Second Volvo Tragedy

[Alan Wheeler]

Movistar sunk! (at least that is what the news report has said this morning) But I have read nothing to confirm this on movistar's website. Apart from the fact that all data tranmision has ceased. So I suspect it may have gone down.
They had been having trouble with the keel and taking on water, although in the calm conditions with 6knts, it was controlable. But with 50kts predicted to arrive very soon, the decsion was made to abondon the boat. They used the liferaft to transfer to Amro 2 and did so successfuly.
Amro two are now currently in very bad weather conditions a few hundred miles out from the english coast making their way home.

Amro 1 won the leg by the way.

[GordMay]

From: http://www.volvooceanrace.org/news/

Sun, 21 May 2006 - 14:05:00 UTC

“Movistar” crew abandon ship and transfer to ABN AMRO TWO.

QFB Bouwe Bekking/movistar Leg 7 Day 11
Sun, 21 May 2006 15:45:00 UTC
"The hardest decision I ever taken in my life, was the call to abandon ship. This morning we gybed over to check how the keel would cope with that angle. Straight away we saw that the water intake nearly doubled and had to start the 2nd emergency pump. That made me realise that we were actually in way bigger trouble..."
http://www.volvooceanrace.org/e-mail...651/index.aspx

[seafox]

Hi Alan, we came down on thursday evening to pick the boat up and take home on Friday morning. 30knot Southerly in the Strait gave the new rigging a stretch. Will be back to get it tuned soon so will give you a buzz.
At about 10.30pm when we got to Waikawa Marina we found the gates to the pier (10) that we were on locked. As I climbed around the security fence a security guy drove past. Lazy guy did not even stop or get out! What is the point of the gates or the guards?
I went to my boat and had to go to the fuel berth to pick up the wife dog and bags. Bloomin inconvienience!!

[Alan Wheeler]

You shoulda waited a day. It was dead flat calm Saturday. But wait, that woulda meant you would have had to start the engine and we know where that leads eh;-)

[seafox]

Yeah, Saturday was good, but I really needed to give the rigging a good stretch. Now I need a good Southerly to give the other side a working. Get a new donkey before we go back over. Those Volvos only are good for a years motoring

[Charlie]

thanks for the update Wheels:

Always wondered about those canting keel boats. One race (or most of one anyway) and the boat is no longer any good, Seems to me that the boats are missing that "seaworthy" thing.

BTW I was reading somewhere that the law about having to have an EPIRB, know how to do some celestial nav, and such before a Kiwi boat could leave NZ was overturned in court. Is that true? Seems like a good law to me. Maybe what they should do is sya that you are not entitled to any sort of government rescue services unless you pass those tests. A bit of Darwinisim makes the species stronger.

[Talbot]

Good coverage of the press conference by the crew of Amnro 2 and a description of the events leading up to the death of their crewman.

see http://www.ybw.com/auto/newsdesk/200...ywvolvo06.html

Probably best described by the succint phrase - **** happens!


Thoughts and prayers are with the family and the crew of AMNRO 2

[hellosailor]

Charlie-
"Seems to me that the boats are missing that "seaworthy" thing. " And that's correct. Modern racing boats are very intentionally NOT "seaworthy". They are built with the racing philosophy that "if you didn't break anything, the boat was too heavily built" and that slows you down.
The designers work within intentionally limited parameters with a zero safety factor, and the whole team expects that if they exceed the parameters the boat will start breaking things. Kinda like Indy cars, for the Indianapolis 500. Racers can get lots of power from an engine--but the Indy cars are built so that the engines can last 700 miles (the race plus the practices plus a slim safety margin) and if they are still running at 800...that car was a loser because the engine was built too heavily.<G>

Problem is, Poseidon has his own ideas about what "exceeding parameters" can mean.<G>

[Alan Wheeler]

Although when it comes to Canting Keels, I don't think anyone has actually "got it together" yet. Jeff H has even said this in the past. I have often looked at designs and scratched my head as to how it will work with the loads that will be expected. Seems to me that some design engineers need some "feild experiance" out in the southern Ocean before the are let loose with a pencil and a drafting board. A recent articel I just read made a statment that the designers and engineers can calculate all the loads for given situations, but they are wildly inaccurate when it comes to the extremems these boats can be subject to. The boat they were talking about had a pair of hydrailic rams capable of 200Ton. But if you can imagine 20ton of lead, say 10ft down, the fulcrum point being very close to the rams, the energy gained from such a leverage when a boat drops off a wave is going to be waaaay higher than 200ton. The biggest issues they have are the rams bending and the keel getting stuck out to one side.

[Charlie]

When you are pushing the envelope there are going to be problems, or else you aren't pushing very hard. I just wouldn't want to push that envelope in the Southern Ocean. But I guess it is all about money and prestige neither of which I have.

[swagman]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Charlie-
"Seems to me that the boats are missing that "seaworthy" thing. " And that's correct. Modern racing boats are very intentionally NOT "seaworthy". They are built with the racing philosophy that "if you didn't break anything, the boat was too heavily built" and that slows you down.
The designers work within intentionally limited parameters with a zero safety factor, and the whole team expects that if they exceed the parameters the boat will start breaking things. Kinda like Indy cars, for the Indianapolis 500. Racers can get lots of power from an engine--but the Indy cars are built so that the engines can last 700 miles (the race plus the practices plus a slim safety margin) and if they are still running at 800...that car was a loser because the engine was built too heavily.<G>

Problem is, Poseidon has his own ideas about what "exceeding parameters" can mean.<G>

I was always told 'These global flyers have been built correctly if they fall apart only after you've tied it up at the finish. If they fall apart before then - they've been underbuilt'.

The Killian Bush team that built Amro 1 and 2 seems to get it right as both V70 boats had least damage in this event.
And interestingly they also built the Illbruck V60 that won the previous event.
And Pradas Luna Rossi that beat all challengers (but then lost the AC to the Kiwis on their first attempt).

So maybe the quote is wrong and just maybe a little bit of over-build can not only save lives, but also win races?

Cheers
JOHN

[swagman]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Charlie-
"Seems to me that the boats are missing that "seaworthy" thing. " And that's correct. Modern racing boats are very intentionally NOT "seaworthy". They are built with the racing philosophy that "if you didn't break anything, the boat was too heavily built" and that slows you down.
The designers work within intentionally limited parameters with a zero safety factor, and the whole team expects that if they exceed the parameters the boat will start breaking things. Kinda like Indy cars, for the Indianapolis 500. Racers can get lots of power from an engine--but the Indy cars are built so that the engines can last 700 miles (the race plus the practices plus a slim safety margin) and if they are still running at 800...that car was a loser because the engine was built too heavily.<G>

Problem is, Poseidon has his own ideas about what "exceeding parameters" can mean.<G>

I've also been told that we know a global flyer has been correctly specified if it falls apart once you've tied it up at the finish - but not sure this is accurate.

Interestingly, the Killian Bush team who built both Amro 1 and 2 (both of which had less reported damage than other V70's) also built the Illbruck V60 that won the previous time round.

So maybe a degree of overbuild not only saves lives, but on these occassions also wins races?

JOHN