I met Jim Close…….“Jimbo,” as I came to call him in Punta del Este, Uruguay, when I joined the crew of the 82-foot ketch “The Card” for the second leg of the 1989 Whitbread Round the World Race, a fully crewed event run over five legs.
We were an international crew of 20, mostly Swedish, with Finns, Australians, New Zealanders, Americans, Belgium, Irish, and French sailors.
During the stopover, a tragic motorcycle accident took the life of our outstanding foredeck leader, Janne Gustavasson.
Jim volunteered to take on the bowman position for this the 8000 nautical mile heinous Southern ocean leg. Jim’s crew position is normally a sail trimmer, helmsman and sailmaker, he told me that he liked a challenge, and that he would reduce sail damage if he led from the front during sail change manoeuvres….I’m pretty sure that he met that challenge in bucket loads, and that Janne would be proud of him!!!
We set off on the longest and most treacherous leg of the Whitbread round the world race, crossing 11 time zones.
We headed South through the Roaring Forties and into the Screaming Fifties, where the wind shrieks constantly through the rigging and your bones, where the ocean swells are huge and icebergs and blizzards are common.
The sky gradually turned gray, the wind kept building, and the seas grew longer and deeper. As we reduced sail, it came time to hoist the “Chicken Chute,” the smallest and heaviest spinnaker in 45knots plus windspeed.
I was handling the spinnaker sleeve hoister (a spinnaker handling device that I had invented, designed and built for ATN).
I was up on the foredeck and the only one facing aft while the rest of the crew looked forward apart from Jim up on the bow.
From where I stood, I could see skipper Roger Nilsson doing his best to keep the boat running dead downwind when a massive wave sent us into a violent death roll and then a broach.
The boat slammed over from windward to leeward until the spreaders touched the water, and freezing water swept across the deck, like out of control rapids.
In that moment, the titanium pad-eye securing the spinnaker pole downhaul block behind me failed.
The pole shot upward like a bullet, and the downhaul snapped tight, striking my right arm and throwing me up against the baby stay, before I was washed back onto the flooded slippery deck, headed out of control for the leward lifeline fence; like an insect in a drain.
With a river of green water waves racing two meters across and above the foredeck at more than 20knots+, I could not hold on, my right arm, now like a piece of rubber, no longer worked.
That is when Jimbo saved me.
With water up to his waist, he dived at me from the forestay, in which he was clipped onto with a long safty strop; grabbing my hair and foul-weather gear, as I was being flushed through the lifelines, Jim held on tight until the boat righted itself. When the boat stabilised and resumed course, and the deck finally leveled out clearing the deluge of freezing water.
In the chaos that followed, I was helpless and had to wait for assistance. Fortunately, Roger Nilsson was not only our skipper but also a highly skilled surgeon, so I was in good hands.
Although I was badly injured and could do little more than the radar ice watch, as my right arm now was in a cast and was broken in three places.
I ended up spending many hours with Jimbo hand cranking the manual sewing machine with my good left arm while, he repaired our damaged spinnakers and jibs as the boat’s sailmaker.
He told me many stories….most of them dirty and I still remember his sharp sense of humour, deep technical understanding of the professional sailing world, and total dedication to his sailmaking craft. Even if his mumbling and Australian accent could make him hard to understand at times.
This is why Jimbo will always be “my Savior” Regards
Etienne Giroire / ATN
Etienne is a great friend and marine product innovator, something we both have in common. He is a skilled yachtsman, and has a very focused mind with attention to detail, especially in relation to sailing innovative and original marine product design at ATN. He also loves classic cars like his open top 60s Cadillac white with a red leather interior. I think and still picture him using it as his daily drive.
Etienne’s story narrated by Russel King:
Video interview with Etienne Giroire / ATN
1989-90 Whitbread round the world yacht race – short cilp
