Sail-World.com : SOS Ocean Race - Thomson pit stops in Sydney

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Sail-World.com : SOS Ocean Race - Thomson pit stops in Sydney

SOS Ocean Race - Thomson pit stops in Sydney

'Ian Thomson - Save Our Seas Ocean Racing' Ian Thomson Click Here to view large photo

Sail-World last night talked to a disappointed Ian Thomson, sitting aboard in his boat at Andrew Short Marine's Fergusons Marina in Middle Harbour in Sydney.

In the first week of May 2010, Thomson had set off from Airlie Beach in Queensland to break the current Solo Around Australia Record for monohulls which stands at 68 Days 8 Hours and 30 minutes set by David Beard aboard the 35ft Skaffie II.

The non stop, unassisted part of his circumnavigation has gone.

‘I just had to make a decision for the safety of my boat, for the safety of me and also for the safety of other boats, to pull in and get things fixed. To carry on it is just too dangerous, I don’t want to go and run into another ship. I have no radar alarms if I wanted to sleep. I am a commercial skipper and so I know what safety on the sea is about.

‘So I just had to make a prudent seaman decision that to pull in (to Sydney) and get things fixed was far better than to try and carry on and put everything at risk.

Thomsons circumnavigation record progress. - .. .

‘What happened was leaving Bass Strait I broke the original drive belt, and I put the spare belt that was on the boat when I bought the boat onto the system and it wasn’t quite tight enough. I had done as much as I could to get it as tight as I could, but it didn’t really last.

‘I made a new belt out of spectra, that was actually spinning the alternator without a problem at all, but the problem was the alternator wasn’t charging and I have no idea why. So I changed over to my spare alternator that I had on board and it too was not charging. So there is something seriously wrong in the charging system on the boat.

‘You rely so much on power this day and age and with one solar panel on the roof I thought I could get through on that.

‘The first night there wasn’t a problem .. I didn’t drop much power at all, but I didn’t get enough power through the boat yesterday from the solar panel and last night the batteries dropped down below 11 volts.

‘That was just too critical. What it meant was my GPS signal wasn’t getting enough power and so it is not getting a reading and there are so many things on the boat that rely on power that I just wasn’t getting it.

‘I am hoping to be out of here soon; the guys at Andrew Short Marine in Middle Harbour ... they have been great. They towed me into their marina a little while ago. They have been absolutely sensational as they were with Jessica Watson and they have people organized already to come down first thing in the morning and try to sort out the problems. As soon as the problems are rectified I will go; I am not sure if I will go tomorrow afternoon or not, or whether I will just wait until Friday morning.

‘I can still claim the fastest solo circumnavigation around Australia and that’s the name of the game. I have a month up my sleeve and maybe six days of sailing to do.

‘The whole circumnavigation to me was to raise awareness about the plastic bag issue.

‘I haven’t done that as well as I’d have liked and basically here I sit and the big dream is gone but I am still going to finish the campaign off and see what the future holds.

‘I am not even going to bother trying to fix my mainsail - I just want to get back, get up the coast and be done with it. I will fix the spinnaker while I’m here and that will get me up the coast. But I will stick with the third reef.

‘You have to make responsible decisions in life and that is more important than a record.'

SOS Ocean Racing is about raising awareness of what damage plastic bags does to the environment, in particular the marine environment. With over 100,000 marine animals and 1 million sea birds dying from plastic suffocation or entanglement every year, it is time to get rid of the 'Convenient' plastic bag and use other options.

To help Ian with his campaign simply logon to his website www.sosoceanracing.com and vote in the very short online poll.

by www.sail-world.com

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6:35 PM Wed 9 Jun 2010 GMT

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