|
MULTI-HULL MADNESS: CHEYENNE’S RTW ATTEMPT
Steve Fossett’s 125 ft catamaran ‘Cheyenne’ (ex ‘Playstation’) has
crossed the finish line at Ushant (NW France) 58 days 9 hours 32 min and
45 sec after starting their Round the Word attempt on February 9th. They
beat the previous record, set in 2002 by Bruno Peyron’s catamaran
‘Orange’, by a massive 5 days 23 hr and 4 minutes.
However all did not go smoothly on the build-up to this world record
attempt. During Cheyenne’s delivery voyage from the USA to England a
mid-Atlantic phone call went out:
‘Help – we’ve just broken half our battens. Can you supply something
that wont break for our Round the World attempt? We need them in England
in 3 weeks time’.
|
PICTURE: Cheyenne battens before leaving the
workshop.
‘Can you supply something that wont break for our
Round the World attempt?’
|
With Christmas Day and Boxing Day included in the 3 week time-frame the
pressure was on for C-Tech to design, manufacture and ship a set of
battens from Auckland (New Zealand) to Plymouth (England) by 1 January
2004.
The 125 ft catamaran with a fixed (non-rotating) mast has always been
notoriously hard on battens. Not only did C-Tech have to design battens
suitable for a Round the World record attempt, they also had to survive in
a mast/sail combination where other products had already failed.
Although the existing hollow tube product was still intact for battens
#5 and #6 something stronger was required for the upper half of the sail
where stress loads are far greater. A custom set of CT Sailbattens was
manufactured with a 50mm rectangular-to-round luff end conversion to fit
into the existing mainsail receptacles. In just under 2 weeks the battens
was ready to dispatch, arriving in Plymouth on 30th December.
At one stage, Cheyenne had a lead of over 2200 miles over their
mythical rival - previous record holder 'Orange'. Gear failure (forestay,
mast track front beam, but not battens!) eroded Cheyenne’s considerable
lead over their mythical rival until they were only 1000 miles ahead of
the ‘Orange’ time with the doldrums to come. However the crew on board
Cheyenne continued to drive the big catamaran hard right up to a
hard-pressed, reefed-down finish on 5th April.
Brian Thompson - Co Skipper/Watch
Captain (Maiden II, Ecover, Cheyenne) comments on CT Sailbattens:
‘I have used C-Tech battens on Maiden II, Ecover and now on Cheyenne. I
have always been impressed with their lightness, stiffness and the quality
of the construction. Having broken my fair share of battens and spent
countless hours pulling them in and out of enormous mainsails, it’s great
to find a product that stands up to the 27,000 miles of abuse of a RTW
voyage.’
| 
