get out of that
PETE CUMMING ON AVOIDING A MULTIHULL CAPSIZE
Pete Cumming, trimmer and helmsman on the
record-breaking MOD70 Phaedo3, reveals
how the crews of giant trimarans try to avoid a
capsize, such as this one by the MOD70 Spindrift 1 The helmsman has a hydraulic
release for the mainsheet
in a foot stirrup in case of
an emergency
2 Be aware of your exact wind
angle on a reach so you know if
it’s best to depower by heading
up or down
3 Initially ease three-quarters of
the sheet in a big gust, to retain
a 25 per cent safety margin
4 After, capsize teams will do an
immediate head count to make
sure no one is trapped under
the trampoline, floats or sail.
The MOD70s carry spare air in
the central hull podThe crucial factors
I
remember this well. I think they were
doing speed runs, so that’s basically
reaching. In multihulls you call this the
death zone, but it’s the full power zone. On a
trimaran when the true wind angle is between
90-110° it’s a really critical angle because
even if you bear away or you head up, you get
overpowered and you go through a power zone.
Just like a kitesurfer doing big dives on the kite,
the boat accelerates. So you’ve got to be really
cautious between those angles.
The biggest thing on multihulls is you don’t
get a second chance. You don’t have a broach,
you just capsize and that’s it: you’re going
home on a container ship or a lifeboat.How to avoid the situation in the^
first placeOn Phaedo we had a fair few near misses. It’s
the nature of the boats; they’re pretty full on.
The MOD70s are really intense to drive. We
would generally do just half an hour on the
helm and then get off. You want to keep your
drivers fresh at all times because at night,
in the pitch black in 30, 35, almost 40 knots
you’ve got to be on the ball.
On these big multis you’ve got to have very
good drivers and very good trimmers. Because
there’s no real lugging sails or equipment
around, you don’t need a big crew to move sail
stacks, so it’s quite different from, say, a Volvo
boat where you need a bit of an army.
And you’ve also got to have a group of guys
who aren’t proud. Everyone’s had a bad watch
when you’re not on the money. You’ve just got
to get off the helm and put someone else on.
You’ve always got to know what your way
out is. So, if you’re reaching or it’s super-windy,
what is your escape? Generally on a monohull
if you’re a little bit overpowered you bear away
and the boat depowers. On the multihull when
you’re reaching along we’re always looking at
where our true wind angle is.
If we were reaching we had a little bit of a
rule on the boat – I think it carries on from what
Brian [Thompson] learned when he was doing
the round the world record on Banque Populaire- if you’re sailing at a true wind angle of around
112°, your escape is down; if you’re sailing
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4Lloyd Images102 February 2018