French Tri flips

[Alan Wheeler]

The French Trimaran Groupama 111 taking part in the Jules Vern round the world race flipped over about 150Kms off the East coast of the lower South Island, today Monday 18th. All 10 crew have been safely rescued and brought back to NZ.
Ten sailors plucked from capsized French yacht | NATIONAL | NEWS | tvnz.co.nz
It appears that one of the outer hulls has broken up and the mast is broken and the vessel is upside down. No report yet as to what may have caused the capsize.

[Jesse Holden]

The Groupama III website reports a breakout of the port float as the problem. But that is a translation from french and they havn't elaborated on it yet, but all hand are safe and in good shape. Jesse

[David M]

Originally Posted by Alan Wheeler

The French Trimaran Groupama 111 taking part in the Jules Vern round the world race flipped over about 150Kms off the East coast of the lower South Island, today Monday 18th. All 10 crew have been safely rescued and brought back to NZ.
Ten sailors plucked from capsized French yacht | NATIONAL | NEWS | tvnz.co.nz
It appears that one of the outer hulls has broken up and the mast is broken and the vessel is upside down. No report yet as to what may have caused the capsize.

Hmmm... I think the wind and the seas may have had something to do with it.

[Alan Wheeler]

It maybe possible that the sea's had abated by the time the chopper arrived out there, but the sea's certainly didn't look that bad. For that part of the ocean that is. Mind you, that could have been the undoing. Sea doesn't look that bad, open the throttle and then hit something just a little bigger and a little different and she's all over.

[Pelagic]

44 Cruisincat started a thread on them earlier "Another RTW attempt" You can follow their web:

Jules Verne Trophy with Franck Cammas, Trimaran Groupama 3

I think a few of those guys must have swallowed!

[Elie]

Many years ago, multi hulls racers flipping was almost a fact of life, to the dismay of Australians and NZ authorities that had to invest to rescue them from the Southern Ocean. But design has improved and it is a much rarer event now, at least for the run of the mill 60 footers racers. But this new breed of larger and even much faster tri are now plying the world oceans at breakneck speeds, much faster in fact than any US Navy nuclear aircraft carriers!. So no surprise here that one of them flip over, it is part of the game: They really push it, for reasons I can't fathom. So good luck to them!..

[David M]

Originally Posted by Elie

Many years ago, multi hulls racers flipping was almost a fact of life, to the dismay of Australians and NZ authorities that had to invest to rescue them from the Southern Ocean. But design has improved and it is a much rarer event now, at least for the run of the mill 60 footers racers. But this new breed of larger and even much faster tri are now plying the world oceans at breakneck speeds, much faster in fact than any US Navy nuclear aircraft carriers!. So no surprise here that one of them flip over, it is part of the game: They really push it, for reasons I can't fathom. So good luck to them!..

Faster than 40 knots?....whew!

[Alan Wheeler]

The interview of the Skipper on this mornings TV breakfast news, made a comment. He said they are lucky it didn't happen two days earlier when they were in the Indian Ocean or a couple of days later when they would be reaching Cape Horn. I don't know if it was poor translation of the French or gross generalisation or what, but that is an unbelievable distance (either direction) for a boat (even a Tri) to travel in two days.

[David M]

It must be the French and their new 90 knot trimarans. Kind of an "enlargement" thing from the French press. Didn't they also invent the internet?

[Steve Pope]

Interesting two and a half takes on trimaran sailors, 1: Groupama sadness at the unfortunate demise of their challenge 80 miles off Dunedin, Huge boat, huge budget, etc. etc. 2: Tin can, derision and many many negative comments re the sanity of the lone builder and his Unique tri now in Santa Cruz. moderate size boat very low budget etc. etc. 1/2: both boats stopped through structural failure, end result the same.
Many of the negative comments re "tin Can" are the risk / cost of saving the tin cans skipper. (the rapacious safety industry again) He paid for his tow into Santa Cruz, I wonder if Groupama get billed for their rescue?? 4 choppers + NZ's airforce on stand by, it probably is still being fixed since its last use, air force that is. (kiwi Joke)

[Pelagic]

Sounds like the NZ coast guard did a fantastic job picking them up. On their web site you can click on an interactive map that animates the whole race between the 2 Tris’ up to the capsize. Interesting course in search of speed.

[Elie]

Originally Posted by David M

Faster than 40 knots?....whew!

David, In fact the recent record for 24 hours by one of those French huge tri is of 619.3 miles for 24 hours at an average speed of 25.8 knots. These powerful machines are often sailing a speed in excess of 35 knots for hours on end. The round the world record is around 50 days!. That's faster than your mill of the run aircraft carrier, I think(USS Nimitz : top speed in excess of 30 kts, ref: Us navy data) .

[Steve Pope]

It is interesting that although the NZ rescue org does the co-ordination all the choppers are privately owned or like the westpac rescue trust are privately run.The Coast guard is made up of ordinary volunteers (rather like a large part of our St Johns ambulance service and Fire Brigade outside of the metripolitan areas) It is low key and generally does a very good job. There is nothing like the US coast guard in NZ and the Navy will only get involved if all else has failed, and by then it is too little too late.

[Morgan Paul]

That's about as funny as the David Vann fiasco.

[44'cruisingcat]

You have to wonder what anyone would find funny in this. It's just good to see nobody got hurt or killed.

From what I've read, it sounds like there was a structural failure, and the leeward ama either broke in half or came off, resulting in the capsize. This kind of thing can happen when the boundaries of engineering are pushed. Like when racing mono's lose their keels and roll over, or America's cup boats break in half and sink.... I dunno, maybe some find that amusing?