Today's News
Sunday, May 9, 1999
Lost Boat Arrives
As dusk fell, all but one of the boats had arrived. Team
Michigan was missing and there was not a sail in sight.
The crew refused to come inside. Wives, Meridith Hall and Mary Aldrin
wandered down the beach a ways and sat alone facing southeast. Their mothers stood by the
pool looking increasingly nervous. Other male relatives demonstrated cheerful resolve. In
the distance thunder rolled and an occasional lightning bolt lit up the horizon. The race
organizers posted a strobe light on the beach.
About 10:00 PM the boat suddenly shot out of the blackness and onto the
sand, much to the relief of wives and moms. "We lost the whole rig" reported
Bart Hall. "The circlip that held the shroud cotter pin must have been jerked out by
a line at some point. Suddenly the whole mast just came down."
They were very much in the race when it happened – in 10th
place, they thought, but within sight of the other boats and gaining.
The whole mast came down without warning a few miles off shore in
mid-afternoon. It took two hours to get the mast back up, jury rig the cotter pin, and get
under way.
For those of us who have trouble getting a mast up in the parking lot,
the feat seems unbelievable. Standing wet in the hallway of the hotel, Bart tried to
explain the technique of stepping a mast afloat in a ten-knot breeze in an ocean swell.
After a few minutes, Mrs. Hall tugged on his sleeve and he gave up. "Well, we only
had a couple of tries at it before we would wear ourselves out, so I’m glad it
worked."
Tomorrow they start again at 10:00 in the morning. They promise to tape
the cotter pins.
There’s another lesson here. It’s about the crew and how
important they are to the racers. The best crews today cheered the arrivals, hugged the
skippers, hauled the boat up on the beach, and led the way to hot baths and good food. You
can see how that kind of support will have a growing impact on the skippers as the days
wear on. Michigan has that support in spades and that makes them formidable despite their
finish on this first leg. |
