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Yachting: Grinders key in preventing capsize

Team New Zealand narowly avoided a capsize while racing against Oracle yesterday. Photo Reuters
Team New Zealand narowly avoided a capsize while racing against Oracle yesterday. Photo Reuters
The grinders were the heroes.

The grinders would say they are always the heroes but, in a stirring display of composure and discipline, they helped prevent a capsize that seemed certain to occur.

As Emirates Team New Zealand's AC72 flew its hull dangerously, impossibly high, Rob Waddell, Chris Ward, Jeremy Lomas, Derek Saward, James Dagg and Chris McAsey kept pounding on the handles.

The grinders' grunt work powers the hydraulics which operates the wingsail and other moveable pieces of equipment on board, like the foils. No grinders, no power; no power, the boat would capsize anyway.

But in a moment of terror like yesterday's near-capsize, the temptation is to hang on for dear life or, as radio comments man and Artemis crew member Craig Monk said, jump off the raised hull (which was were Winston Macfarlane, Glenn Ashby and Adam Beashel were marooned).

But, even as it seemed that a capsize must occur, the grinders kept grinding, feeding the power to the giant, 40m wingsail which had not "popped" on a rolling tack. Cambered the wrong way, it then acted as a wind magnet, sucking the boat over on its side in a near 45-degree angle.

Cool as you like, the grinders not only never left their posts, they rotated their handles, helping to restore power, correct the wing and regain the horizontal.

It called to mind the eight-man orchestra on the Titanic - the ones who kept playing as the ship went down to maintain the calm of the passengers on the sinking ship. They all perished, going down with the ship, and were posthumously decorated for their courage.

The grinders didn't have to worry about any of that and the shouts of "hydro, hydro, hydro" (hydraulics) from tactician Ray Davies left them in no doubt about what was required.

There's another element. There is so much for the grinders to do - they have a highly co-ordinated choreographed system which tells them when to grind and when to sprint to the other side of the boat, a combination of lights and internal comms, that they are almost always 'head down and bum up' when racing.

A common complaint from grinders on all the AC72s is that they are so busy watching for their lights, signals and reacting to commands, they don't actually have time to see how the race is going.

"We have to watch the video back at the base to find out what happened in the race," said one recently.

None of them will be in any doubt about what happened yesterday or that, even if they lost the race, who it was that kept Team NZ in the race for the America's Cup.

- by Paul Lewis in San Francisco

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