|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||
|
| . | ||||||||||||||||
|
| 1 March, 2004 |
|
Summary of CRC’s Claims and The Holiday Shoppe Challenge (HSC) Response |
• CRC claimed that there are unexplained bolt holes on the solar panel that were used to elevate the panel above 15 degrees to make a sail. HSC Response: When building and fixing the solar panel to the boat, it was attached incorrectly, to suit the Southern and not the Northern Hemisphere. To fix this the frame was rotated 180 degrees leaving two redundant bolt holes. These bolt holes are in the wrong place to be effective in securing the panel. • CRC claimed that the washer marks around the bolt holes at the end of the race were not there at the start of the race (implying that the holes had been used during the race). HSC Response: We showed a photo that conclusively showed that the washer marks were there at the start. (The washer marks were formed there when the panel was initially incorrectly mounted.) It is not clear why CRC claimed that they could not see the washer marks at the start. • CRC claimed that, in a photo taken by the support yacht a few days before the end of the race, the redundant bolt hole could not be seen even when “zoomed in”. From this they deducted that a bolt must have been in the hole and the panel used inappropriately during the race. HSC Response: Actually the photo does clearly show the bolt hole! So do many other photos taken by the support yacht that day. As it is so obviously in error this is one of CRC’s strangest claims. • CRC have claimed that there was an unexplained increase of speed in the last half of the race by HSC that enabled them to catch CRC, and that this speed increase was “beyond the capacity of human effort” Response: In the 12 days that we were catching CRC we rowed 822 nm. In the 12 days previous to that we rowed 819nm. (These distances come from the position data on the official race website). In the 12 days before they were being caught CRC rowed 823 nm, very similar to us. But in the next 12 days they only rowed 742 nm. So the distance that we rowed when were catching CRC must have been within human effort as CRC had just done it. The reasons we caught CRC is not because we rowed faster but because they slowed down! This point was stated very clearly in the protest hearing report. The reason for CRC slowing down is that it would seem they had an injury on board. A photo on CRC’s web site showed Goodman with a wide tightly bound band of tape just below the elbow of his left arm. Two independent physiotherapists both indicated that this type of strapping could only be for tendonitis which would have impaired rowing. It is ironic that the days that we made the biggest gains on CRC were the days when we had the strongest head winds and CRC put out their sea anchor! • CRC claimed that HSC switched off their boat positioning beacon at night to hide their unusual boat speed. HSC Response: Support yacht captain Lin Parker, has stated “My opinion is that [HSC] were most concerned when it appeared that they were not polling, and the positions on the web site were incorrect, and did everything in their power to make sure we had up to date positions” • CRC claim that the HSC life raft was thrown from the boat to decrease weight. HSC Response: The life raft was lost in a capsize two days before the end of the race. If the life raft had been thrown overboard in a mad attempt to lose weight then many other far less critical items would not have been on board at the end! • CRC claim that fresh water ballast was dumped and replaced with salt water near the end of the race. HSC Response: It is not an infringement of the rules to have salt water in the ballast. In the second week of the race it was discovered that the water in one of the wooden ballast tanks had become contaminated by the tank’s sealant. An attempt to replace this contaminated water with fresh water from the watermaker was abandoned when the seas turned rough. The tank was topped up with salt water at this time to maximise stability. All other tanks (plastic) carried fresh water the whole trip. |
|
For further information, including a copy of our full written submission, contact Rob Hamill on 07 856 1332 or Rob@wave.co.nz |
|