.

• The boat was Axa Atout Couer, class40 number 70, recently built, owned by Erik Nigon, designed by Jacques Valeur and built by JPK in France. For pictures of a sister boat, check out the JPK website. While the site is in french, it is pretty easy to figure out how to get to the Class 40 design.
• The boat was built to Cat 1 standards
• The boat was being delivered home from competing in the Solidaire du Chocolat, the delivery starting in Progresso Mexico via the Bahamas and on to France.
• The delivery skipper was highly experienced, with numerous transatlantics. The additional 2 crew were also well experienced.
• The boat was in touch with the skipper and shore resources for routing through out its delivery.
• There was active tracking throughout the trip via Inmarsat Sat C. The crew also had access to email as well as satellite phone via Irridium.
• On December 10, north east of Bermuda, the forecasts showed a low coming off the US and heading out across the Atlantic. The crew shifted course to the south in an effort to dive below the expected track of the low.
• On December 12 the boat was fully in the low, having failed in an effort to dive below it. The delivery skipper reported winds of 40+ knots, and seas of 10 + meters (30 plus feet). Location was 600 miles east north east of Bermuda and 1200 miles west of Horta. It was their 13th day at sea.
• Given the storm conditions, the crew had taken steps to prepare. All were wearing survival suits both on deck and below decks. The ditch bag was prepared, and they were sailing under storm jib alone. They had contacted the shore side skipper who had informed CROSS (french maritime rescue) who in turn had sent out a notice to mariners of the location of the vessel.
• At 2120 hours (local) one person was on the helm and 2 were below. A single wave knocked the boat to 90 degrees. The boat did not immediately right, and a second wave that came quite quickly after the first wave rolled the boat to 180 degrees.
• The boat seemed, in the words of the skipper, quite comfortable at staying inverted. The cabin crew were standing inside the boat on the cabin top. Top sides, the helmsman was tethered and under the boat.
• The helmsman released his tether and swam to the back of the boat. The crew went out the open companion way and swam to the back of the boat.
• The life raft was lashed to the deck and was hanging in its lashings. Those had streched out, so the raft was actually down at the life line level. They released the raft and inflated it.
• The raft inflated upside down, and they had to turn the raft over which took approximately 10 minutes. The raft, with its drogue, did a good job of staying in place next to the boat.
• They did not have the ditch bag, nor EPIRB. Their only hope at this point was the the shore side skipper, who knew of the bad weather, would notice at the next scheduled Sat C update that their signal had dissapeared and then would mobilize the rescue authorties. They did not feel safe diving under the boat in the dark, swimming through the companion way and getting the EPIRB and ditch bag.
• About 10 minutes later, the boat righted itself. The delivery skipper speculates that once the mast broke underwater, the next wave shoved the boat over enough for the keel to go to work.
• Once the boat flipped back over, they got back on the boat. They secured the raft to the transom with several lines and went into the cabin.
• The boat had approximately 50 CM (1.5 feet) of water in the cabin.
• They were not able to get the engine started, even though it looked fine. The VHF was no longer operable (water damage) and the Irridium was not working. They fired off the EPIRB as well as the Sat C distress function, and then one person got to bailing while the two other guys worked to clear the mast. On the portside they had to unscrew the bottle screws to free the rod rigging, and on the starboard side they had to bang out the pins. They did not have sufficient cutting gear on board to cut the rod rigging.
• CROSS, the French rescue authorities called the shoreside skipper on his cell phone about 10 minutes after the EPIRB was fired off. His cell phone was the registered number with the authorities.
• The SATC C distress signal was picked up by the US MRCC center shortly after or coincident with the French authorities picking up the EPIRB signal. At this point, the crew could not speak to the outside world so the shoreside folks did not know if they were still in the boat or had taken to the raft. By comparing the two signals from EPIRB and from the Sat C, the shore side folks were able to confirm that they had the same location and that the crew was still in the boat.
• 3 hours after righting, the crew was able to get the Irridium phone working. They contacted the shore side skipper, and then contacted Norfolk MRCC.
• Norfolk MRCC coordinated the rescue.
• A Hercules was launched out of Elizabeth City to locate the vessel and stand on station.
• Two merchant vessels were diverted, with the Wellington Star ultimately arriving on station around 4 AM local on the 13th.
• The crew contacted MRCC every 30 minutes via Irridium calls to provide and receive status updates.
• Locating the boat was actually something of a problem for the ship. They had GPS coordinates, but the boat was low in the water with no mast and high wave state making radar contact challenging. On the boat, they had a hard time getting any of the SOLAS flares to fire as they had been water logged when the boat flipped. The parachute flares they did launch were so rapidly carried away by the wind as to be useless. Ultimately, it was their flashlights that allowed them to signal the ship.
• Coordination of the transfer was difficult, with no working VHF. The ship's ability to gently manouver along side the boat was quite limited given its size, inertia and the sea state. The dismasted boat was banging against the vessel violently, and with the sea state it was oscilating up and down the side of the boat in swings of as much as 40 feet. The delivery skipper recalls feeling as if the transfer from boat to ship was actually the most dangerous point in the entire incident. The actual transfer itself involved having to jump from the boat to the side of the ship where there was a boarding ladder made from rope and wooden steps. Had they fallen in the water during the effort, they would have been crushed between the boat and the ship.
• Once transfered, they proceeded to New Bedford.
• A link to the Coast Guard press release is here.
• A link to the Coast Guard infrared video of the transfer, taken from the Hercules, is here.

