A hell trip for Helsal II” was the way owner/skipper Dr Tony Fisher described the 66-foot maxi yacht’s aborted race to Fiji in 1980.
The Fiji Times of June 9, 1980, reported that the most comfortable part of their voyage had been under jury rig to Noumea after their dismasting 250 miles east of Norfolk Island.
“At the time she was 120 miles ahead of the rest of the fleet in the KB Sydney-Suva Ocean race and going further away from the other yachts,” the report by Peter Campbell said.
Dr Fisher, a Sydney medical practitioner, flew from Noumea to Suva to give the first account of the dramatic dismasting and long voyage, under jury rig.
He confirmed that Helsal II’s mast had broken just before dusk just over a week out of Sydney.
This was about an hour before the scheduled time for the radio position reports, but they were unable to make contact either by radio telephone or by morse.
It wasn’t until the following morning that Helsal II was able to report the dismasting, its position and plan to sail under jury rig to Noumea because of the headwinds.
Dr Fisher said Helsal II was beating to windward in a light 8-9 knot breeze when the mast snapped in two.
“I was at the wheel, and we had just tacked from starboard onto port tack.
“There was a little gust of about 12 knots and the rig just lowered itself over the side.
“The mast broke in two places, firstly at the top when the lower spreaders let go, and then four feet above the deck.
“We had been sailing for nearly a week hard on the wind and I think the cause was metal fatigue of the terminal attachment of the cap shroud at the top of the mast.
“But everything went wrong at the same time the motor blew out a cylinder, the radio went on the blink and then the mast broke.”
Dr Fisher said the main concern of the 12-man crew was that the jagged end of the mast, bobbing up and down in the sea alongside Helsal II, would pierce the fibreglass and foam hull.
“We got to work with hacksaws and bolt cutters and cut away the mast and rigging, but then one of the runners caught around the rudder and we had to go over the side and cut that with a hacksaw,” he said.
“We strapped a spinnaker pole to the mast stump and set a jib that night and poured ourselves a hefty scotch.
Dr Fisher said up to the time the mast broke it had been a “hell trip” for himself and his crew, although the yacht was steadily opening up a big margin over the fleet.
“It was the worst sail I had ever had, bashing our way to windward for six days, every minute banging and crashing into the short seas.
“No one got any sleep because of the impact and the noise.”
Dr Fisher said Helsal II would still go on to Hawaii for the Clipper Cup series, under charter to Sydney yachtsman Jack Rooklyn, the former owner of Ballyhoo and Apollo.
