No sitting in ivory tower for this design team |
| Wednesday, 01 May 2002 |
| To be exact, Merfyn Owen and Nadjean Geslain were sailing Mike Golding’s Open 60, Ecover (ex Team Group 4) back from Brazil with two of her support team. Although an experienced sailor, having completed two Tour France a la Voile, this was Nadj’s introduction to open 60 sailing. Teaming up with Merfyn Owen early in the summer to work on a tank testing program and then the naval architecture for Graham Dalton’s Hexagon this was to be a first initial introduction into the practical world of open 60’s. It was to be a steep learning curve, not hindered by horrendous conditions, but helped by a range of wind speeds and angles that saw every sail, board and ballast configuration utilised during the 20 day passage from Salvador to Southampton.
For Nadj, this was the first part of a two stage introduction, when in February he flew out again with Merfyn to New Zealand for the launch and acceptance trials of Hexagon. Leaving his MsC in ships science behind, Nadj teamed up with Graham’s shore manager Brad Kellett and was put to work as part of a team carrying out the myriad of jobs that there are when a race boat first hits the water. Besides this, there were early sailing trials, discussions with electronics experts, sail makers and riggers to sit in on and occasional respites for visits to local yards, spar makers and suppliers on other OCD business with Merfyn. During this time, the pair found three days spare to undertake some wind tunnel tests in Auckland University’s Twisted Flow Tunnel, with Nadj having to analyse the results in the evening after work on the boat – a tight schedule had to be maintained. Several weeks after Merfyn flew back north, Nadj completed his stint as a shore crew member when Graham Dalton sailed off on his successful 2000 miles singlehanded qualifier to Sydney.
Nadj, isn’t the only one who’s learning or needs to keep up to speed. Despite over twenty thousand miles on open 60’s Merfyn Owen flew back to New Zealand in late April to join Graham and sail Hexagon on the last leg of the 4500 mile shakedown cruise from ‘Windy’ Wellington to Auckland. The Sydney crew jumped off and Merfyn, local rigger Gordy and Graham completed the three man crew for the 600 mile trip north. Departing Wellington in a brusque 35 knots (a fine day in those parts this time of year they say), wind speeds were in excess of 50 knots past Cape Palliser and up to Castle Point. With only a staysail and three reefs in the main Hexagon maintained speeds in the high teens and hit 23.7 knots on the gps during one gust in a short/moderate chop, far from comfortable offshore breeze conditions. With a pair of albatross following, lighter winds were found further up the coast after 40 hours of sailing. With a few hours to dry foulies on the boom, it was time to round East Head, where they spent the last 24 hours pounding into a 35/40 knot headwind, destroying the masthead wand in one wicked slam and causing the designer to head butt bulkhead D with his foully bottoms wrapped around his ankles. However, job done and we walked away knowing a lot more than when we started. The new ballast system on the Dalton boat is a winner, she’s beautifully balanced and easy on the pilots, but the galley’s a shocker! Not a priority says Dalton uncaringly.
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