{"id":46234,"date":"2026-10-15T01:10:45","date_gmt":"2026-10-15T01:10:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/?p=46234"},"modified":"2026-10-15T01:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T01:12:08","slug":"sea-tales-southern-ocean-wipeout-on-the-whitbread-1989","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/2026\/10\/sea-tales-southern-ocean-wipeout-on-the-whitbread-1989\/","title":{"rendered":"Sea Tales: Southern Ocean Wipeout on the Whitbread 1989"},"content":{"rendered":"

Etienne Giroire is the founder of the ATN company and brand. He invented the ATN Spinnaker Sleeve that is used by cruisers and racers round the world. He also developed the Mast Climber, Gale Sail and other products. He is a vastly experienced solo and crewed offshore racer and has tales to tell from many thousands of miles at sea. Here\u2019s one of them.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I was sailing on the 81\u2019 Ketch The Card from Punta del Este,Uruguay\u00a0 to\u00a0 Perth, Australia in the Whitbread Round the World Race 1989-90.<\/p>\n

The Whitbread was the fully crewed round the world race in six legs, held every three years, now called the Ocean Race. In 1989, the race started from Southampton, England, then Punta del Este, Uruguay (it usually stopped in Cape Town, South Africa, but because of apartheid, Punta del Este was selected). Then Perth, Western Australia, onto Auckland, NZ, then Punta del Este again, onto Fort Lauderdale, and finally the sprint to Southampton.<\/p>\n

The 81\u2019 ketch-rigged The Card was skipped by Roger Nilsson and Magnus Ollson from Sweden, the core of the 18 people crew is from Scandinavia, with some French, Kiwi and Aussie sailors. U.S. legend Bill Biewenga was with us as well, so was Jacques Vincent.<\/p>\n

This was the beginning of my ATN Spinnaker Sleeve business and we were carrying it on every spinnakers. As I couldn\u2019t commit for this year-long project, I asked the skipper Roger Nillson to join one of the southern legs.<\/p>\n

We departed Punta del Este for the longest leg of the race, all the way to Perth, Western Australia. This leg took us half around the world, through 11 time zones, in a circular route around Antarctica.<\/p>\n

As we gained southing, the wind increased, the sky was getting greyer, more overcast every day, and the seas larger. We were sailing south, crossing the 40th<\/sup> latitude: the Roaring Forties, so called by the sailors of yore because of the sound of the wind and seas which are almost always large and breaking. We then reached the 50th<\/sup> latitude, called the Screaming Fifties, because of the sound of the wind blowing in the rigging sounded like a constant scream, indicating high winds and greater seas.<\/p>\n

This was going to be our ocean highway for the next three weeks; the very large waves were breaking constantly around us but we were running with it, dialing down the sail area as the wind increased. This is the first time a Whitbread boat would do more than 400 miles in 24 hours.<\/p>\n

It was now blowing west, strong, and we were riding some very long swells, dead down wind. We lowered the mizzen, useless in that point of sailing, then switched to heavier spinnakers. It was soon time to hoist the chicken chute, so called because it was the last one we dared to hoist in 40 knots of air.<\/p>\n

It happened midafternoon, with everyone on deck during a sail change. I was all the way up on the bow, dealing with the ATN spinnaker sleeve. Since I was the manufacturer of the spinnaker sleeve, I found myself hoisting it very often, welcoming the experience and the thrill of using my gear in such challenging waters. I was in the foredeck, looking aft. I saw the skipper Roger, sweating, doing his best to keep the boat perpendicular to the following breaking waves which usually promotes a beautiful surf.<\/p>\n

But, this time, he was a bit off center, so breaking sea induced a wipe out broach; a wipe out is when the boat has too much sail up, our heavy ketch would wallow in the draft and rolls sideways ( the death roll) , spreaders in the water, pressed down by the wind. I could see that we were about to experience a wipe out which happens regularly as we averaged one per hour which showed us that we were pushing the boat to its limit.<\/p>\n

