DAGGERBOARDS OPTIMISE UPWIND PERFORMANCE - NOT A BIG PROBLEM FOR NOW in the Southern Ocean but will make the upwind part of the course back up the Atlantic after rounding Cape Horn more difficult... "We have about 1 metre of repaired daggerboard underneath - it won’t effect our downwind performance at all but not perfect for sailing upwind," said Ellen. It is possible to change the daggerboards over putting the full-length, undamaged daggerboard in the relevant hull depending on whether they are on port or starboard tack. It is not like racing round the bouys, tacking to make a mark - KINGFISHER2 will stay on one tack for long periods of time... Transferring daggerboards although hard is not impossible especially with 14 crew on board... ELLEN did this on her own in the Vendée Globe when she damaged her port daggerboard mid-Atlantic on the way back to the finish - then she had to remove a board that was 1.5 times her height and over 3 times her weight...

ELLEN AND CREW SLOWED BOAT FOR 6 HOURS TO MAKE REPAIR to the 4-metre high daggerboard weighing 200 kilos, solving the problem there and then rather than risk the board getting jammed in the casing... The lighter winds actually helped the crew - trying to make these kind of repairs in 50 knots would have been a different story. It took 8 of the crew to lift the board out and cut away the damaged shards of carbon, filling holes and adding a pad eye to the damaged end before returning the board upside down to its casing. There was no other damage to the daggerboard casing or any other part of the boat...the repairs to the rudder fixings damaged yesterday have also been made. KINGFISHER2 is now back sailing at 100 per cent.

SLOWER PACE HAS MEANT KINGFISHER2 HAVE NOT HOOKED into the north-westerlies forecast but instead are going to be effected by the next low pressure system. A stressful day yesterday between daggerboard problem and difficult weather decisions for Ellen...

GERONIMO is close to rounding Cape Horn at 56 degrees south... Olivier de Kersauson and his crew will be happy to put the Pacific part of the Southern Ocean behind them... it was a difficult passage for the crew, violent seas and ice force them north sailing the longer distance and reducing their advantage over Orange’s time...http://www.grandsrecords.com

ELLEN LATEST COMMUNICATION :

– "..It became clear we had lost half the daggerboard and we were all pretty surprised to think we had not realised that it had gone. The board sheered straight off - a clean cut - just outside the waterline. We decided we had to solve the problem in case the board got jammed in the casing... The board is 4 metres in height and weighs 700 kilos and it took 8 of us to lift it out, we cut off the blocks, filled holes and added a pad eye. We were so lucky with weather - that it was not blowing 50 knots - so we could solve the problem. We have about 1 metre of daggerboard under the boat now - its not important for downwind sailing but not perfect for the upwind sailing we have ahead..."

LATEST EXCERPTS FROM CREW NEWS (see http://www.teamkingfisher.com for full news - click on crew icon to see today’s news and all the news since the start...)

ANDREW PREECE : "...late this afternoon as he was trimming the starboard board, Hervé discovered that whatever we hit had hit the daggerboard before the rudder and we have lost about two metres or more of the starboard board. After discussion with the board’s builders Multiplast and a meeting on board as to how to tackle the situation, we hoisted the board out of its casing and found that at least a couple of metres was missing..."

JARGON BUSTER : DAGGERBOARD
Daggerboards are used to improve upwind performance - like a centreboard on a dinghy, they help prevent the boat from being pushed sideways off their proposed course. When the boat is sailing upwind the daggerboard is lowered under the boat . There is a port and starboard daggerboard positioned approximately one-third back from the bow, and depending on which tack the boat is on ie port or starboard, the appropriate board is lowered into the water.

Information Kingfisher Challenges

SUMMARY : 0700 GMT 20.2.03 (position taken at 0716 GMT)
– Position : 45 33’S 34 25’E (321 miles W of Prince Edwards Islands)

– Ahead/Behind the record : 3 hours 52 minutes behind Orange (using WP6)
– Ahead/Behind Geronimo : 60 hours 35 minutes behind Geronimo (using WP6)
– DAY 21 24 hour run (point to point) : Kingfisher2 300 nm, Orange 366 nm, Geronimo 490 nm
– End DAY 21 distance to go (on theoretical course) : KF2 16809 nm, Orange 16747 nm, Geronimo 15840 nm

– Boat speed : 8 knots
– Course : 111
– Distance to WP6 46 00’S / 70 00’E 200 miles north of Kerguelen Islands : 1478 nm (theorectical shortest distance)

JULES VERNE USHANT (START) TO CAPE LEEUWIN TIMES :
– 2003 Geronimo (de Kersauson) 26 days 4 hours 53 minutes
– 2002 Orange (Peyron) 29 days 7 hours 22 minutes
– 1997 Sport Elec (de Kersauson) 30 days 16 hours 1 minutes
– 1994 ENZA (Blake/Knox-Johnston) 29 days 17 hours 53 minutes
– 1993 Commodore Explorer (Peyron) 33 days 7 hours 48 minutes

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE TO CAPE LEEUWIN TIMES :
– 2003 Geronimo (de Kersauson) 9 days 14 hours 17 minutes
– 2002 Orange (Peyron) 10 days 12 hours 42 minutes
– Gate to gate record time still held by Sport Elec (de Kersauson) 1997 of 8 days, 23 hours, 17 minutes