It's blowin' in the wind...

An update on the progress of Keith White and Marathon

Keith has had the worst of all weathers the last couple of days. From no wind at all, the Scottish weather decided to throw a force nine at Keith. A force nine on the Beaufort scale is classed as a strong/severe gale and will have a windspeed of 41-47 knots (47–54 mph) and a likely wave height of between 7-10 metres (23-32 ft.)!

Conditions such as this are extremely demanding on any skipper sailing solo. Keith came through the gale unscathed but the Marathon was not so lucky. Having carried Marathon across the Atlantic twice and taken all that can be thrown at it, the Mainsail decided that this gale was the final straw and blew out! Sails do die and this one decided to shuffle off this mortal coil as far north in the UK as possible.

What does no Mainsail mean for the trip?

As well as the Main, the Marathon has a Jib and an inner Staysail. That is two headsails. For those who are not au fait with aerodynamics, here’s a bluffer’s guide:

With Main, Staysail and Jib, the Marathon has three sails, each with a gap, or ‘slot’ between them. The slots enhance the aerodynamic lift of a single sail. Two slots are better than one, so, with all sails set she drives very well and is balanced. Keith now has only one slot, and all power is ahead of the mast. Those sailors among you will know instinctively that the boat will no longer be balanced.

For non-sailors, think of a see-saw, with the mast as the pivot. Ideally, the see-saw is balanced with the same push behind and in front of the mast. With no push behind the mast, the bow of the boat has all the load and the forces push it away from the wind. With the mainsail gone, the only force left to counteract this is the rudder, which will now act as a huge brake. This leaves Marathon with less motive power from her sails and unbalanced. Worse still, the extra forces on the rudder and the attached self-steering gear increases the potential of steering failure.

What is Keith to do?

Keith is a consummate seaman, first and foremost. He’s currently pressing on with the non-stop challenge and is confident the Marathon is strong enough to cope with the stresses, though he can't be 100% certain. The seaman in him would put into port to find a sailmaker and make repairs. But the challenge skipper in him says to press on!

Reducing sail will lower mechanical stresses. Keith will not be unable to sail close to the wind with only Foresails, so that will affect his course, but will also ease stresses on the boat. He will try to salvage what he can from the blown mainsail, assuming there is enough to salvage. The Marathon’s Mainsail is (was) large, heavy and stiff. Handling it with two arms is tough. Wrestling it with one arm will take a lot out of him. Imagine tackling this alone at the very northernmost point of the British Isles.

And he has around 1,000 miles to go!

So, where is Keith now?

Keith has rounded the north of Shetland, and he’s trying to head south.

As you can see, his progress has turned from a steady string of dots into one large blob. That's mainly because of the weather. He had a lot of wind which ruined his Mainsail, but now he has no wind!

This is why:

You can see that within the area off of Shetland he’s currently in, there’s no wind at all and this is making his progress south impossible!

Progress almost looks ok here:

However, zooming in on the tracker you’ll see the latest track is rather less promising:

There’s been no contact with Keith today, but you can be assured that he’s not steering 034! It looks very much as if he’s heading south, into a northbound tide. The navigation geeks among you can use search engines to find a tidal stream atlas for the east coast of Shetland and see how fast it goes south and north. At least when the tide turns it will be running the Marathon southbound.

Keith has a further, more demanding challenge though. The vast open ocean is wonderfully private and lonely. One is only able to sleep when the probability of being run down is low. But coastal waters are incredibly dense with marine traffic. Here’s just some of the movement where Keith is right now:

The vessels showing are those that transmit their position by Automatic Identification System (AIS). The reality is that many vessels do not have AIS and so the traffic is much denser than indicated above. If you are wondering why the Marathon isn’t showing, it’s because the AIS aerial needs repairing and this is located at the time of the mast.

How does Keith get any sleep in that load of traffic? IRPCS regulations dictate that a vessel must always maintain a good lookout. If you thought a strong wind would be exhausting, you can now see why no wind is too - because you dare not sleep!

Dart Sailability have set a fundraising goal of ￡2,100 – that’s ￡1 per mile of Keith’s trip. Please donate anything you can by clicking on the link below. If you’re a UK taxpayer, don’t forget to check the ‘Gift Aid’ box to allow Dart Sailability to gain an extra 25p for every ￡1 raised.

Located at Noss Marina on the Kingswear side of the River Dart in Devon, the Dart Sailability Group (DSG) is a disabled sailing charity. It is run by its members, both disabled sailors and volunteers, for the benefit of people with disabilities to enjoy the freedom of sailing and power-boating. It was formed in 1997 and re-registered as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation in 2014. The Group encourages members of any age and with the majority of disabilities to enjoy the freedom and challenges that sailing and power boating can provide. For more information please visit: www.dartsailability.org