Jeanne Socrates' "Nereida" Damaged in Record Attempt

[merlyn]

I have a friend that did it counter clockwise in a 28 foot boat with no motor .. BUT was NOT NON STOP .... https://atomvoyages.com/ his stories are excellent worth a read

[JPA Cate]

If you have an interest in women singlehanders, Google on Susanne Huber-Curphey. She is an architect, her boat "Nehaj" was designed and built by Kloopmans in the Netherlands, and she did the fitout herself. it is quite an interesting little ship. After being the first female singlehander to do the Northwest Passage, she joined the Longue Route, in Maine, and, like Moitessier, she chose not to return to Sables d'Orlonne, but to continue on, eventually stopping in Tasmania, this year. Her average speeds are higher than Jeanne's, and that was about 208 days at sea.

Raising the Post Traumatic Stress issue is interesting. I don't know how traumatic it was for her to have the roll. Getting thrown across the boat is really scary, and landing hurts. If one were the kind of person who would normally seek professional help for it, then it would be very difficult for her to carry on without constant fear that would have to be battled with, which takes a lot of energy. If she has PTSD, it could account for her being super cautious. Prompted to search for them, Jeanne did find the spare wind generator parts.

The only sail I saw that had lots of tearing was one that failed due to sun damage, it was a bad batch of cloth, and ultimately, was replaced by the supplier. I do hope she has a spare, or a trysail. But, if not, she may be able to re-purpose a less used sail to the job. Not easy, but not impossible, depending on what resources she has aboard.

Slowly, slowly, catchee monkey.

Ann

[merlyn]

On PTSD.
I am not a psychologist or MD just a sailor that flipped a 50 foot sloop in the stream after being hit by force 1. PTSD is not what people think. You don't go into flits or seizures etc. I needed some else on a dock to tell because she recognized it. There are drugs like ATIVAN and therapy like EMDR . I did 8 months of EMDR and really helped and to took me a while longer to recover.
PTSD is really crippling because it stops you from making decisions for a number of reasons. I have no idea how Jeanne is and it is not somehing you dignose over SSB or the net. I just wish her all the best

[Breaking Waves]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Susanne Huber-Curphey.

Susanne is awesome. The epitome of quiet competence - that excellent sailor who does not get press because she does not get in trouble (I hope that does not jinx her). Her relationship with her husband is interesting. She does have a rather better/faster boat than Jeanne (much of which she built herself).

The only sail I saw that had lots of tearing was one that failed due to sun damage

We had a mainsail self destruct on the way from Nuka Hiva to Hawaii. We were reefed down much of the way and the reef folds flapped against the lazy jacks and rubbed a couple of decent size holes in the sail (was a reminder to me to tie in the buntlines ). The sail was not new, had like 25,000 miles on it, so there was pre-existing UV and fatigue, but the rubbing was the final straw which did it in.

I don't have any inside info on this, but Jeanne's damage sounds like stitching going.

BTW, I went and looked at some pictures I have of the boat from fall 2018 and the mainsail looked quite good. My notes say she had some work done on it - something regarding the batten ends.

breaking waves

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by Breaking Waves

breaking waves

Jeanne's? Not sure about that.. from her blog for 16th/17th Jan.. Page 7..
'Raining now. Back to bunk while wait for Low to pass over - will probably have to stay hove to until much later today.

5am Nearly completed a full circle with boat drifting! Raining ... First light. Drifting WNW at 0.5kt in N wind 60 degrees to starboard. Rocking around in swell. Wind howling in rigging.

8am Again woken by silence and lack of motion - no rain, no howling of wind in rigging and no swell - but not for long. Wind and swell were back soon after - within half an hour, in fact. Looked out on deck - mainsail was fluttering in one place - a length along the leech edge has torn and separated from the body of the sail between the top two battens. Will need stitching back into place with reinforcing as soon as possible - not sure when, since will need to remove the entire sail from the mast to do the work down below...not simple or easy when at sea... not good news.'

Failed between 2nd and 3rd battens... there is a photo.... https://svnereida.com/blog?start=120

[Breaking Waves]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

Jeanne's? Not sure about that.

yes, you are totally right. I had not been following when those photos were posted.

I guess that is (most likely) flutter damage. Most likely (a quite common) 'user error' in not adjusting the leach line. Many mainsail leach lines are somewhat difficult to reach/adjust. We always had ours run thru a small bullet block over the head and down the luff, and quite long there so my (short) wife could reach and pull it.

We also had the two edges of tape folded unequally - so they did not come to the same edge on the two sides, which spreads and makes softer the flutter effect.

[JPA Cate]

Thanks, El Ping, for the link to the photo. Could be stitches, that'd be good. But if it is tearing, her suggestion seems appropriate: to support it with sticky back AND stitch it. Untended, the sail would shred itself in short order. BTDT, not nice.

Ann

[Jim Cate]

I guess that is (most likely) flutter damage.

Yep, possibly exacerbated by UV damage to the stitching. But she has mentioned tears recently,and I hope that she knows the difference between actual cloth failure and stitching failure... I reckon she does... and how that difference affects the remaining life of the sail (if any).

Sure hope she can sort this out. Getting N from NZ without a main is not so hard, but traversing the doldrums with out its drive would be taxing.

Jim

[merlyn]

Asking myself what drives Jeanne? Is it the competition of being the first to do it or an emotional or internal motive or fame ? From reading her web site I don't see it. Anybody has ideas on this ?

[oldbilbo]

'You do not ask a tame seagull why it needs to disappear from time to time toward the open sea.

It goes, that's all.'


Bernard Moitessier

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by merlyn

Asking myself what drives Jeanne? Is it the competition of being the first to do it or an emotional or internal motive or fame ? From reading her web site I don't see it. Anybody has ideas on this ?

For a publicity driven project, she's rather a private person about her feelings. Her husband died before they could cruise together long term, and she has dedicated the rest of her life to these efforts, and her grandchildren. I would say it is a deep inner motivation, and she does it because she still can.

Ann

[merlyn]

Well looks like Jeanne is on the cusp of leaving as soon as the weather permits. One has to remember that it is winter and especially where she is it can be rough.

[Tillsbury]

Dammit. My new turbo is still waiting in customs, otherwise I would have popped out to say hello as she went past...

[Don C L]

Did she repair the torn main?

[JPA Cate]

She may have done, I saw a picture of one mend, but could not tell from it if she is finished.

There is a picture of how she's resecured the lifeline and the mainsail repair on her blog, svnereida.

Ann