Around the World of Sailing

3 April 2002

Event News: VOR News
Available on line at:
http://www.torresen.com/news/atwos/2002/ap/0403/ms.htm

Since the last ATWOS VOR report the remainder of the fleet
has reached Miami and there has been a significant protest
decision.

Amer Sports One skipper Grant Dalton with his wife Niki and the daughter Olivia at the finish line in Miami
© Carlo Borlenghi / SEA&SEE

Amer Sports One managed to finish the same day as leg winner
Assa Abloy although 7 hours back. Upon arrival Grant Dalton
said, "It's not like we went the wrong way or anything, we
were just going slow." His tactician Dee Smith said, "It's
not happening, we're racing for second."

7th place Djuice finish
©Rick Tomlinson

Over a day later Djuice finished in 7th. 2 hours later Amer
Sports Too finished in 8th place having lost their water
maker and some electronics.

Amer Sports Too jubilate on the podium in Miami
© Carlo Borlenghi / SEA&SEE

The overall standings were reshuffled. illbruck's lead is at
8 points. Assa Abloy is now 2nd, and then comes Amer One
with 25, Tyco 24, and News 23.

Once ashore the Race Committee protested SEB for their port
tack collision with illbruck early in the leg. SEB
performed a 720° turn after the incident. At issue was
whether the damage SEB incurred was serious and if they
would be penalized. The jury decided the damage was not
serious and did not penalize SEB. Should SEB have been
penalized others would have gained points.

SEB's damaged bow
© Andrew Ferguson

Links:
SEB Protest
http://www.volvooceanrace.com/news/leg_5/n5_020330_sebprotest.html
Mike Howard Profile
http://www.volvooceanrace.com/news/feature/f5_020401_bigmike.html
News Corp Leg 5
http://www.teamnewscorp.com/news/latest/tnc_Latest_News_Leg5/0,1533,813,00.html
Tyco Leg 5
http://www.teamtyco.com/teamtyco/FullStory.jsp?story=1540
Dalton on Problems
http://www.volvooceanrace.com/team/aone/email/leg_5/20020327_dalton.html
McDonald on 2nd win
http://www.volvooceanrace.com/team/aart/email/leg_5/20020227_nmd.html

Theme: Docklines
Available on line at:
http://www.torresen.com/news/atwos/2002/ap/0403/ms.htm

Theme Article: Docklines
March's theme will cover: Docklines, fenders,
handling your boat near the dock and securing your boat
to the dock.
This Sunday Torresen Marine is offering a Docking and
Docklines seminar. 28 people have already signed up and
there is room for more! The seminar will be at 1300 at the
Muskegon Yacht Club.

Realistically many boats are at the dock 5 or 6 days per
week. Often time you are too far away to monitor it
closely during a storm.

For these reasons you should always chose proper docklines
and moor your boat properly. It's an important if not
glamorous investment.

An appropriate dockline is both strong and elastic. This
rules out sheet lines, ski ropes, clotheslines and other
assorted cordage.

The best type of dockline is referred to as 3-strand. This
is made of three strands of twisted nylon. Along with good
strength nylon is sufficiently elastic for a dockline. A
3-strand nylon dockline 30 feet in length can be expected
to have up to 3 feet of stretch in it. This allows the
boat to move and the docklines with it.

Once you have the proper material we can move onto sizing.
A rule is 1/8" per 9 feet of boat. This equates to 3/8"
for a 20 footer, 1/2" for a 35 footer, 5/8" for a 50 footer
and so on. Assuming the line will fit on your mooring
cleats, a size bigger can't hurt and may get you through a
storm.

After you have sized your dock lines, you need to
buy the proper length. An easy way to get a set of lines
with great utility is to buy them all roughly the length of
your boat. This allows each line to be a bow, stern or spring
line.

A more precise standard for length is 2/3 the length of your
boat for bow and stern lines, and equal to the length for
spring lines.

Once on board start by attaching the dockline to a cleat in
a proper way. At the boat end take the eye splice and put
it through the eye of the mooring cleat and then around the
horns. At the dock end use a proper cleat hitch with a
round turn, loop and a locking half hitch.

Additionally the lines should be coiled and ready to be
thrown or passed ashore. A line coiled to be thrown will be
split in two, with a small coil being thrown first and then
a larger coil being released once the first coil is in the
air.

Your boat should have a minimum of 2 bow and 2 stern lines.
Bow and stern lines run diagonally from bow and stern
mooring cleats. Think of them as your four corner lines.
They keep the boat away from the dock and cut down side to
side motion.

Bow and stern lines ideally leave the boat at about 45
degrees. This, depending on the length of the boat and
slip, is seldom attainable. The bow and stern lines primary
function is to keep the boat from moving too far sideways.

