The GGR race, discussion and news

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by boatman61

The antifouling aint wot it woz..

Boy, ain't that the truth!!!!

I know a lot of people don't like Coppercoat, but I'm wondering whether it might not be just the ticket for waters below 40 South. Wotname had really good service out of his, but the boat wasn't used 24/7, either.

Ann

[picklesandjesse]

Originally Posted by boatman61

The antifouling aint wot it woz..

Good stuff available in Panama.... at least it was, maybe not now.

[Snowpetrel]

I wonder if the barnacles aren't adapting to Antifouling paints to some extent. It would make sense that natural selection would favour those that could attach to and spread via ship borne vectors.

[picklesandjesse]

Originally Posted by Snowpetrel

I wonder if the barnacles aren't adapting to Antifouling paints to some extent. It would make sense that natural selection would favour those that could attach to and spread via ship borne vectors.

Soon developing wings no doubt.

[Don C L]

Perhaps our boats will evolve too.... wrap the hull in coats of plastic wrap and peel a layer off every couple of months? just thinking.... I know the particulars would be tough to work out...
Perhaps whales employ a similar strategy to stay free of crusties, though with skin, not plastic. I remember going to a lecture once many years ago about dolphins and they were studying how dolphins were able to go so fast. One conclusion was that their skin reproduces quickly and in a quick burst they leave a layer of skin behind, reducing drag...
maybe I could get 20 knots out of my boat...
ahh just a goofy idea

[El Pinguino]

Re antifouling.... hauled my boat last week for first time since splashed in April 2017... so pretty much a flat 18 months and about 4,500 miles... all south of 40S, most of the time south of 50S.

No shell at all on the hull.....
Sherwin Williams ablative ( red ) antifouling... red is said to be better than black or blue.... dunno...

I think goose barnacles may be a tropical issue... and once you have them ... you have them... I picked up a few when I last went 'tropical' but nothing like what these GG people are suffering

Prop was 'prop-speeded' in NZ.... so that has about 12,000 miles on it... still as good as when done.. maybe we should 'propspeed' our entire hulls?

[Jim Cate]

FWIW: Susanne, skipper of Nejhad (a ~40 foot aluminium cutter) who is in the Longue Route "race" reported that as she crossed the Southern ocean the goose necks proliferated up to the point that she was nearly stopped in her tracks. With great misgivings, she spent several hours on three consecutive days in the water with only a tropical weight wet suit for protection, scraping away at the barnies. Frightened of all the very real hazards of the task, she persevered and pretty well removed the lot, restoring her normal boat speed.

She had antifouled just before departing from the NE coast of the USA and had been under way ever since. Being an aluminium boat, she can't use even the better of the modern anti fouling paints due to their copper content... possibly a reason to not use alloy hulls in such events in the future.

Oh... she said that some of the barnies were the size of a stem of broccoli! That would indeed induce some drag when present in large numbers!

A heroic lady and a force to be reckoned with IMO... she has my complete admiration!

Jim

[MartinR]

Originally Posted by Snowpetrel

I wonder if the barnacles aren't adapting to Antifouling paints to some extent. It would make sense that natural selection would favour those that could attach to and spread via ship borne vectors.

I think you may be right. This is how evolution works. Why wouldn't it in this case.

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

FWIW: Susanne, skipper of Nejhad (a ~40 foot aluminium cutter) who is in the Longue Route "race" reported that as she crossed the Southern ocean the goose necks proliferated up to the point that she was nearly stopped in her tracks. .........
Jim

I'm sure that once you have them they will grow like Topsy in the nutrient rich 'southern ocean'.... but that they will have been picked up in more northern waters...

That has been my experience... same antifouling... tropics = goose barnacles..... south of 40S = no barnacles.... based on one +40 day passage in tropics... one of similar length in the south..

[MartinR]

maybe the new silicone paints will provide the answer. but not all boats had problems. Matmut does not seem to have suffered much, nor Open Maverick.
Maybe it helps to keep some speed on the boat.

This is a strange race, there is now more than the whole Pacific ocean between the leader and the last.

[Snowpetrel]

Originally Posted by MartinR

maybe the new silicone paints will provide the answer. but not all boats had problems. Matmut does not seem to have suffered much, nor Open Maverick.
Maybe it helps to keep some speed on the boat.

This is a strange race, there is now more than the whole Pacific ocean between the leader and the last.

I am pretty sure Mark has been diving on his boat and cleaning it during the calms. VdH has a little dinghy onboard, and I'd suspect he has also been cleaning his hull from the dinghy and the water as needed. Also it's worth remembering both Vdh and Mark spent less time in the warm tropical waters.

[GILow]

Looks like I've got an incoming Coconut!

[Snowpetrel]

Sounds like Istvan has ongoing steering issues with his wheel and linkages and and is back to handsteering..

[JPA Cate]

Aah, poor bloke.

Ann

[bobnlesley]

Perhaps old news/something I've missed, but I was today reading an interview with Jeanne Socrates whose in that same area which noted that whilst the GGR yachts have all no doubt got their sextants aboard, they're not actually navigating 'traditionally' as seems to get mentioned in every publicity report:
Ms. Socrates advised - learnt from her own SSB conversations with the competitors - that when the racers receive weather info via SSB each day, these reports also include their precise position as transmitted by the locator units which each boat carries aboard.