I collided with a whale…

James Burwick har nya problem i sin Open 40, Anasazi Girl.

I collided with a whale on 28april 0800 UTC

Lost port rudder

I am on starboard

Using water ballast to keep her flat

1st 24 hrs 195 nm
last 18 hrs 155 nm

I always wondered how she would do. I also wondered if the stock would stay undamaged

Rudder sheared leaving 100mm of the blade

JP3 beareings not leaking

I will continue 3500 nm to bermuda. It will be mainly on Starboard tack

I anm at 5 S and 21.54 W I will gybe soon and go west along 5s to 28 w and then cross the doldrums going due north

I expect some calm conmditons to dive on the bottom

Now i have 25kts and 4 m

I tested the system by using full ballst and I could go upwind at 60 deg apparent wind angle

Please llet the gang and Petite Bateau know . Maybe this is of interest to them
James

It was supposed to be a private thing, “a quiet little personal solo around the 3 capes voyage.” But American climber and sailor James Burwick completed the Bermuda to Cape Town shakedown (8000 miles) in 43 days and on his second leg, James hoped to break the existing open 40 record. Except he was going alone and not with a group of racers.

On January 17, 2007, James left Cape Town and sped off for Tauranga, in New Zealand hoping to reach it in less than 38 days – the current speed record across the Southern Ocean for monohull sailing vessels. “This section of the southern ocean is the big nasty,” he told ExplorersWeb, “the Kerguelen Islands get the ocean refracted and causes high seas – a handful of unfortunate events have taken place in that area.”

Big nasty for sure; Anasazi Girl broke her mast, but James managed to take her safely to port in Albany, Western Australia.

After three and a half months harbored in Freemantle, James departed on the last stage of the sailing trip – and ended up June 12, in New Zealand’s South Island.

On December 14, James Burwick left Auckland again – for a 8300nm crossing to Cape Town via Drake Passage. He arrived Cape Town around noon day 46, on January 30th.

Burwick’s baby is the Anasazi Girl, a Finot Open 40 vessel: Small, but super strong, super light, and super equipped (including iridium and email). Carbon-made, she only weighs 3.5 tones.