Fourteen new 67-feet yachts, identically constructed and fitted, took part in the Global Challenge. Each was crewed by thirteen amateurs with a professional skipper. The race, which consisted of six legs, began and ended in Southampton. En route there were stop-over points facilitating repairs to bodies and crafts at Rio de Janeiro, Wellington, Sydney, Cape Town and Boston. The race thus rounded Cape Horn against the prevailing winds into the roaring forties. Not surprisingly it was labelled 'the world's toughest yacht race'. It was organised by Chay Blyth, famed for sailing solo around the world, in a similar direction.
Captain Tom O'Connor, an instructor pilot of the Irish Air Corps Helicopter Search and Rescue Service, was selected by Chay Blyth as one of the fourteen professional yacht skippers. He had considerable yachting experience and had been skipper of the winning 1994 round-Ireland yacht race.
While the race overall was sponsored by British Telecom, and the crew members each contributed nearly £20,000 for the privilege of participating, each yacht had an individual sponsor reflected in the name of the yacht. It was perhaps with a wry sense of humour on the part of Chay Blyth, that Tom was assigned the yacht Pause to Remember, sponsored by the British Legion.
Tom phoned me in June of last year, to say that he considered a knowledge of meteorology on the part of his crew to be an essential part of the preparations for the race. Thus I became involved to the following extent:
After an initial approach by Tom to Met Éireann's Commercial Division, Evelyn Murphy of Marine Unit co-operated in making climatological information available. In addition CAFO provided a forecast for the departure from Southampton on 29th September. With Tom involved mainly in preparations in Southampton, I liaised between all concerned with regard to selection and transmission on the data required as well as negotiating payments.
I prepared and delivered a short course in basic meteorology to twelve of Tom's crew. This was topped up by question-and-answer sessions during training runs on the yacht in Southampton. I also provided sets of handouts. Emphasis was placed on interpretation of the routine actual and forecast weather charts available on the single sideband radio facsimile receiver with which each yacht was equipped.
The yacht was provided with appropriate sets of Admiralty routing charts. These each cover a section of the globe for each month of the year, and give monthly mean or extreme values of meteorological elements. I prepared, for Tom and the crew, a stage by stage account of the weather to be expected over the six legs of the race, based mainly on the sets of charts provided.
As I had to cover unfamiliar zones of the world, including the Southern Hemisphere, my own preparation had been fairly intensive. In this I was indebted to many people in Glasnevin. Lisa Shields directed me initially to Ray Bates's famed thesis (not beyond the introduction) as well as to many subsequent articles on the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), the region of the dreaded doldrums, which was a topic of particular interest. A friend kindly obtained newspaper cuttings of weather forecasts from Australia for reassurance when discussing wind direction and frontal movements in that hemisphere.
Motivation among crews differed. Some, like the crew of Group 4— the eventual winners—were single minded from the outset in their desire to win. Many of the crew (though not Tom) of Pause to Remember, which finished in 10th place, simply wished a successful completion of the course. The crew members of Time & Tide all suffered some form of physical handicap. They were satisfied to complete the course.
Tom's yacht was one of those becalmed in the doldrums on the first southbound leg from Southampton to Rio de Janeiro. It would appear from his description that the width and effects of the ITCZ at his point of crossing in mid-October (too far to the east as became clear in hindsight) had been modified by easterly waves, a phenomenon not normally expected after September.
His northbound crossing of the ITCZ, between Cape Town and Boston in May was unproblematic. He did however, in common with other competitors, experience a short spell of nearly calm conditions in the sub-tropical high pressure system,(horse latitudes) the following week. This led to the reported comment from Tom's yacht: 'The crew came to the conclusion that a pact existed between the Azores High and the ITCZ (the doldrums) to ensure that if you pass through one unscathed, then you can be sure the other will be waiting for you with a vengeance'.
The forecast charts received on board in the southern hemisphere were unreliable, presumably on account of the lack of observational data. In fact no climatological information was available for the more southerly parts of their track.
BBC's CEEFAX followed the progress of the race with great interest daily. It was also available on a very lively Internet site —still up until the end of 1997and well worth viewing (http://www.btchallenge.com). Have a look at the Global Challenge Web home page . Tom wrote and sent very readable bulletins describing the stages. There was the stitching of a head wound, 'in between big waves and retches over the side' by the doctor crew member following an accident to the mate at an early stage. There was the frightening experience off Argentina attributed to the pampero, a local phenomenon. After rounding Cape Horn and facing into the roaring forties, Tom wrote of encountering while on watch 'the nastiest looking squall I have ever seen..... My thoughts at the time were this must be the gate to hell....' Tom gave a graphic description of a heroic episode, which was a tribute to the exceptional co-operation and dedication of the crew. They succeeded in repairing the broken ½ tonne eight-metre boom in the confines of the yacht's companionway, south-west of the Kerguellen Islands in the storms of the Southern Ocean.
Tom will no doubt be given many opportunities in the coming months not alone to elaborate on these incidents but to provide a full account of this exciting expedition. An Irish Meteorological Society seminar would I feel, provide a suitable forum!
(Graphics based on ones from the Internet)