american cup 1999. young american's yacht sank

[thanhdb]

hi everyone, i'm uni student and i'm looking for the case of American yacht (USA53) sink in 1999 at american cup, design by Bruce farr. can anyone help me or advice me any website or book discussed about this case and investigation about why the ship is sank.

thank you

[Eric Sponberg]

In Professional Boatbuilder magazine, issue #65, June/July 2000, page 66, there is an article by Henry Elliott on the repair of Young America. See if you can find a back issue. You can buy back issues of PBB at reasonable prices. You can also try to contact Farr Design--they would certainly have some history on the boat--whether they want to talk about it is another matter, I suppose, but they might have some written summary on the event. Duncan MacLane was the project manager for the New York Yacht Club that was campaigning Young America, and you can try contacting him.

As I recall at the time, and as related in the article, the boat did not have enough mid-body strength and stiffness. The side decks were very narrow, and the cockpit framed by the side decks had very square corners at the forward ends, right where the hull girder bending moment was greatest, and so the stresses and strains were greatest. Prior to the accident, there was evidence of delamination of the top of the side deck from its aluminum honeycomb core. Although this was repaired, the boat nevertheless failed a week later. The purpose of the PBB article was to relate how builder Eric Goetz managed to pull off a very difficult repair in a short period of time. It's a very good read.

I hope that helps. Others may be able to chime in with other documentary sources.

Eric

[thanhdb]

thank you, I have check out the information you show me. it's very helpful.

[franulovic]

I was involved with the repair using laser tracker technology to align the halves together. Feel free to contact me with any questions.

Ed Franulovic
Metro Metrology
Seaville, NJ

www.metrometrology.com