Dangerous designs?

"We know that the boats ... are wet, very wet. At 25 knots of boat speed there is probably half a metre of water on deck .... at 30 knots there is probably a metre. With a metre of water on deck crews are getting washed about, they get bashed into things, they get injured, they are always tired and always wet. "
http://www.volvooceanrace.org/news/article/2006/january/tacticsofanewera/index.aspx?bhcp=1

What kind of boat is this? Do you think it is "normal" to design a boat that has such a dangerous behaviour at the speeds it is designed to sail?

What kind of (new) sailors are you talking about? They will have gills and scales?

 

You know all very well what will happens if a sailing boat matches or superseed the speed of wind.

It becomes another creature and other rulings will play an influencing role because the boat will act as a wavepiercer most of the time and the little hullvolume, that allows the boats speed, cannot avoid getting washed with overcoming waves. The boat doesn't ride the wave, she pierces through the wave with the earlier mentioned result.

The race is yet far from finished and let's see what will happen next. For the time being the crews are managing as they now are accustomed to the whims of their craft.

 

Humm...read what Mike Sanderson has said today, about the control over his boat:

..." the fact of the matter is I am probably writing this the most stressed out I have been in the whole race.... We are teetering on the front edge of this cold front which is the reason for the nice gains, but the conditions here are quite quickly getting worse and we go from not having quite enough sail up, as we are working hard to try and keep this missile under control, and then off she goes roaring down a wave at 30 plus knots.... I mean the boat is in perfect control, as long as all is going well, but we have done some jumps at the end of some of these waves that would make Evel Knievel proud, and it will only take one really bad one and for sure damage will follow.”

It looks to me that he is not yet "accustomed to the whims of his craft".

I hope everything turns out right tonight for them, but I believe it is going to be a scary night and the fact is, that they didn't yet encounter really strong winds, I mean 60knot winds.

 

Well, if they want to push their boat till she cracks, it is up to them......

 

"We know that the boats ... are wet, very wet. At 25 knots of boat speed there is probably half a metre of water on deck .... at 30 knots there is probably a metre. With a metre of water on deck crews are getting washed about, they get bashed into things, they get injured, they are always tired and always wet. "
http://www.volvooceanrace.org/news/a...ex.aspx?bhcp=1

If there is a meter of water covering most of the deck that is going to be approx 20 to 30 tons of water. That extra displacement has to be slowing them down.

What about increasing the freeboard, possably with removable boards forward?

 

Two things.

One, they don't sail submerged all the time. Water over the deck when piercing a wave may put a sheet of water over the boat for a few seconds.

Two, the 1 metre on deck at 30 knots is an exaggeration. More like the bow buries 1m in waves @ 30 knots and only .5m @ 25 knots.

A solid sheet of water 1m deep @ 30 knots would wipe the deck clean. You could water-ski barefoot on a 30 knot 1m deep sheet of water. You could not stand up in it.

Somewhere there is a great shot of Merlin sailing at 17+ knots with about 6" of water at the mast base. The stories claimed that she would play submarine for minutes at a time. After the first race the boat was modified to increase reserve buoyancy forward to keep the deck out of the water more of the time.

 

I agree with you, except on this:

In fact, they are saying that is what is just happening to them (on occasions), I mean, that they can not stand up when the boat is doing 30 knots and are washed by a wave:

 

Exactly, 1m of water occasionally. That's not unheard of. The article makes it sound like the bow buries and stays buried so there is always 1m of water on deck.

That's mother nature telling you to slow down ...

When you don't listen to mother, you break boats and people.

In flat water or when you can see well enough not to bury the bow, it's not a problem.

If the boat can bury the bow 1m in flat water ... that would be a problem. Time to lynch the designer!

 

I heard that in normal swells the Farr boats have a habit of nose diving.

 

That would be a problem

Given the performance of Farr designs in the VOR, I don't foresee his office getting flooded with requests for offshore boats.

 

Randy, the fact that the boats of the VOR are mostly down under, might be a result of the utter minimal buoyancy they are created with. Minimum displacement plus maximum sailpower = minimum buoyancy. Direct result: minimum freeboard and maximal exposure to overcoming waves. Put a limit on the buoyancy forward and there tyou have your nosediving. Simply all being a result of skimming away as much as material possible.

 

it would be interesting to see if the next round of boats have more freeboard.

 

No, I don't think so. Comfort of crew and safety have never been an item. So don't expect it in the forthcoming generation of VOR to find any improvement.

 

I'm not sure if I can agree with you on that. If the yacht is just without any comfort, the crew is very fast, very tired. This would probably result in loses of any kind. Ofcourse is it not the first thing to think about when designing your winning race-yacht, but I am sure it is taken into account. I think these yachts are right on the edge of what is safe and comfortable enough for a crew to perform during all 20 (or so) days of a long leg.

 

We are not talking only about comfort,,,Paul Cayard says that when it is rough, like last night, nobody can sleep. Witout sleeping for a while, you make mistakes. Mistakes here can be very dangerous.

...Paul Cayard:
“We had the longest run just before the scoring gate, 140 miles for six hours, that is 560 miles a day pace. The boat is slamming downwind very violently. No one can sleep when it is this rough.....“It is not hard to spend time wondering how long these boats can take this type of punishment.”

http://www.volvooceanrace.org/news/article/2006/january/thekidsarealright/index.aspx