably resilient requiring very little maintenance. A wooden stopper was added the following day and bar the occasional pushing of lines that was about it. I can't underestimate what turning back would have meant. Going back to Bermuda and awaiting repairs would have severely impacted schedules forcing one or two of us to abandon the trip. This in turn could have forestalled John's overall trip as it was dependent on timing. On the other hand, worst case scenarios of pressing forward may have had us hand steering all over the ocean on the backup tiller similarly stressing schedules.

What we have all expressed in our logs was against the background and ultimate relief of this decision. This really is a trip none of us will forget.



May 21, 2008 - JUDGMENT DAY (Bob MacKenzie)

Less than 24 hours into our trip, and the unthinkable happens - a breakage in the port rudder steering mechanism - a steel pin has been sheared right off! Worse scenario - if this rudder becomes terminally ill and the disease spreads to our starboard rudder we would be left with a manual tiller and rudder and the manipulation of our sails to steer the boat, possible? - maybe, feasible - not really. There is no replacement part or any type of substitute part on board, and I'm now finding that materials and uncommon tools are not abundant either. Long story short - get out the duct tape and bubble gum and hope for the best - or turn back. The latter is not a valid option but we discuss anyway. Firstly, the weather that we left early to avoid, is probably hammering the boats behind us and we would be sailing right into it for at least a couple of days. Secondly, and more importantly, it's obvious to me now that there are no quitters on board. The optimistic approach to the entire dilemma even won me over - not just convincing me that we (could) do it somehow, but convincing me that this would not become a trip from hell rather than my anticipated thrill of a lifetime. Concern, fear and even anger were certainly felt by all of us, but we didn't dwell on it. We seemed to put all that would be wasted energy into assuring each other that we'd find a way to make everything ok. A bit of rope and a lot of confidence - great combination! Let's get at er boys!!






Final thoughts of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Captain John MacKenzie):

Immediately after the damage was discovered, Jim and I completed a "make-shift", first try repair of the rudder control arm. We then sat back and reviewed the situation. In very simple terms, Crew Safety #1, Vessel Safety #2. Turning back meant 36 to 48 hours of very difficult sailing, guaranteed by the weather forecast that we saw prior to leaving and that was sent to us that (and every) morning. Here is an excerpt from the Commanders Weather update for May 21st "ahead of the cold front near, NE and E of Bermuda to 25-40 kts with some gusts 45-50 kts in area".

Turning back meant heading directly into what we had experienced coming up from Antigua, but this time, trying to return to Bermuda, through some of the most dangerous reefs and shoals around, possibly at night and with damaged rudder control equipment. If I have not said enough - this was not my first choice. As a matter of fact, I did not consider this a safe choice at all.

The other option was to continue forward. I was 100% confident in our ability as a team to make the passage work - to make the repair work - to complete the passage safely by moving forward. I came to this decision based on several key points:

1. Catamarans have proven to be able to operate safely for extended periods of time with only one rudder.
2. Windancer IV has four intelligent crewmembers of differing backgrounds and with experience to be able to problem solve this and any other issues that may arise (that is why the crew were chosen accordingly).
3. Weather ahead of us as forecast to be very favourable (and previous research and discussion about this passage gave me the confidence that if heavy weather was anticipated, Windancer IV could avoid such weather by altering course to the south into the Azore high (which we found and is the reason we have been motoring for almost 48 hours in extremely calm, millpond-like conditions).
4. In case of further deterioration or other damage, we had the support of many other ARC skippers, crews and vessels sailing with and behind us.

So I queried the crew, immediately finding out that Steve shared my initial thoughts with the intent to move forward. Jim, I felt was on the fence, but was also in agreement with the decision to move forward after reviewing the third iteration of our repair. Bob was my real concern. Bob remained silent throughout the brainstorming & discussion sessions as we assessed the situation. I read into that silence as " I WANT TO F$%^ING GO BACK!" I can say that now, tongue and cheek, but at the time it weighed heavily on me.

Regardless of those feeling, I made the decision and we, as a team, agreed to move forward. And what a great decision it was. We checked the repaired "rig" every hour to start, then every two hours, fully expecting the repair to last three to six hours - but it was like the EverReady bunny, it just kept going, and going and going! We never needed to make another fix - it lasted more than 1,700 nautical miles - simply amazing. I thank our entire crew for all their hard work and thank our families for their understanding when reading this entry - I hope you understand that we withheld this information until now so as not to cause undue alarm or concern. We love you all, and are now enjoying the Azores, the sight of land "tastes" that much better...