O Canada strategically retires from Transat Jacques Vabre Race
Just a week into the Transat Jacques Vabre Race, there’s been a capsizing, two helicopter rescues, and half of the IMOCA fleet retired from the race. O Canada was unfortunately forced to retire the Transat Jacques Vabre due to damages, but the team is safe and in good spirits.
While the damages were fixable and minor in comparison to the rest of the fleet, improper repairs jeopardized the team’s participation in the next IMOCA Race — so the decision was made to retire.
Pre-Race
Canadian Ocean Racing spent the entire summer fundraising for the new team’s first IMOCA-class races. By the end of September, the team had finally crowdfunded enough money to race in the Transat Jacques Vabre. Now they had enough money to race, they just had to get to the start line. Easier said than done.
As the only North American-based IMOCA team, O Canada and her crew had to first cross the Atlantic before they could do the race across it. As the team prepared to leave for the Atlantic crossing, a tropical storm grew into Hurricane Joaquin and threatened the team’s safe passage to the race start in Le Havre, France. O Canada was forced to wait out the storm’s passage and caught a series of high pressure zones when they finally made their way across the Atlantic.
The team arrived in Le Havre just 3 days before the Transat Jacques Vabre race start. Canadian Ocean Racing rallied and with the help of many volunteers, the team was able to get O Canada ready for the Transat Jacques Vabre Race!
Transat Jacques Vabre Race
The race started slowly, with little wind but lots of excitement on the start line.
The first 24 hours proved to be quite challenging for the entire fleet. First a slow start, then an upwind battle as the double-handed teams exhausted themselves tacking through the race course marks. Eventually the fleet opened up as they experienced downwind conditions and O Canada suffers their first loss – the A2. The A2 explodes as O Canada launches off a wave; the team suffers in speed, but continues to race on.
Day 2 was just as tough, with more announcements of retirements from the race. O Canada was doing a decent job of keeping up with the fleet, but the beginning days of the race were still taking its toll on the crew. Both skippers fought exhaustion and fatigue, while co-skipper Morgen Watson suffered from intense sea sickness in intense sailing conditions.
Things began looking up for the team come day 3… Morgen had shaken his seasickness and both rookie skippers were adapting to the routine onboard. But by night, disaster struck again, this time in form of a destroyed mast track. Skipper Eric Holden went aloft at night to repair, finally conceding to wait until morning to complete repairs.
With rough seas and damage to the J2, Skipper Eric Holden made the decision to go into port for repairs after spending all of day 4 aloft working on the mast track. The team originally set out to do repairs in Vigo, Spain, and then return to racing. But due to weather conditions and IMOCA race timeline, the decision was made to retire formally from the Transat Jacques Vabre Race.
O Canada will undergo repairs in A Coruna and prepare for a different Atlantic crossing, this time to the Caribbean for the start of the team’s 2nd IMOCA race. The Transat Saint Barts is a single-handed IMOCA race that serves as a qualifying race to the team’s ultimate goal — the Vendee Globe.
Reflections from the Skippers
Eric Holden, Skipper, statement on Transat Jacques Vabre retirement:
We arrived in A Coruna just as the sun was setting last night. We are happy to have the boat tied up and start on the job list. There are many things that we can start on right away, but it is unfortunate to have arrived at during a long holiday weekend so that some jobs will have to wait until Tuesday when the shops reopen. The biggest job is to fix the mast track which will be a finicky job and involve a few trips up the rig. Our J2 jib also has a tear in the leach and we will get in professionally repaired so that it is more than a temporary patch as that sail is such a workhorse. Our hopes of repairing our NKE wind wand was dashed yesterday as it finally gave way during the storm, an expensive loss.
It’s important to look on the bright side as this morning I was talking to the team of Hugo Boss as they wait for the boat to be towed into port. We are all here safe which is the most important thing. Our task is much smaller than theirs and is within our limited means to resolve.
