2:38 PM Thu 10 Dec 2009 GMT
'Mind your head when that block swings across..don't get your hands anywhere near that backstay gear if you can help it....sorry mate, but try to avoid stepping on that foot control or you might wind the rig out of the boat'
The offer to a small group of journos to join the Wild Oats XI team for a quick test sail on Sydney Harbour came with a lot of extra responsibility for a very polite and friendly Wild Oats XI crew who, apart from sailing the boat shorthanded had to keep a weather eye out for unintended sabotage.
Even for the sailors amongst us there were any numbers of ways to inadvertently cause chaos and mayhem at the back of the boat and on Wild Oats that can all happen very quickly.
Thankfully we all stayed out of trouble for a quick sprint down the harbour in a freshening nor'wester under a dark sky this afternoon.
There are many things that strike you about Wild Oats XI when you are on board, but chief amongst them are the speed and the noise.
The speed is self evident as we shy reach back up the harbour at 16 knots in 12 knots of breeze under full main and No 4 - not a conventional configuration, as we are testing new sails - and it all seems so effortless.
The noise comes in various forms; the cracking sounds of the mainsheet being eased off under 5 tonnes of load is accompanied by the constant rising and falling background noise of the engine as the demand on the hydraulics for winches and keel movements calls on the generators to kick in.
All very high tech or at least mostly so; but for those who are examining the photos and wondering whether Wild Oats has gone into cruise mode with Lazy Jacks and a large 'collector sleeve' on the boom, your eyes do not deceive you.
The reality is that a reefed sail in a big sea will collect massive amounts of water, the weight of which can displace the reefs and burst the sail (a lesson learnt by Richard Branson and crew aboard Speedboat on their transatlantic record run attempt) ; the black sleeve contains the reefs and helps shed the water.
Mainsheet trimmer Paul 'Flipper' Westlake expanded further on the theme of cruising influences on grand prix racing, explaining the cruising origins of the furling spinnaker system that we will witness on a number of the big boats this year.
These spinnakers are rigged much like a Code Zero but the kite is not attached to the cable on which it's hoisted and the small shoulders on the modern spinnakers allow the rotating cable at the head to grab the kite when it's handed. That's a job that can therefore be managed with fewer crew.
Which is just as well, as Wild Oats XI is heading south with only 18 crew this year and despite the powered winches that still means a lot of work and multi-tasking.
'Flipper' Westlake, who has returned from America's Cup duties and the European match racing circuit to join his mates for the race south considers that no bad thing. 'I've been sailing recently in Europe on a 65 footer with 22 crew, it's chaotic; with a smaller crew you're having to move around the boat more and lend a hand wherever it's needed and that's usually hefting these huge sails around. If anyone's not busy at any point on this race they'd better enjoy it because it won't last long' he commented with a wry smile; at least I think that's what he said because he eased the mainsheet at that moment.
Each of the journos got a brief chance to steer the boat and your reporter was so impressed with the opportunity that he had to be requested to bear away a tad by skipper Mark Richards to avoid spearing the keel bulb - some four metres to weather of the hull in full cant mode - into the eastern shore of Fort Denison.
The Wild Oats XI team will be practicing liferaft drill on Monday and then it's down to business on Tuesday for the SOLAS Big Boat Challenge.
When not watching out for threatening runner blocks Crosbie Lorimer took these shots on board today.
by Crosbie Lorimer
Click on thumbnails to enlarge and find more photos:
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