Whitbread Race By No Means a Breeze

The crews in the Whitbread Round-the-World Race have endured enough discomforts and scares to make many people wonder why they do it.

They have dealt with broken masts, fractured ribs, stomach sickness, freezing water and an outbreak of gunwale bum. The symptoms: painful pimples and boils that make sitting down extremely uncomfortable.

“It’s been compared to climbing Everest,” said Kathy Alexander, spokeswoman for Maryland-based Chessie Racing. “The more I go around with these guys, the more I believe it. It may even be harder.”

The 31,600-mile journey began Sept. 21 at Southampton, England and will end there in mid-May.

The yachts are expected to arrive in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., late Sunday night or early Monday. At that point they will have sailed nearly 27,000 miles, with remaining stops in Maryland and France before returning to Southampton.

The 11-member crews on nine yachts have spent as many as 33 days at sea on the 60-foot vessels. They eat rehydrated food and their water supply comes from a donkey engine -- a machine that converts sea water to drinking water.

Don’t think the crews are doing it simply so they can say they sailed around the globe. It’s a race and they do whatever they can to shave minutes off their journeys.

“The boat is pushed 24 hours a day,” navigator Andrew Cape said Wednesday as he sailed in the lesser Antilles aboard Toshiba, a California entry. “You definitely start with the idea of winning. That’s what everyone’s here for.”

To compete, the crews take as little as possible on board and are at work every waking minute.

“There’s so much work to do on the yacht, when you get your down time you just sleep,” Cape said.

The boats often battle closely for position, even as they sail as many as 2,000 miles from land.

“They’ve had close racing that’s sort of like America’s Cup and then they’ve had racing where you’re so far apart, you’re the only boat out there,” Alexander said.

The event is made up of nine races, ranging from 450 miles to 7,350 miles. Points are awarded in each leg based on the order of finish.

As of Friday, the British entry Silk Cut had a 14.4-mile lead in the 4,750-nautical-mile journey from Sao Sebastiao, Brazil, to Fort Lauderdale. But only two days earlier, the boat trailed Swedish entry EF Language, the overall point leader after five legs.

Chessie Racing and Toshiba were within a third of a mile in a battle for sixth in the leg. Overall, Chessie Racing is fourth and Toshiba sixth.

The most dangerous stretches are the long distances between Africa and Australia and from New Zealand to Brazil. High winds, rough seas and frigid water makes sailing through the southern Pacific Ocean difficult.

“The cold’s the big killer -- not really a killer, but very hard,” Cape said. “When you’re in those types of conditions, you begin to wonder. And it is very lonely.”

The water temperatures can be deadly, capable of killing a person within five minutes, Alexander said.

Jerry Kirby, a crew member aboard Chessie Racing, had to jump into the southern ocean to check for hull damage after a whale bumped the yacht. The protective clothing he had made him float, impeding the inspection.

“The gear that Jerry had was supposed to be good for 30 minutes, but he had to let the water in to get under the boat, so he didn’t have 30 minutes -- he had five,” Alexander said. “You’ve got five minutes, then your dead.”

On the same leg, the crew’s donkey engine broke, leaving them with little water.

“They were living off of three glasses of water and a candy bar each day,” Alexander said. “It was more than an adventure at that point. It was in survival mode.”

Others have risked their lives climbing masts in 40-knot winds. Chessie Racing crewman Rick Duffy lost his grip high up the mast, swung back into it on the fall and cracked several ribs. He was taped up and back at work the next day.

Silk Cut and EF Education lost masts on the way to Brazil and had to finish the leg using their motors. Silk Cut was disqualified for the leg and EF Education retired before starting the engine, allowing it to pick up points as the last-place boat.

On the current leg, crew members have had to deal with different problems.

Some became ill after the stopover in Brazil, and with everyone sharing a relatively close space, a stomach sickness spreads quickly.

Another malady comes from sitting on the edge of a yacht in hot climates, with salt water splashing at crew members’ shorts.

Alby Pratt, a crewman on Norwegian entry Innovation Kvaerner, reported an epidemic of gunwale bum, otherwise known as “spotty botty,” and described the symptoms as “painful pimples and boils on the affected person and extreme discomfort when sitting down.”

“Hopefully,” Pratt continued, “we will be able to get relief from this painful affliction soon in Florida.”