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A4 - The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday September 29, 2004 / Hatfield tells his tale of Spirit of Canada sail By Melanie Cummings SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER As Derek Hatfield tells his story about sailing solo around the world, the numbers alone provide gripping detail. It took the M aritim er more than eight months to sail to five oceans in the Spirit o f C anada, which is a 40-foot yacht that w eighed 9,000 pounds and took five years and $500,000 to build. Hatfield is the 126th person to ever complete the arduous journey. Considering that there have been 400 astronauts and that 2,000 people have success fully climbed Mount Everest, it's an astounding achievement. But the trip was anything but smooth sailing. Last T hursday night, the guest speaker o f the CaiT5319n Cluh uf"TtalUit* Peel regaled members with stories about his challenging voyage and after ward made a pitch to recruit supporters for his next solo effort, the 2006 race. Amazingly Hatfield is eager to repeat the solo com petitor's life on the sea where sleep is a 20-minute nap at various inter vals around the clock (because no one else is there to keep w atch); there is no running w ater on board so show ers involve running a wet nap across his skin and scalp; and freeze-dried food is a daily sta ple. And while whales are a con stant threat potentially wreak ing havoc on the boat's rud ders. the upside is watching dolphins, turtles and birds for his daily entertainment. But for Hatfield, the worst 15-minutes o f the whole race occurred during a storm near Cape Horn, Africa that threw up waves up to 120 feet high. The hurricane force flipped the Spirit o f Canada upsidedown, knocking Hatfield off, too, and then right side up again. The damage was extenand som ehow the Spirit o f C anada had m ade its way through a channel without hit ting a thing. "At that point all I wanted to do was tie the boat to a dock, get on a ship back to Canada." he said. / Instead, he slept for two days. Buoyed by the encourage ment from his sponsors and supporters to stay in the race, a new carbon rig was made in a Buenos A ires shipyard in record time - 10 days. It took six days to deliver it 3,500 m iles across the A ndes M ountains. Within 4-1/2 weeks Hatfield was up and running again. "Now the goal was to get around the world in one piece," he said. The race is determ ined on a points system and tim e on route. Among 13 sailboats that em barked from New Y ork's harbour only 10 finished the race. H atfield finished in third place, even though the sailor who finished fourth arrived one month earlier. "The best moment o f the race was to hear the gun blast to mark the end," he added. Hundreds o f friends, family and strangers flocked to greet him at the finish line in Newport, New Jersey. One month later, the itch to race struck Hatfield again. " I w ant to be the first Canadian to sail around the world twice." This time next year Hatfield hopes to launch a 60-foot ver sion o f the Spirit o f Canada. W hen he does, it will mark a first for Canada. Peter C. McCusker · Oakville Beaver Derek Hatfield sive. "The carbon mast snapped. The sound o f the break was explosive," he told the audi ence. The com puterized naviga tion system shorted out and caught fire, the satellite phone was rendered inoperable by the crashing waves. Spread eagle across the deck it took Hatfield 45 min utes to scurry his way around the boat and cut the rig and sails loose. Forced to rely on the em er gency m otor he headed for land. From this horror a miracle followed. With the storm gone and deprived o f sleep for two days, an exhausted Hatfield set an egg tim er for a 10-minute nap. He slept right through its ring. Four hours later he woke up Riding for Crime Stoppers H alton Regional Police Sgt. Ray Bruce com pleted the 300 km in the Ride Against C rime Everyw here (RACE) whose route travelled all over H alton including Oakville. About 150 people atrem tetLa irio of associated events including a Kick-off breakfast in Georgetown, a barbecue at the Safety Village in O akville and a finale din n er in Burlington. The three-day event raises public aw areness of the H alton C rim e Stoppers program and raises funds for the registered charity and non-profit corporatiortT C rim e S toppers operates an anonym ous phone tip line th at directs infor m ation from the public about unsolved crim es to H alton police. Its volunteer board of directors also approves cash rew ards to individuals for tips leading to arrests. Bruce, 39, a 19-year policing veteran o f H alton and Toronto, rode 100 km p er day from Friday through Sunday. Hargrove on Round Table Buzz Hargrove will be fea tured on TVCogeco's current affairs program Round Table's live call-in edition on Tuesday, Oct. 5. The show airs from 7-8 p.m. and is hosted by Ward 1 C ouncillor Ralph Robinson, Gerry Aggus and Mark Carr. Hargrove has been the nation al president o f the Canadian A utow orkers' Union (CAW) since his acclamation in 1992. A W indsor Local 444 autoworker, Hargrove held sev eral elected positions before joining the union's staff in 1975. Also vice-president on the executive committee o f the Canadian Labour Congress, Hargrove is co-author of Labour of Love: The Fight to Create a More Humane Canada with Wayne Skene. The book was published by MacFarlane, Walter & Ross in November 1998. During his years as president, Hargrove's action-oriented lead ership style has led him to be a regular guest on many TV pro grams and a frequently-requested lecturer at universities. Round Table is a volunteerproduced, weekly, current affairs program. Viewers call in to TVCogeco's viewer call-in line. 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