Alpha 42 "Be Good Too" rescue 300 miles off Cape Henry Merged

[boatman61]

Hmmm.. interesting.. went to look up the skippers account of the event again and found its been removed..
Rogue Wave - Aeroyacht


www.aeroyacht.com/2014/01/16/rogue-wave Cached
Capt. Hank Schmitt after his rescue:“…no other yacht would have survived this rudder damage after the rogue wave hit and drove us vioently backward…”

[Jimmy Jazz]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Hmmm.. interesting.. went to look up the skippers account of the event again and found its been removed..
Rogue Wave - Aeroyacht


www.aeroyacht.com/2014/01/16/rogue-wave Cached
Capt. Hank Schmitt after his rescue:“…no other yacht would have survived this rudder damage after the rogue wave hit and drove us vioently backward…”

Makes one wonder if the lawyers are now involved ?

[ve3qft]

The voyage of "Be Good Too" was contrary to sound engineering practice.

For the same reasons that one does not load the first example of a new type of aircraft with passengers and intentionally send it, on its first flight, into heavy icing conditions or known wind shear, Be Good Too, hull number one of a new design, should not, at this stage of its development, have been taken across the North Atlantic in January.

There are inevitably weaknesses in any new design; this is axiomatic. These are normally found by cautiously and iteratively exploring the envelope. Placing a new design into the worst possible conditions amounts to destructive testing. There is no excuse for performing destructive testing with a full crew, hundreds of miles from safety, and with no bailout plan other than a rescue that cost the taxpayers enormously and placed the lives of the rescuers at risk.

So far as I am aware, no engineers were involved in the decision to depart. Presumably this is a consequence of the differences in the regulatory environment for new boat designs, versus that for aircraft.

[Jerry Schwab]

Re: Alpha 42 "Be Good Too" rescue 300 miles off Cape Henry Merged
Quote:
Originally Posted by yeloya
Does anybody know where the boat has ended ? and in what shape ??

Yeloya

No sign of her yet. "Alpha 42 "Be Good Too" is presumed to be drifting with prevailing wind and Gulf Stream current going north. Projections would put her getting close to Nantucket
Attached Thumbnails


The last location listed in the Rogue wave article said they were through the Gulf Stream and drifting south east when picked up by helicopter - the boat could be pretty close to Bermuda by now.

[Hud3]

If I got the approximate position right for where the boat was when they abandoned it, it appears they were on the east side of a cold eddy. That would push them in a roughly southerly direction. But since the currents in that area are fairly weak, the wind would play a major role in determining the ultimate direction. And the winds clock around the compass as fronts pass over. Bottom line, it's a crap shoot.

.

[Sand crab]

The exact position is in that CG video in post #2.

[yeloya]

I am surprised that there isn't any kind of tracking device left on board and even more interestingly noone is chasing half a million USD (probably intact) boat..
Yeloya

[Cotemar]

Originally Posted by yeloya

I am surprised that there isn't any kind of tracking device left on board and even more interestingly noone is chasing half a million USD (probably intact) boat..
Yeloya

Believe me. If I knew where Alpha 42 "Be Good Too" was located, I would hire a large fishing boat to take me out to her and tow her back into Long Island sound.

If the owners knows her location, they are not saying.

[rockDAWG]

Originally Posted by yeloya

I am surprised that there isn't any kind of tracking device left on board and even more interestingly noone is chasing half a million USD (probably intact) boat..
Yeloya

I am sure the owner knows, but he is gonna tell you.

There is absolutely no news at all. No one is talking now. I fear that the lawyers are hard at work.

