From: O.B.Schou@lut.ac.uk
Subject: BSC Report from Tasmania
Reply-To: O.B.Schou@lut.ac.uk (OBSchou)
Organization: Loughborough University, UK.
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 93 16:42:05 GMT

Folks,

Here follows a report Tim sent me from Tasmania!

He asked me to send it to the list, so with *no* editorial tweaking...

This is a most welcome report, many thanks Tim.  Invited aboard, eh??

Green with envy, Bertil.
*************************************************************************


They are here!  Nuclear Electric came into Hobart in the early hours this
morning (4 Jan) and, from my office at work, I saw Commercial Union cross
the finish line around 11:00 a.m.  Following that, I raced down to the
docks to see Commercial Union berth, amid the congratulations of the two
or three hundred people who had gathered.  As she berthed, Commercial
Unions crew spontaneously applauded and cheered the efforts of Nuclear
Electric, who reciprocated by throwing full-bodied cheers across the
diminishing gap between the yachts, followed by some eagerly awaited
refreshments as C.U. moored alongside.  And then, of course, came some
rather large bottles of champagne...

The thing that struck me this morning was the warmth and the feeling of
comradeship eminating from the crews of the yachts - I haven't exerienced
that sort of thing for quite a while...

I was on the dock near Nuclear Electric shortly before  Commercial Union
berthed, and leaning over I asked one of the crew (Chris Head) if he would
make a few comments about the race so I could post them.  To my delight,
he invited me  aboard and was only too pleased to talk about the trip from
Rio.  As we talked I became increasingly conscious of the good spirit that
seemed to have infiltrated the crew of that yacht.

Chris Head, normally a Consultant Engineer working in the British Oil
Industry, does navigation and weather aboard Nuclear Electric, along with
his other responsibilities as a crew member.  He is going "all the way"
(ie. doing all three legs) and is one of a complement of thirteen - eleven
paid and two N.E. employees.  "Paid" means that he has paid his fifteen
thousand pounds. I asked him how he managed financially, and his reply was
"I have been planning for a long time".

I then asked about the leg from Rio.  It may come as no surprise that the
phrase "knocking your head against a brick wall" was a recurrent theme!
Other comments were, "this leg has been hard", "the boat performed well",
"got a cracking good start at Rio", and "other boats experienced heavy
weather further south".  What surprised me, considering they won the leg,
was his comment that they "sailed conservatively", and they "looked after
the boat and crew", especially as he also said they had been determined to
do better than their seventh placing on the first leg.  I think, though,
that the explaination may be found in his comment that they "were able to
get going and keep going" for the whole leg, while looking after the boat
and crew at the same time. Asked specifically about any friction or
problems between the crew, Chris replied "no problems at all - we have a
good captain and good watch leaders".  It sounded like things had gone
extremely well.

Finally, I asked about forstay turnbuckle problems.  Chris said that after
they heard of those problems on other yachts they made sure they didn't
press the yacht too hard, and they did more frequent checks of the
forestay.  I asked how they checked the bottlescrews, and he said they
checked for stretching by checking the pitch of the thread using a
vernier.

Tim Gale
Hobart
Tasmania
Australia


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