So, I saw a wipe out arriving. Everyone on deck stopped whatever they were doing, held onto lifelines, shrouds and the wheel I was holding the staysail stay with one hand, the spinnaker sleeve control lines in the other. Behind and above me was the spinnaker pole already hoisted and squared with its down haul led between me and the staysail stay, back to the cockpit. As the boat rolls to windward, the spinnaker pole engaged in the sea, at 15 knots and the titanium fitting holding the block of the down haul on the bow let go!<\/p>\n

The freed spinnaker pole swung wildly, crashed onto the forestay while the down haul, fore guy (3\/4\u201d Kevlar rope) caught my arm and pushed me up the staysail stay. I remember looking down, momentarily flying and let go, falling down on deck, still holding the spinnaker sleeve control line.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the boat has rolled to leeward, and was now laying sideways on starboard, the mainsail boom dragging in the sea at 15 knots. \u00a0Half of my body was in the rushing water! I needed to hold on to something! Being a right-hander, I wanted to use my right hand, but it would not work! I look down at my arm; it is bent oddly at 45degrees!<\/p>\n

My buddy Jim Close caught me, with water going over his boots, until the boat righted herself, shaking the rigging and immediately rushing off at 15 knots. My buddy Jimbo saved my life, and, as he said later, \u201c I looked like an insect flushed down the sink\u201d .<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the spinnaker pole was still loose, crashing around the foredeck, sailors were frenetically getting at it, I rolled onto my back, flopped my arm onto my chest, and crawled back to the mast to wait for help. After a while, the boat was tamed, things got back to normal and I could be tended to.<\/p>\n

Luckily, Roger Nilsson is a doctor, so I was in good hands, and it was cold so I had on several layers of strong foul weather gear \u201c protecting\u201d my arm. \u00a0But unfortunately, this happened one week after the start of the race. We were too far from any land (Cape Town being the closest, 2,000 miles to the north) so the most logical place for me to go was Perth. I could not do much for the rest of the leg, steering with one arm was out of the question on this heavy ketch, with very large rudder, so I did mostly radar watch, looking for Icebergs and we did see a few.<\/p>\n

Once arrived in Perth, the first bit of news was that the Berlin Wall had fallen!<\/p>\n

I was soon admitted to the local hospital, where I was operated on with two titanium plates, held by 18 screws, to hold the arm in place. (Irony: the pad eye that broke behind me during the broach was titanium).These plates and screws are still in my right forearm, 36 years later.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I then flew back to the U.S., resuming manufacturing of the ATN spinnaker sleeve:<\/p>\n

I had learned a lot in this unique experience, earlier in the leg, in flatter seas, I went up to the masthead while flying the spinnaker, to look at the ATN spinnaker sleeve in action, up and down. It worked and still does.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Etienne Giroire was the founder of ATN products recently bought a cruising goat and has sold ATN so we can expect to hear from him from exotic cruising grounds where he won\u2019t be running at 15 knots in the Screaming Fifties.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Etienne Giroire is the founder of the ATN company and brand. He invented the ATN Spinnaker Sleeve that is used by cruisers and racers round the world. He also developed the Mast Climber, Gale Sail and other products. He is a vastly experienced solo and crewed offshore racer and has tales to tell from many thousands of miles at sea. Here\u2019s one of them.   I was sailing on the 81\u2019 Ketch The Card from Punta del Este,Uruguay\u00a0 to\u00a0 Perth, Australia in the Whitbread Round the World Race 1989-90. The Whitbread was the fully crewed round the world race in six legs, held every three years, now called the Ocean Race. In 1989, the race started from Southampton, England, then Punta del Este, Uruguay (it usually stopped in Cape Town, South Africa, but because of apartheid, Punta del Este was selected). Then Perth, Western Australia, onto Auckland, NZ, then Punta del Este again, onto Fort Lauderdale, and finally the sprint to Southampton. The 81\u2019 ketch-rigged The Card was skipped by Roger Nilsson and Magnus Ollson from Sweden, the core of the 18 people crew is from Scandinavia, with some French, Kiwi and Aussie sailors. U.S. legend Bill Biewenga was with …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":46236,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46234"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46234"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46238,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46234\/revisions\/46238"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bwsailing.com\/cc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}