GREAT SEAMANSHIP
A SOLO MAST CLIMB TURNS INTO A TERRIFYING SOUTH ATLANTIC ORDEAL FOR EMMA RICHARDS
In 2002, Emma Richards (now Sanderson) was the youngest person and the first British woman to finish the ‘Around Alone’ race. Sailing the Open 60 Pindar, she was pipped at the post for a podium finish, but reading her book 20 years later, I realised again that the placing is less important than the character of the men and women who take up the challenges of the great single-handed events. The skill and sheer guts lie outside the experience of the rest of us, relatively normal sailors.
This extract from Emma’s Around Alone is by far the best description I have come across of the horrors of climbing a mast on a solo race boat. Read it and, as I did, ask yourself how you might have measured up. For a vivid glimpse into this race, have a look on YouTube for videos from the 2002 Around Alone. Now, over to Emma…
We were a fraction south of the Tropic of Capricorn and slap bang in the middle of the South Atlantic when the main halyard broke. Namibia lay 2,000 miles due east, Brazil 2,000 miles to the west. They might as well have been a million miles away, I felt suddenly so isolated.
I'd planned to go up at dawn, but I ended up waiting to allow some black clouds to blow through. The wind was varying between 15 and 25 knots and I needed to make sure I had a sail setting to cover the range of winds while I was up there. I prepared the gear I'd need to take up. I took a knife to cut away the old dead end, the spare main halyard (240ft), some tape and a block in case the one at the top had been the cause of the halyard breaking. I put my video camera in my pocket, strapped on my helmet and psyched myself up.
The ascent would be via a length of rope stretched between the top of the mast and the deck, using a Topclimber. This consisted of a little platform seat and two stirrup-like straps, with loops for my feet. When I was ready, I climbed into the Topclimber, which was attached to the rope at waist height with a strap and a one-way jammer. The jammer gripped the rope when you exerted downward pressure on it. When I let go – and therefore exerted downward pressure by sitting in the seat – Icould lift my feet from the ground and the seat was supported.
The foot straps were also attached to the rope with a one-way jammer. When I put my feet in them and stood up; I was able to release the pressure on the seat jammer, move it up a few inches and sit back down. Then I was able to release the pressure on the lower jammer by raising my feet, and move that up a few inches and so on. To come down, you reverse the process.
UNSTABLE PLATFORM
It sounds so simple, a
