Mike Golding
I would like to tell your readers about a special friendship, without which our participation in the ARC transatlantic rally in November would not have been possible.
During a rig check by Jerry ‘the Rigger’ Henwood, he discovered cracks on five of the six spreaders of our yacht Johanna [an X-412]. Jerry strongly advised a repair, and a very exciting time began.
With help from other participants we made a direct contact with Sparcraft in La Rochelle. They told us the spreaders are custom made and were not in stock. So Stephan, the owner and skipper, started a telephone marathon.
On Monday 19 November, Sparcraft gave a commitment to manufacture replacements on Tuesday and deliver directly via Fedex to Germany. The same day the mast was removed and placed in the Royal Club Nautico in Las Palmas. Every day dozens of ARC sailors walked by our berth and the sympathy was huge.
Now comes the special friendship service! Rather out of desperation, Stephan asked our friend Michael from Karlsrühe whether he would fly to Las Palmas with the spreaders as a freight shipment would certainly not have arrived on time. He agreed, and quickly a flight from Stuttgart was booked for Thursday. The delivery of the spreaders from France was scheduled for Wednesday, so Michael could take them to Stuttgart, where he stayed overnight.
But on Wednesday morning, Fedex told us that the delivery vehicle had broken down. So Stephan managed to convince Fedex to allow him to pick up the important shipment from their vehicle workshop and bring it to Karlsrühe.
On Thursday we picked up Michael with the valuable cargo from the airport and hand it over to Alisios Sailing, the rigging company in Las Palmas, who installed them all throughout the day despite the pouring rain. On Friday evening at 1800 (two days before the start of the ARC rally) the mast was finally stepped again.
A very cordial thank you goes to
Gina and Mark from the Moody 49 Rum Truffle, our neighbours, who let Michael stay overnight on board. In this chaos, Johanna had no room for a fifth person.
This has been a beautiful reminder of a special time, which we all recalled again in St Lucia with some rum punches.
Arvid Graeger