The Kairos rooster tail was reported from the International Space Station as extending over 4 km. Pleasure craft boats reported a three-metre wake as far away as Hawaii. And the NORAD tracking station in Bolder Colorado confirmed what we all know from the Swiftsure website, Kairos achieved a speed of 254.3 knots in the 2007 edition of the Swiftsure International Yacht Race.
So how does an Aerodyne-38 achieve 254.3 knots? We caught up with the Skipper and crew of Kairos when they arrived back in Victoria in the early hours of Sunday morning; we have an exclusive interview with them on their amazing speed record.
We estimate that it took you just 3.5 minutes to travel 15 nautical miles. How did you do that?
“Yeah, it was a little slower than we expected,” said an exhausted and windblown Jewula, “ We were hoping for 3.4589997 minutes. But it was amazing. We had a fantastic start. It was hard to hold her back at the start line. I have to give credit to the crew. Well, the crew and the, erm, nitrous oxide injected mainsail and the new Teflon and graphite asymmetrical spinnaker. I also removed all non-essentials from the boat.”
Jewula implemented some ideas he’d learned from the airlines. He limited the crew personal items to one carry-on of a limited size. No water bottles or other dangerous substances were permitted on the boat. No conveniences. “Things like the galley and the head were removed”, said Jewula, “if the airlines can treat their passengers like cattle, and they still come back. Well, why not try that strategy in the race with my crew?”.
We asked Ron how the crew coped with the speed, as we estimated the crew must have experienced up to 7gs during the initial acceleration from the start line. Jewula noted that there were special precautions he had to take. “We had to wear “G”-suits we purchased from NASA. Windburn protection. We went through a lot of zinc-oxide lotion. Extra strong tethers and lifelines were a must for all crew. I don’t think we lost anybody, did we?”.
Navigating Race Rocks at those speeds was a challenge. “I was worried about the currents”, said Jewula. “I think we lost a few one-hundredths of a second through Race Rocks. You need a motivated crew, with a quick eye and quick reflexes. Actually, you need a very quick eye and impossibly quick reflexes.”
And what does the crew think of the performance of Kairos? Curtis thought that the exact placement of the race numbers had a major impact on the speed. “It’s all in the mainsail trimming”, said Marion. Whereas April’s theory was that it had everything to do with the big black mast. Dennis theorised that it was all in the navigating skills and being at the right end of the start line to catch the wind. Maureen, Rose and Bev each suggested that it was the fresh insight brought by the new people on the boat who had never done Swiftsure before. Geoff wasn’t sure. “I don’t know”, he said “ I slept through it all”.
So what’s next for Kairos? “We’re going to relax and clean up the boat,” said Jewula, “we’ll tweak it a little and get ready for the Van Isle 360. Given these results, we expect to complete the first leg of the Van Isle 360 in 5.685 minutes, give or take a few one hundredths of a second”.
It is understood that the PHRF Officer at the Royal Victoria Yacht Club is reviewing the boat’s rating given these new speed results. We caught up to the PHRF Officer, Ron Jewula who said “ It’s fine. I don’t know what people are worried about. There’s been some ridiculous talk that the rating should be around minus seven-thousand seven-hundred but I don’t agree. I’ve done the math several times and it always comes out to the rating I have now, erm, I mean that Kairos has now.”
Watch for Kairos in the Cadillac Van Isle International Yacht Race starting in Nanaimo on June 16, 2007.
