Canting Keels In Production Yachts

Canting Hysteria(again)

Funny(no so funny) but in every one of those cases it was a COMPONENT that failed-nothing whatsoever endemic to canting keel technology.
Work will have to be done to find out why keels are breaking off under the boat; why bearings have failed and why hydraulic rams have failed. Similar designs have failed-not sure what that means for sure at this point but the designers are going to have to look closely at the specific problems.
Lumping all these individual component failures into one batch and saying canting technology is bad is ridiculous.

 

Go Mike Go! I would hate to see him not make it 50 miles from finish....ughhh, 23,000 miles down, 50 to go....

 

I for one am not saying canting keel technology is bad. I actually believe it is here to stay, I guess everyone just needs to sharpen their pencils, whip out the calculators and figure this thing out.

I think like everywhere else on these extreme boats, everyone is trying to save every extra kilogram possible so the limits are always pushed.

 

canting keels

Bobetc., I think you're right. There will be some serious engineering analysis of keel fins ,rams and bearings...

 

I agree also. The Globe is about the toughest race out there for a keel technnology, and in a sense it's good to have these failures for analysis.

A couple of remarks:

No boats or lives have been lost in this race, the water ballasting systems seem able to compensate even for keel loss. The more common failure modes of the canting systems require some jury-rigging to hold the keel in place, but leave the boat sailable -- even competitive!

Certainly these have been component failures, but the systems are made of components after all. The keel losses may have many root causes, but it is at least possible that the lighter keels used in canters, combined with the additional stress on that fin, increase the loss rates, for example.

Having a bunch of hydraulics also just plain adds parts that can break.

All that said, I certainly agree that canting keels are good technology and here to stay. The architects know how to build this stuff to be damn near bulletproof, and I dare say that after this race they'll be even better.

I like Lee Helm's moveable water ballast as well, though

 

Did somebody say the boats have gone 23,000 miles? Even 2,300 miles of racing? You sail boaters who are pissing and moaning about failures, are crybaby idiots, who want your toy to be abused and last foreever!!! Get off of your DRUGS!!!!!! I really can not believe you call yourselves PROS!!!!!!!!!

 

What? I have no idea what you're trying to say, Richard.

 

it's a like a pendulum swinging; this time they made (generally speaking) keels lighter, maybe too much lighter, i think they'll learn the lesson quickly; the next time probably keels won't be an issue and the critical area will be different; these boat are always on the edge!!
it's difficult to compute exactly the amount of stresses that a keel will suffer in a vendee globe; this time they've clearly underestimate them, this will cause new tests and new simulations to improve the reliability of the system, and more knowledge wich may lead (in the next years) to a reliable use of canters in a greater number of boats.

mistral

 

Abuse the boats, and when a newly incorporated part, which is massive, fails, start whinning about designers abilities. BULL ---- You guys could break a solid TITANIUM keel and be complaning!

 

these boats are built to do that, MUST be built to do that!!! if i were a racer, i would like that my boat lasts at least 'til the end of the race, not forever, let's say just 500 miles more than the end of the race!!!! So what the hell are you talking about????

best regards
Mistral

 

Canting keels are not new. The winning boat, PRB, also won the last edition. The keel was modified, made finer and lighter for this edition. Not sure about the hydraulics.

Anyways, I don't think anyone is whining about the designers abilities, I think we're just pointing out that for this edition the canting keels seem to be the weakest link, and the place the architects will be focusing on for a while.

No need to get angry and throw around all those exclamation points, I'm pretty sure we're all on the same side here.

---

P.S. I certainly never called myself a pro, and I am not.

 

Richard, are you being as hard on the RACERS as they are on the DESIGNERS? YES_ they are supposed to work together to TRY and beat Mother Nature, not each other.

 

Mistral, does anybody in this racing have the time and money to run 50 to 100 Globe races, to test parts before using them in competion??

 

of course he exists!!!! Larry Ellison, but unfortunately he's not interested in Vendee globe or ocean racing
i'm just jocking
anyway, i'm convinced that IMOCA are boats in wich skipper and designers work in tight contact to satisfy each other's needs, so i'm not pointing my finger on designer, it will be stupid; i've just said that in this editions keels issues have been the critical area, most of all because there are really few things that a skipper can do to solve a keel failure. May be the next time rig problems will be the major problem to deal with.

Mistral

 

Ocean racing in stormy conditions is a lot like competing in professional Bull Riding. The competition has never been between one another. The real competitors to beat, are the WEATHER and the BULL.