Right from the start of the race we had small things start failing but they were things that we could deal with at sea or do without. It was not until the mast track failure that forced us into port. Now that we are here we will take the time to prepare the boat right without the time pressure we had in Le Havre. The race was always about learning as much as we could, and we learned a lot in the week we were at sea. Obviously we are disappointed that it came to an end too early as there is still so much for us to improve upon. Boat preparation is so important and we do the best we can but we’ve had to prioritize where we allocate our resources and that invariably means playing catch up with repair and future failures are inevitable. Hopefully we can make the needed improvements so that I can have the confidence to take her solo in the next race as next time there will be no co-skipper beside me to help sort things out.
Blog from Morgen Watson, Co-Skipper
Last few days
Pre Race
Crazy, so much to do so little time…
Not much sleep, not much rest
But we made it to race start!!!!
Race start 13:30
No wind…
Drifting start…
Slow…
Got passed by huge trimaran! !
Very close.
1500-1800
Found Wind!!
up wind sailing to marks
Tacking, lots of work
Grinding grinding grinding
Slipping back in fleet
Need to work on up-wind tacking
Too slow
1800-2000
Down wind
Kite up
Pass [Spirit of] Hungary!
Weave through 40 fleet
Waves from tanker off the bow
Kite explode…….
Not even monkey man can fix
2200-0000
Angry
Depressed
Frustrated
Finally some sleep
0200-0400
J2 out
24kts breeze
Losing fleet as we all spread out
0600-0800
Dodging fishing boats
1000-1600 I think
Tired wet cold…
Smashing
Hungry
Still going fast
Unknown
Need to sleep
Day 2
30kts
Smashing
Weak
Exhausted
Problems
Wind wands broken again
No wind data
No sleep
Sea sick
2 hour on 2 hours off kinda….
Struggle…..
Some good
Full very bright moon
In eye of storm saw a night rainbow
Yes a full rainbow at night! Amazing
Day 3
Better today
Getting used to routine
Eating meals
Still smashing
No problems
Still in 35kts of breeze (guess)
Everything wet
Auto always driving
Hiding under hatch
Wet and wild on deck
Reef 2, J 3
Heading south!!!
Getting warmer!
Night 3
Wind down
Less smashing
Warm
Full moon again
Shaking out reefs
Disaster strikes again…
Destroyed part of mast track and batten car some time in storm at reef 2
Send the skipper up the rig at night
Back and forth, big seas
Moon gone dark
get down mail sail
J3 down
Need some sleep
Can’t fix in the dark
Day 4
Repair day
Light wind
Still big seas
Skipper up skipper down, skipper up and down some more
Back soar lots of grinding
Headboard car down
Bearings all over deck
Quick get them before they fall over board!
Repair head board car, back on mast
Main sail up kinda… only reef 3
Mast track can’t be fixed at sea
limping along to Vigo Spain
Join Boss, maybe they help?
Big shore team
Total damage in storm
J2 hole
Wind instruments X2
Mast track
Batten car
Busy day
Productive
Heart broken…
But still hope in Spain
Wind back 20 kts on the nose
#canadianupwindoceanracing
Night 4
Upwind…
3 on 3 off
Reef 3 J3
Very underpowered
9kts boat speed
Auto driving
Watching nav computer
Hoping
Need to create more time
Frustrating
Chicken teriyaki dinner 🙂
The small things
Day 5
Smashing smashing smashing…
Reef 4 J3
Warm upwind southern ocean?
45kts…
TSS, bad tacking angles
Sat phone calls and email thanks for support!
Still frustrating
Smashing smashing smashing…
3 on 3 off
Smashing smashing smashing….
45-5kts? How is this possible!!
No wind, left with swells….
Boat speed 2kts
Flogging sails….
WTF!
63nM to Vigo
1 day at current speed 🙁
Heavy traffic up ahead
Drift through that?
FRUSTRATED
Night 5
…..
No wind, drifting
Shipping lane
Panamax
Flogging sails
Main sheet broke
Flying boom
Sails down
Engine on
Now motoring to Vigo
Race over…..
…………………..
WAKE UP!
Water pouring in!!
Exhaust valve leaking
Bucket bregade
Bilge pump on
under control
Epoxy on valve
J3 up
BOOM 45kts on the noes
Bear away! running away from Vigo
J3 down engine on
come on steal dolphin! push hard into 45kts
WE NEED MORE POWER!!
Dolphin not enough
Drifting, waiting wind out….
Can see shore light teasing
