85-Foot Motor Yacht Sinks at Launch

[Celestialsailor]

I wish they'd stop saying it was a sinking.

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

Perfect example of Angle of loll

No ballast/light tanks/ Induced heel during launch


Angle of loll - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

ahh the angle of "Laugh out loud loudly"

[jongleur]

Re: the launch video:

What's wrong with speculation? ...and what
would it matter if he showed us the whole
launch video (the chihuahua guy said he
couldn't, with a smirk)?

I speculate that a void in the launch ramp could
have allowed one side to go down. Could such a void
have been made by the weight of this launch?

[BandB]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

I wish they'd stop saying it was a sinking.

Well, it did sink as far as it could and did take on water. Just shallow there and, of course, the sinking was after the roll. One question is did it have water ingress before the roll. The door to the engine room was open. You have one side lower than the other, then add water to the lower side and that sure messes the ballast up even more. But these are all things that we'll have to wait for the answers on.

[darylat8750]

I'm not a NA but I saw pictures of the attempted launch of a steel cruiser on a ramp that was aborted, then seemed to do ok when launched with a crane. It appeared that most of the righting moment was provided by the hull nearer the amid ship area and when the boat was supported by the front on the trailer and the back by the water the center of gravity was above the center of "pivot". I have no additional info about it after it was launched by crane but I assume "no new is good news".

[BandB]

Originally Posted by darylat8750

I'm not a NA but I saw pictures of the attempted launch of a steel cruiser on a ramp that was aborted, then seemed to do ok when launched with a crane. It appeared that most of the righting moment was provided by the hull nearer the amid ship area and when the boat was supported by the front on the trailer and the back by the water the center of gravity was above the center of "pivot". I have no additional info about it after it was launched by crane but I assume "no new is good news".

Well, certainly the advantage of a crane is you can keep it in the sling while you figure it out. Right now it's sitting fine in the sling and it will be taken out by the crane. I know other builders who use methods similar to the one they used. However, they have more and better equipment. Also, it's one thing when you have a proven design, but something "experimental" probably calls for even more precaution.

[MarkJ]

This video show its going down.
A few seconds has been cut out but the actual flipping is shown

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=y...&v=lEBJjsdTyWY

I think I would be a bit pissed off if I have paid the dollars, buy its not fully immersed. Surely it can be fixed?

[onestepcsy37]

wonder if i can get a good deal on that manson anchor on the bow. probably the only thing they did right....

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by BandB

Well, it did sink as far as it could and did take on water. Just shallow there and, of course, the sinking was after the roll. One question is did it have water ingress before the roll. The door to the engine room was open. You have one side lower than the other, then add water to the lower side and that sure messes the ballast up even more. But these are all things that we'll have to wait for the answers on.

From what I can tell from the video, it appears the trailer skewed and the vessel fell over in the shallows. To me, it appears it did not have enough water to float and just laid on it's side. Being rail down, of course she took on water. Just as a beached boat would. JMHO.

[SaltyMonkey]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

From what I can tell from the video, it appears the trailer skewed and the vessel fell over in the shallows. To me, it appears it did not have enough water to float and just laid on it's side. Being rail down, of course she took on water. Just as a beached boat would. JMHO.

Thats exactly what I thought!

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

From what I can tell from the video, it appears the trailer skewed and the vessel fell over in the shallows. To me, it appears it did not have enough water to float and just laid on it's side. Being rail down, of course she took on water. Just as a beached boat would. JMHO.

There is a small section of video that show her floating and being lined over to the beach..
Pretty sure she rolled when first tried to float coming off the keel blocks.

[BandB]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

I think I would be a bit pissed off if I have paid the dollars, buy its not fully immersed. Surely it can be fixed?

You spent the money for a new boat and you want this one now in its present condition? And I'd be more than a little po'ed. But then I'm sure he was a little disgruntled before this and now it's just raging fury. As of this moment he's spent the vast majority of a purchase price of a 90' yacht and incurred many other expenses as well, and what he's got is a hull he doesn't know can be made stable or used and equipment that has all been submerged in salt water. Oh, and a builder once again closed. That to.

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by BandB

You spent the money for a new boat and you want this one now in its present condition? And I'd be more than a little po'ed. But then I'm sure he was a little disgruntled before this and now it's just raging fury. As of this moment he's spent the vast majority of a purchase price of a 90' yacht and incurred many other expenses as well, and what he's got is a hull he doesn't know can be made stable or used and equipment that has all been submerged in salt water. Oh, and a builder once again closed. That to.

Unfortunately I don't think the Owner has any choice but to salvage his probably 87‰ paid for boat.
Company is now going under administrative control. Supply Creditors are now clambering to make sure they have been paid.

If Stage Payments are for specific milestones (like main machinery installed) then Owner now owns that portion.

Second or Third stage payment would have been at keel laying and hull # registered on behalf of Owner.

Contract should have Builder Force Majure conditions that protect Owner from situations just like this.

So hull # rights revert to Owner

Best thing now would be for Owner to hire some key employees from Yard to salvage and finish yacht in water.

I don't buy that design is fatally flawed. Just that Yard took ridiculous risks to launch on the cheap.

Hopefully Insurance/Escrow will cover about 70% of completion costs

[TacomaSailor]

At 2:32 in the video (the first frame showing the boat in the water) she is already listing to port. The weight of the forward third of the boat appears to be on the launch vehicle but the aft 1/4 of the boat is afloat and already listing to port.

At 2:38 the launch vehicle changes direction rather suddenly and the boat lurches even more to port.

At 2:41 the bow drops and the boat lurches even more to a port list.

Those problems could not be due to ballast or design issues because a major portion of the boat's weight is still being carried by the launch vehicle.

Even more interesting is that from 2:32 where the stern appears to be fully afloat to 2:42 the stern never rises but just keeps settling deeper into the water. It is as if there is no buoyancy in the stern or something is keeping the stern from floating.

It is even more interesting that no video of the launch vehicle is shown from 2:31 where the boat is high and dry on the ramp and then in the next frame the launch vehicle is completely submerged.

Why did YachtVids not want to show the launch vehicle and the boat as it entered the water? I wonder what we would have seen in that sequence as the stern of Boden entered the water?

[Pelagic]

I am guessing that YachtVids contracts out to record key new build events so is protecting his client base.

Hard to confirm from part video but it looks like stern immediately started flooding from deck openings and they made matters worse by moving off bank where she originally laid in a very risky/stupid attempt to right her.

better that they had just stabilized where she lolled at the bank...wait for the tide to Ebb / seal deck openings and let salvage guys stabilize and right with crane and inflatable pontoons running Length of each side to minimize flooding

As said before dynamic Stability when launching/undocking has it's critical stages.
Starting at page 145 will explain the sudden changes better than I can

https://www.google.com/url?q=http://...20KSH6reoPmLUw

They took stupid chances to launch in order to save $200k in crane costs.
Whoever made that decision is to blame and while I can understand the Captain's need to explain... No on a public forum