Alpha 42 Designer's Rebuttal

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by tomfl

How many human errors? All boats will break given the right circumstances. No one knows, but I am still not convinced one or both of the rudders did not hit something in the water and were damaged and then were damaged even more when the boat was hit by a strong gust at the top of a wave and slid down the wave face backwards. It is even possible the rudders hit something sliding down the face of the wave backwards.

Bottom line for me is would I take a brand new boat across the ocean with limited tools, and limited experience with the boat, with a new crew knowing bad weather was likely, after not waiting for a part the boat maker said was needed.

Some folks may think they are a big tuna, but I am more like chicken of the sea.

Yeah, therein lies the question. Personally I think they should have sailed the boat.. in whatever direction it would easily go. Too much ly-ing ahull for spade rudders for sure. But I would expect a spade to bend before the internal stuff comes apart!

[weavis]

Originally Posted by Coops

Ah, yes, Corkwit. Got it now.

Coops

sigh....................

[Ozbullwinkle]

Originally Posted by weavis

er.. change one letter in FORK ....

One letter??? Try 2!

[weavis]

Originally Posted by Ozbullwinkle

One letter??? Try 2!

Its ok.. theres a private joke in there... and coops never noticed either...

[bornyesterday]

And what the FROCK is a PORKWIT?

[tomfl]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Yeah, therein lies the question. Personally I think they should have sailed the boat.. in whatever direction it would easily go. Too much ly-ing ahull for spade rudders for sure. But I would expect a spade to bend before the internal stuff comes apart!

Personally I think they should have waited for the jib part, installed it, determined the cause of the leaks and fixed them, adding any tools necessary to the small collection they carried on the boat, and then gone on a shakedown cruise, or at least tested the newly installed jib stuff. At that point I would have looked at the expected weather window and probably altered the course to using the ICW for at least part of the trip.

[annsni]

I question the integrity of the article due to point #1 being impossible. I posted in the other thread the weather information around Long Island Sound and not once this winter did we drop to 20 below zero with 30" of snow. We didn't even have snow until January 2nd and I'd guess with a leave date of just a short time later, the boat was delivered by then. So when did he actually sail this boat in a blizzard around Long Island with 30" of snow and -20 degree temps?

[aclmck]

Originally Posted by annsni

I question the integrity of the article due to point #1 being impossible. I posted in the other thread the weather information around Long Island Sound and not once this winter did we drop to 20 below zero with 30" of snow. We didn't even have snow until January 2nd and I'd guess with a leave date of just a short time later, the boat was delivered by then. So when did he actually sail this boat in a blizzard around Long Island with 30" of snow and -20 degree temps?

Cmon fellas he is a SALESMAN first and foremost ,30"snow, -25, 20knots in 10 knots of breeze. Gregor is a sailor,but he's also in sales he can't help letting a good story hamper the truth, and most of us are guilty of "helping Facts" to make it sound better!!!!! what do you expect, his version of events places him and the builder fairly free of blame if they took to sea without a seaworthy boat, one would have to ask why it took so long to come out, dropping sales,cancelled orders, then having to explain to the investors, the authorities he is getting grants from to build these boats, seems the whole thing is coming apart at the seams, but probably too little too late.

He is not the only production boat builder with problems just look at the lost boats in the past year, all with well qualified and well outfitted crews and equipment aboard. Alpha have had a lot of flack but mainly because the "explanations were not forthcoming" in a timely manner, sure we got some info early like lost motor rudders no longer working,Gregor had some points he kinda eluded to regarding these issues, maybe the owner just didn't like the boat, neither he or the captain have given any info,so are they hiding the actual facts???, Gregor also stated that the spot and epirb were both removed from the boat,why would you take both of these with you if you were being lifted off, it would be the last thing i would consider to "save" if this was my position.

Gregor guilded the lilly but had i thought, some very valid points,arguably the boat was not seaworthy,parts in the furler were broken etc etc, he has the way i read it levelled the blame on the owner/captain. the question is why he took so long to do it????

[pbr]

Didn't see any mention of lack of rudder stops, in the photos it appeared as though there were none, or they broke off. This would allow the rudders to go perpendicular to the seas and apply tremendous forces to the shafts. Also rudder area, and distance between upper and lower bearing determine the diameter for rudder shafts. Of course the specs for tube vs. solid are different. Based on my experience and what I know of the boat, it should have had more like 2" diameter solid stainless shafts.

[smj]

ABANDONING BE GOOD TOO: The Skipper Responds to the Builder's Response

[JPA Cate]

smj:

Thanks for posting this link. Enlightening.

Ann

[Cheechako]

Yep, good story on it.

[Cotemar]

It's nice to hear all sides of the story. I still wish she would drift up onto Nantucket, so I could stake a claim. Would be a fun boat to have in its next life......

[nimblemotors]

I would only say that I find his explaination on why there were no tools on board is just the kind of explaination you get when you can just call for rescue and it isn't your boat that is lost. And with insurance to cover it, the owners are not too worried about it either.

[annsni]

Originally Posted by nimblemotors

I would only say that I find his explaination on why there were no tools on board is just the kind of explaination you get when you can just call for rescue and it isn't your boat that is lost. And with insurance to cover it, the owners are not too worried about it either.

What makes you say that there were no tools on board? Hank delivered our boat and brought his own tools with him which was good since we were pretty much taking delivery and hadn't fully provisioned yet.