[EzzyD]

Not only are they not talking, but as mentioned on another forum, they are deleting posts they made:

the blog on AeroYachts has vanished: http://www.aeroyacht.com/2014/01/16/rogue-wave/ but a google cache shows it... grab it while you can: Rogue Wave - Aeroyacht

[rockDAWG]

Just in case.
From the Aeroyacht blog:
=========================
Rogue Wave

Capt. Hank Schmitt after his rescue:“…no other yacht would have survived this rudder damage after the rogue wave hit and drove us vioently backward…”

We have very sad news. On route from New York to the Caribbean our Alpha 42 Nr 1 was hit by a big rogue wave. On Monday Jan 13th the US Coast guard received a pick up-call from Capt Hank Schmitt who skippered Be Good Too. All 4 crewmembers were saved.
Capt. Hank Schmitt is a professional delivery captain with over 200,000 ocean miles and over 50 passages along the same route. Hank was carefully chosen by the owner as he is a very experienced catamaran sailor.
Schmitt’s account and direct quotes from his official insurance claim statement:”.…We had just passed the Gulfstream in rough waters sailing on a close reach under a double reefed mainsail at 6-8 knots with the autopilot engaged. All was well when suddenly we got hit by a big rogue wave that not only stopped the boat cold but violently pushed us backwards onto our rudders…” At that point we realized that both rudders were severely damaged. One rudder spun around the stock, the other rudder reversed against the hull and was jammed forcing the boat to port. “…Even with the stbd motor at full throttle the boat would only go to stbd. After spending 2 days sailing in a circle our options dwindled as the weather was deteriorating even more. Since we were 300 miles offshore we decided to make the call to be taken off the boat. The boat was very strong and we never felt unsafe. In spite of heavy impacts the boat did not have any structural issues. No monohull or catamaran steering system violently pushed backwards could have survived this. At one point the boat experienced 50 knot winds and 20 foot seas but the wave piercing bows worked great. We feel very sorry for the owners and the yard for the loss of this boat. ”
We are grateful to the men of the US Coast Guard that all 4 crewmen were safely evacuated. Pictures and videos taken by a Jayhawk MH-60 rescue helicopter show the boat perfectly intact. It seems unjustified and is heartbreaking for us to see this labor of more than 2 years abandoned. A salvage company will try to retrieve the boat as soon as conditions permit.
It should be noted that the rudders of the boat were built of 1.5 inch solid stainless round tube welded to a closed framework of 2″ wide by 1/4″ thick stainless bars with (2) vertical and (3) horizontal members. Unfortunately no rudder is designed to suddenly lurch into reverse and have 10 Tons of torque applied to them.
Anyone interested in reading the official insurance report signed byCapt. Hank Schmitt and more details of the incident or of the construction of the rudders, please contact the builder, Marc Anassis at Alpha Yachts (marc@alpha1composites.com)

See the video rescue video

==============================

[DoubleWhisky]

I may well omitted this, but probably this link was not posted yet:

ALPHA 42 ABANDONED ON MAIDEN VOYAGE

First time I noticed this:

Unfortunately no rudder is designed to suddenly lurch into reverse and have 10 Tons of torque applied to them.

How somebody did calculate the torque ..?..
Do I lack the imagination or mathematical knowledge? The second may be very true for me...

[donradcliffe]

"It should be noted that the rudders of the boat were built of 1.5 inch solid stainless round tube"

Anybody else have a problem with that statement??

I think that Doane's version of what they were doing when they were hit by the wave is quite a bit different that what Alpha Yacht quotes Hank Schmitt as saying.

[Sand crab]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

I think that Doane's version of what they were doing when they were hit by the wave is quite a bit different that what Alpha Yacht quotes Hank Schmitt as saying.

Could you please explain this difference?

[colemj]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

"It should be noted that the rudders of the boat were built of 1.5 inch solid stainless round tube"

Anybody else have a problem with that statement??

The problem I have with that statement is that it was originally worded as "It should be noted that the rudders of the boat were built of MASSIVE 1.5 inch solid stainless round tube".

After the interwebs got their teeth into it, it was revised to remove the hyperbole.

The rest of the report was similarly revised to remove other hyperbole - then it was pulled off the site completely.

Mark