Good and bad news from the Atlantic: in the World Cruising Club's new ocean rally, the ARC January, a crew has also abandoned their ship in the middle of the Atlantic. Meanwhile, the fastest yacht in the fleet reached its destination on the Caribbean island of St Lucia on Monday night.
X 4.9 with water ingress at the rudder coker
Nine days after the start on Gran Canaria, the crew of the X 4.9 "Brainstorm" reported water ingress due to damage to the steering gear on 18 January. The MRCC Ponta Delgada forwarded the distress call to the rally organisers and ships in the area. Two other ARC yachts, sailing 25 and 65 nautical miles away, then set course for the position of the "Brainstorm".
According to information from the Danish X-Yachts shipyard on 22 January, the rudder shaft had come loose from the upper rudder bearing on board for apparently unknown reasons. Only fixed by the lower bearing, the shaft damaged the GRP coker, which led to water ingress.
The four-man Dutch crew of owner and skipper Menno Schroder was initially able to control the water ingress. They contacted the shipyard via satellite phone, but were unable to reinsert the loose rudder stock into the upper bearing, even with guidance. The rudder stock could apparently only be fixed provisionally to an insufficient extent. The decision was then made to abandon the ship out of concern that the structural damage to the hull could worsen.
With the dinghy of the "Brainstorm", which was almost halfway across the Atlantic at the time, two of the crew members transferred to the British Jeanneau 54 "What's Next". The two other sailors were taken on board the French Franchini 53L "Rhapsodie VI". The last position of the "Brainstorm" in the Rally tracker of 20 January is 18° 47.23 N, 034° 50.51 W .
After the Accidents involving the X 4.3 "Agecanonix" and the Hanse 588 "Charlotte Jane III" the "Brainstorm" is already the third yacht to be abandoned at sea during the ARC this transat season.
Croatian crew crosses the finish line after 15 days
Of the 44 yachts currently sailing to St Lucia at the ARC January, the first reached the Caribbean island on Monday night. After logging 3,009 nautical miles in 15 days and 14 hours, the Croatian crew of four on the Akilaria 40 "Mowgli" arrived at 23:01 local time. It was skipper Slaven Fischer's first Atlantic crossing. Upon entering the harbour, however, he discovered that his ship had lost its propeller. A local water taxi then towed the "Mowgli" to the jetty in Rodney Bay Marina.
The next yachts in the field still have 250 to 300 nautical miles to go and are expected to finish on Thursday.