• Make sure your delivery skipper knows the boat, and knows how to handle such situations.
• If you expect bad weather, get in contact with a shore side party, let them know your plans and coordinate for extigent circumstances.
• Make sure the rescue authorities have all your most recent numbers, and at least one of those contact numbers be for some one who is not going to be on the boat and also some one who knows your float plan
• Any knife you have located near to your life raft to cut lashings needs to be located with the idea that you will be in the water at the transom. Ideally, it should be low on the stanchion, reachable by you in the water.
• The raft should be easily accessible from in the water and at the transom. It won't do you any good kept below, or even on a deck location or locker that is farther forward in the cockpit.
• A water proof VHF is critically important. And it should be kept charged and kept with the ditch bag.
• Consideration should be given to locating an EPIRB at the stern, perhaps on a stanchion/
  
• A stern transom escape hatch is critical. In this case it would have allowed them to reenter the inverted boat to go get the EPIRB had the boat never righted.
• Having two forms of distress signaling was quite helpful. In this case, that was the Inmarsat Sat C as well as the EPIRB.
• A handheld Irridium, kept in a sealed bag and in the ditch bag could allow for communications when all your fixed equipment is damaged or water logged. Program that Irridium with emergency numbers, because when it all goes pear shaped you may not have those numbers handy.
• A hydraulic rod cutter can save you huge amounts of grief. Their hacksaw blades were not up to the task.
• Keep your passports with your ditch bag
• Keep your flares in a water tight box of some sort. None of their flares survived the soaking they got when the boat inverted.
• If a boat is diverted to you, you have to leave when it arrives regardless of the conditions. You can't ask them to stand by. If they had it to do over again, they would have coordinated their rescue request so that the boat would be diverted after conditions had abated and become safer for a transfer.
• If you end up in the water in the Atlantic in December with no hot toddy in your near term future, you want to be wearing a gumby survival suit. Not a dry suit and most definitely not foulies. They are required for Cat 0 and are not required for Cat 1, but perhaps you should consider it if you plan on doing a transat.

:brindis::brindis:
CLOBAL OCEAN RACE GOR
un barco mas inscrito en la vuelta al mundo en class 40
ya hay 19 equipos inscritos




http://www.seasailsurf.com/seasailsu...nken-65ba1.jpg



Hannah Jenner a retenu son inscription pour la GOR dès avril et avait prévu, à l’origine, de profiter de la possibilité d’échanges de skippers à chaque port- étape. “Lorsque l’on organise une campagne de course aussi importante que celle-ci dont le financement est basé sur des sponsors ou autres sources externes vous avez vraiment besoin d’une caractéristique spéciale pour votre candidature,” explique Hannah. “Au départ j’avais pour idée de constituer une équipe basée sur des jeunes navigateurs et moi, mais j’ai également toujours aimé l’idée d’une équipe uniquement composée de femmes ,le problème était de trouver la bonne !

