Living conditions
It is extremely difficult to get a good rest when the noise below is deafening and the boat’s motion is so violent. The crew onboard Green Dragon will operate a watch system that allows the team to split into smaller groups that rotate duties during their time at sea. The skipper and navigator ‘float’ and the other 8 people will work 4 hours on and 4 off. In reality two people change every 2 hours and when you are off watch you have 2 hours on standby and 2 hours in a bunk, which has 500mm headroom to the bunk above or the deck above. This system allows them to sleep 6 hours (plus whatever they can grab on standby) but actually, they can be called upon at any time to help on deck. In the boat there are 12 bunks in total but you only use the windward ones. So, realistically, there are 6 at any one time that can be used.
The only way to shower during the race is if it rains! What if it doesn’t rain? “Wet wipes are very useful,” said skipper Ian Walker. The same applies to washing the clothes, there is no real way to wash any onboard. But luckily they don’t carry too much, each crew will have 1 kitbag – a large one for long, cold legs and a small one for hot short legs. All the rubbish produced during every leg will be stored on board and disposed of in the most environmentally way when they reach port
Food & Nutrition
Life on board takes its toll with some crews reported losing up to 25 pounds (11Kg) on one leg alone. The Green Dragon crew will live on a diet of 4 meals per day of freeze dried food during the 10 legs of the race. The crew has experimented with different flavours and we will have different products from different manufacturers. Freeze dried food makes a big saving on weight to help Green Dragon keep as light as possible for the race. Furthermore, freeze-dried foods can be easily transported at normal temperatures, stored for a long period of time, and consumed with a minimum of preparation and, once prepared, it has much the same look and taste as the original, natural products. As well as the freeze dried food onboard the crew will have a selection of energy boosting snacks to supplement their energy levels and tea/coffee (with freeze dried milk, of course!). Fortunately, they will have some fresh fruit for the first few days of each leg. In total each crew member will need between 5,000 and 6,000 calories per day depending on the nature of the leg and expected weather.
For reasons of saving weight, water is not stored onboard but made from sea water via a device called a de-salinator or water maker that produces 25 litres per hour. This forces sea water through a membrane that is so fine that it can prevent the passage of salt molecules and everything else but, of course always allows the water through! In case the water maker would breakdown, they have emergency back up hand pumps and two 25 litre emergency water carriers.
Sleep
Polyphasic sleep, a term coined by early 20th century psychologist J.S. Szymanski, refers to the practice of sleeping multiple times in a 24-hour period—usually, more than two, in contrast to “biphasic sleep"—and does not imply any particular schedule. Napping in extreme/crisis situations, means that some people may not be able to achieve the recommended eight hours of sleep per day. As a result systematic napping is be considered necessary in such situations.
Dr. Claudio Stampi is renowned for his expertise in this area of research. As a result of his interest in long-distance solo boat racing, he has studied the systematic timing of short naps as a means of ensuring optimal performance in situations where extreme sleep deprivation is inevitable, but he does not advocate ultra short napping as a lifestyle. In general, the shorter each individual nap is, the more frequent the naps should be (the objective remains to acquire a daily total of 8 hours of sleep).
Under extreme circumstances where sleep cannot be achieved continuously, research on napping shows that 10- to 20-minute naps at regular intervals during the day can help relieve some of the sleep deprivation and thus maintain minimum levels of performance for several days. However, researchers caution that levels of performance achieved using ultra short sleep (short naps) to temporarily replace normal sleep, are always well below that achieved when fully rested.
