Leaving Storms, Field in His Wake

It has been a week since Brad Van Liew crossed the finish line at Salvador, Brazil, the first in his class to do so, after more than a month at sea.

And he is still breathing a sigh of relief.

“Boats are still out there because there was a lot of carnage,” he said, after guiding Tommy Hilfiger Freedom America to a first-place finish in Leg 4 of the Around Alone sailing race.

“There were two dismastings and all sorts of problems associated with the wild weather.”

The term carnage seems to pop into conversation whenever sailors talk of rounding Cape Horn, a notoriously dangerous and occasionally deadly passage between South America and Antarctica.

And a similar word might be used to describe what Van Liew, 35, a former Southern California sailing standout now living in Mount Pleasant, S.C., has been doing to the rest of the Class II field, involving boats 40-50 feet, in the race.

Having also dominated the first three legs, he completed Leg 4 -- from Tauranga, New Zealand, to Salvador -- more than 800 miles ahead of his nearest competitor and, remarkably, ahead of some of the 60-foot Class I boats. His time for the 7,850-mile crossing was 34 days 3 hours 16 minutes 56 seconds.

The fifth and final leg, of a race that began last September in New York, begins April 13 in Salvador and ends 4,015 miles away in Newport, R.I. Already, the competitors have traveled 26,887 nautical miles.

These things happen “when you bring a bazooka to a knife fight,” Van Liew said of his success, explaining that his sleek 50-foot racing vessel was designed specifically for this race and that his sponsors and support team worked full time resolving any issues that have come up.

Already, Van Liew has enjoyed a week off while four of his five Class II competitors, as of Thursday afternoon, were still straggling toward the finish line. The fifth, Spirit of Canada, is in port at Ushuaia, Argentina, having a new mast installed. Skipper Derek Hatfield, who suffered a harrowing ordeal off Cape Horn, hopes to resume racing in time to make it to Salvador before April 13.

As for Van Liew, he has a crew fine-tuning his lightweight, red, white and blue speed machine and this weekend, for the first time since the race began, will return home “to take care of some overdue business” and enjoy a bit of normal life with his wife and daughter before returning for the start of Leg 5.

One of the things the sailor has frequently been asked was whether recent world events had been a distraction as he put in his daily time on the Internet.

“When you’re so deprived of sleep, only getting four hours a day and doing the job of 12 crew members on a 50-foot boat, it’s hard to think about anything else but sailing,” he said.

You’ve got to eat to feed the machine and sleep to survive, plus constantly be analyzing the weather [on the computer]. I do think about what’s going on and have mixed feelings, but for the most part I’ve been able to keep all that in the back of my mind.”

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With an ocean floor that changes abruptly from 4,000 to 400 feet, with some of the wildest winds and waves on the planet, the passage between Cape Horn and Antarctica is daunting for captains and crews of all types of vessels.

Van Liew survived a brief capsizing and dismasting in eight-story waves during the previous Around Alone challenge in 1998-99. He managed to get his boat repaired, however, and came in third in his class, the only American to finish.

This time he managed to stay upright, but there were tense moments that seemed to stretch into eternities.

“The last time it was largely beautiful, but I encountered one major storm, with 80-knot winds and 100-knot gusts,” he said. “This time I was hit by a series of frontal passages, with 40-knot, 50-knot and 60-knot winds. It was bang, bang, bang ... uncomfortably rough and cold but not nearly as deadly.”

The sailors then encountered -- and continue to encounter -- the other extreme: 115-degree heat and 100% humidity off Brazil. Said French skipper Thierry Dubois from the vessel Solidaires, “Hell is better -- I assure you.”

Dubois, winner of Leg 4, is second to Swiss skipper Bernard Stamm of Bobst Group-Armor Lux in Class I.

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Graham Dalton was the first casualty of this running of the Around Alone. He told organizers this week from Puerto Madryn, Argentina, that he was withdrawing because he would be unable to make repairs in time for the start of Leg 5, after losing his mast when strong gusts suddenly swung his mainsail and boom from one side to the other, tipping the vessel on its side and snapping the mast. This happened well after passing Cape Horn.

Hatfield nearly became another, in more ways than one. He’s fortunate to be alive after his 40-foot boat pitched-poled, capsizing end over end, during a fierce storm that whipped up 40- to 50-foot waves. (The captain of an ice-breaker returning from Antarctica told race headquarters that winds reached 70 knots.)

“The waves were really starting to get huge as I approached Cape Horn,” Hatfield said in a phone interview with headquarters from Ushuaia. “They were at least 40 to 50 feet with breaking crests. I knew that if one of them got the boat, we would be in trouble, but because I was on deck at the helm I could see them coming and steer away from them.”

One wave, however, swept up from behind, picked up the boat and sent it streaking down its face.

“I was so exhausted that I could hardly think, but when I heard the wave I knew that I was in trouble,” Hatfield continued. “It was not as big as some of the others, but it was breaking and it made a huge roar as it approached the boat. In seconds, we were falling down the face of it until the bow dug in and then we pitch-poled.

“The boat went straight up and then fell over sideways. I was at the back of the boat and got flung forward, and the next thing I knew I was in the water under the boat.

“I heard the water gurgling and knew that I was under the boat, then all of a sudden I heard explosions. Loud explosions that reverberated through the water and I knew in that instant that the mast was breaking. It was unreal.”

With the mast having broken, the boat tipped back upright, dragging Hatfield, who was attached to a harness, back onto the deck. He found his satellite phone and placed a call to his support team but was able to make it to Ushuaia under motor, which remarkably didn’t falter.

*

Dalton had to tell tens of thousands of schoolchildren following his progress via the Internet, as part of a program called Global Education Challenge, of his decision to withdraw.

“I’ve been saying to the children ... that you aren’t successful because of your successes; you’re successful ultimately in the way you deal with failure. Well I certainly have to practice what I preach, and I’m now working toward completing my circumnavigation.”

Pindar skipper Emma Richards of England, and Ocean Planet skipper Bruce Schwab of San Francisco are also participating in the program, which involves children from 35 countries. Richards, 27, is the only woman and youngest competitor in the race, and is currently in third place overall in Class I.

News and Notes

* Saltwater fishing: With spring come the season’s halibut tournaments. The Marina del Rey Halibut Derby is scheduled April 5-6. Cost is $60 for adults and $25 for children under 15. Details: (310) 827-4855 or at www.halibutderby.com....The Santa Monica Bay Halibut Derby is set for April 12-13. Cost is $55 a person, regardless of age. Details: (714) 258-0445. Both events benefit youth fishing programs and conservation efforts.

* Freshwater fishing: Irvine Lake planted 15,000 pounds of rainbow trout Wednesday in advance of its annual March Madness Derby, which features cash prizes for places 1-10. Details: (714) 649-9111.

* Skiing-snowboarding: How beneficial was last week’s storm for the local resorts?

“If we hadn’t received the storm, we would have closed by this weekend as it was so warm we couldn’t make snow,” says Chris Sutherland, spokeswoman for Snow Valley in Running Springs near Big Bear. “The storm will give us another two weeks if the weather remains cool or cold.”

Snow Valley has reopened 10 runs and the terrain park. Nearby Bear Mountain Resorts (Snow Summit and Bear Mountain) and Mountain High in Wrightwood report very good coverage.