Spring lines keep fore and aft motion down. Ideally you
will have a spring line running from the forward part of
the boat aft to a dock or a post. Your other spring line
will run from the aft part of the boat forward to the dock.

Spring lines can keep a boat from pushing forward towards
the dock or aft out of the slip. They can also help steady
a boat with a wind over the bow.

Spring lines keep the boat from moving fore and aft. They
should be as long as possible and as close to parallel to
the boat as possible. The spring lines should be trying to
turn the boat into predictable waves. If those waves are
expected to impinge on the boat's port bow, for example,
the spring line from the back of the boat to the dock at
the front of the boat should be on the port side.

Line chafe should be considered. The further away from a
wear point, such as a fair lead, the attaching point
(cleat) is, the greater the wear at that point because of
the stretch between. Chafe gear can be installed and
secured to the lines at the wear points. Wear points and
cleats should be a smooth as possible to reduce line damage.

Another dock line accessory is a rubber line snubber. These
are installed between the boat and dock. They are a rubber
piece which the line wraps around to reduce the load and
stretch on the line.

With the right type of line, properly attached to boat and
dock, in the right positions on your boat you will take good
care of the boat the majority of the time- when tied to the
dock.

Links:
Samson 3 Strand
http://www.samsonrope.com/products/mi_3strand.cfm
Snubbers
http://www.tempoproducts.com/snubber.html

Event News: Jules Verne Trophy
Available on line at:
http://www.torresen.com/news/atwos/2002/ap/0403/ms.htm

Over the past week Orange has passed the 2nd of the great
capes, Cape Leeuwin. Late Sunday the maxi cat crossed the
longitude of Cape Leeuwin on Australia's SW coast.

As Orange passed Cape # 2 their lead over current Jules
Verne holder Sport Elec was 1 day 7 hours and 22 minutes.

Of the Indian Ocean passage from Cape of Good Hope to
Leeuwin skipper Bruno Peyron said, "The Indian has cost us
two days." The past week has not been great for Orange.
Only once on Saturday did they cover over 500 miles in 24
hours. Still their average was 455 miles per day and their
shortest day of 411 miles is still greater than the distance
of the Chicago Mackinac.

In addition to gales and monster waves Orange had a
structural problem last week. The aft beam fairing
delaminated and two internal bulkheads failed. This was
similar to Team Adventure's experience during The Race.
Crew Yves Le Blevec and Philippe Peche fixed the problem
including on board carbon fabrication.

Orange continues to sail under Australia and around
Antarctica with 4 on deck at a time in the following
fashion, "The helmsman is relieved every half an hour while
one crewmate remains behind him just in case. Another is
stationed in the cockpit, sheet in hand ready to dump it in
an emergency and the fourth man remains on standby under the
cuddy out of the spray and the icy wind." Orange has passed
the longitude of Wilkes Land in Antarctica named after Rear
Admiral Charles Wilkes whose expedition sighted the land in
1838-1842.

According to Bruno Peyron, "We're coming from the nightmare
of the Indian to the dreams of the Pacific!" which should
include many thousands of ocean miles in the next week.

Links:
Orange
http://www.maxicatamaran-orange.com/site/en/index2.cfm
Geronimo Update
http://www.grandsrecords.com/ker/display.jsp?srv=rec&typ=docs&lang=en&cmd=view&style=styles/affdoc.xsl&select=DOC%5B@ID$eq$61%5D
Cape Leeuwin WX
http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/94601.html

News: Congressional Cup Preview
Available on line at:
http://www.torresen.com/news/atwos/2002/ap/0403/ms.htm

For the 1st time the annual Congressional Cup match racing
regatta hosted by Long Beach Yacht Club is part of the
Swedish Match tour. As with the Steinlager Cup, America's
Cup teams will have a strong presence. 7 of 10 skippers are
America's Cup employees.

Peter Holmberg currently ranked # 1 in the world has a lot
of favorable factors. He has won the Congressional Cup in
1998/1999 and 2001. Additionally he won the recent
Steinlager Cup off Auckland.

Rod Davis of Prada is a 4 time winner of the event and was
near the top in Auckland. Gavin Brady will also represent
Prada.

Of the non-cup affiliated skippers American Ed Baird ranked
19th could fair well.

Racing will begin Tuesday the 9th and conclude Saturday the
13th.

Links:
Ed Baird
http://www.lbyc.org/CCup/CC02/Crew/Ed_Baird.htm
Congressional Cup 2002 Line Up
http://www.lbyc.org/CCup/CC02/ccskippe.htm
ISAF Rankings
http://www.sailing.org/matchrace/publishmrankinglist.asp?matchdd=27&matchmm=3&matchyy=2002&matchevents=4
One World's 2nd new boat splashes
http://www.oneworldchallenge.com/news/archive/03262002/