Anna-Marie Renken (20annees) prévoyait sa campagne pour la GOR avec une coéquipière lorsque cette dernière dut se retirer, c’est alors qu’elle contacta Jenner en octobre et lui proposa de s’unir. “Quand j’ai écrit à Hannah pour la première fois, je ne savais pas du tout comment elle réagirait à l’idée d’une équipe exclusivement féminine,” explique Renken. “Une réponse très positive en est revenue et nous avons découvert que nous avions beaucoup en commun et que nous voulions accomplir les mêmes objectifs grâce à cette course. Après beaucoup d’e-mails, d’appels sur skype, et un meeting à Hambourg, nous sommes persuadées que nous allons être très compatibles et je suis impatiente de sortir au large avec Hannah” ajoute Renken.
A elles deux, elles ont parcouru plus de 200 000 miles y compris des courses au large et des courses en solitaire. A l’age de 28 ans, Jenner était la première skipper dans la Clipper Round the World Race et mena son équipe sur le podium, tandis que Renken s’est reconvertie de la planche à voile et de la natation semi-professionnelle, à l’une des rares skippers offshore allemandes et elle entraina une équipe allemande dans la Rolex Fastnet Race 2009. Récemment, Renken était la première femme allemande à participer dans la course en binome, la Watski Skagervak 2 Star. Le duo germano-britannique est désormais à la recherche d’un sponsor : “Nous sommes conscientes du potentiel commercial d’une équipe exclusivement constituée de femmes et nous cherchons un sponsor qui partage notre ambition, notre énergie et notre volonté de ressortir du lot ” conclut Jenner.
Josh Hall, Directeur de la GOR, est ravi de cette nouvelle : “Il n’y a aucun doute sur le fait que cette équipe sera extrêmement compétitive au sein de la GOR. Nous estimons que la GOR et Class40 offrent un potentiel formidable pour chaque skipper qui souhaite s’affirmer et montrer son talent dans une course autour du monde avec du matériel sophistiqué et des budgets réalisables. Hannah et Anna-Maria ont toutes les deux accompli de grandes victoires dans des courses offshore : en conséquent ce duo promet d’être exceptionnel – Attention messieurs !”
http://www.seasailsurf.com/seasailsu...puce-cebf5.gif Info presse & photo www.globaloceanrace.com

Hannah and Anna-Maria will be launching a team website in January. Until then, the duo’s latest news can be found at www.hannahjenner.com ver buen video en "gallery"

• 2010 Gijón, Espagne – Tales, Gonzalo Botin
• 2011 Bénodet, France – Jack in the Box, Aloys Le Claquin
• 2012 La Rochelle, France – Tales, Gonzalo Botin

• Sébastien, skipper : « Pour être compétitif et bénéficier d’un voilier dernière génération, j’ai décidé de me lancer dans la construction d’un nouveau Class40.
• prêt pour la Transat Jacques Vabre.»
• Samuel Manuard, architecte-concepteur-skipper : « Je suis fier d’avoir été choisi par Sébastien pour la construction de son bateau. C’est la concrétisation d’un projet de longue date, puisque nous avions déjà en projet de construire un 6,50 m. Je n’attends désormais plus qu’une chose : voir Sébastien gagner au commande de ce Mach 40 ».
• Nicolas Groleau, chef du chantier JPS Production : « Je suis très content d’avoir pu travailler avec Sébastien. Ce fut très intéressant en terme d’échange avec son expérience en Class40 et dans les autres catégories. C’est une personne ouverte aux solutions nouvelles, nous avons donc trouvé très rapidement un terrain d’entente pour faire quelque chose de simple et efficace mais ambitieux. C’est pourquoi je suis certain qu’ensemble nous avons fait les bons choix ! ».

• Grand spi : voile de portant par vent faible à médium, env. 195 m²
• Spi médium : voile de portant, vent médium, env. 150 m²
• Gennaker : voile de reaching par vent médium ou portant par vent fort, env. 75 m²
• Code 0 : voile de reaching par vent fort, env. 60 m²
• Solent : voile de près et autres allures par vent très fort, env. 40 m²
• Tourmantin : voile orange fluo en cas de tempête, env. 10 m²