Another Big Canting Keel Boat has Blown-up its Mast

Usually my name is associated with frivolous threads, but I do read the serious stuff with great interest and respect. I perceive a roadblock into the analysis of the causes. May I be so bold as to offer another view from one who has been "sitting back"

Look at this analogy, You are driving some distance and on the motorway are inconsiderately slowed/held back for some time, what is the "driven person's response? When the opportunity arises to get into the clear, and to put the foot down to make up time.

Similarly, in racing conditions would not the crew to press harder when clearing "the doldrums" (or even a brief knock?) to sail harder than they would normally do in that recovered weather condition? ie, a human trait "to give it some" so making up for lost time.

As the sailing crew became familiar with the new technology, past issues became more understood and the breakages became less regular. A human trait issue, particularly found in people driven by some objective - some more than others - that is what makes winners. Those who are prepared to take that little extra risk.

All the other points also have a significant contributing impact. This postulation is just to add a different viewpoint. Thanks

 

Another One Has Gone Over the Side

http://www.barcelonaworldrace.com/default.asp?section=10&sid=11647 (many languages available in upper right corner of page)

Southern Ocean claims another victim - Delta Dore is dismasted

Sylvie Viant, Race Director of the Barcelona World Race, has been notified by skipper Jérémie Beyou onboard the fourth-placed IMOCA 60 Delta Dore that his boat has been dismasted. Both he and co-skipper Sidney Gavignet are unhurt and safe onboard and the boat itself is structurally intact.
A morning Beyou is a beautiful sight...almost looks like a Mona Lisa!
© Delta Dore
Jérémie contacted the Race Direction team by Iridium satellite phone at 0120 GMT (11 December) just minutes after the incident: “We have just been dismasted, we have wind from 300°, 25 knots increasing to 35 knots sometimes, and waves not too bad at about 4 metres. We were sailing with one reef in the mainsail and staysail (small headsail). The mast seems to have fallen backwards.”

Just under an hour later Jérémie reported: “We had to quickly cut the mast and boom away in to the water because it they were becoming dangerous and was going to start damaging the hull. The boat is okay, the deck is okay, only there are no more lifelines. And we have nothing big to use to make a jury rig for now.”

The boat’s position at the time of dismasting was 47°00 S 033° 25 E, nearly a thousand miles south east from South Africa, drifting slowly at between 1 and 2 knots east. The reason for the dismasting is unknown at this time.

The Race Direction Team is in regular contact with the two French sailors Jérémie Beyou and Sidney Gavignet and their shore team headed up by Gilles Chiorri. The skippers have 188 litres of diesel onboard, which will provide approximately 60 hours of motoring, the equivalent of approximately 240 miles. The team are also already studying the options of a jury rig using spare mainsail battens onboard.

Nearest land to their current position:
Edward Islands 175 nautical miles to the east (uninhabited)
Crozet Island 685 miles to the east (uninhabited)
Port Elisabeth (South Africa) 850 miles to the north west
Perth (Australia) 3700 miles to the east

The Maritime safety organisation, MRCC Cape Town, has been informed, however the skippers have not requested any outside assistance at this time.

The weather forecast until midnight on 12/12/07 is WSW 25 knots and decreasing to W 15 knots, and fortunately there are no big Southern Ocean depressions bearing down on them at the moment. If they can make their way north they may be able to benefit from some southerly winds to help them back to land.

“These professional skippers always know that there is a risk involved in ocean racing of any kind. Indeed, in any sport where the boundaries are being pushed. This does not lessen the immense disappointment that Jérémie and Sidney must be experiencing and everyone from the race organisation shares in their disappointment and wishes the skippers a safe passage to land,” said Andor Serra, Director General of the Fundació Navegació Oceànica Barcelona, co-organisers of the Barcelona World Race.

Mark Turner, CEO of OC Events, co-organisers of the Barcelona World Race added: "It’s easy to become complacent about sailing around the world, but the last few days during which we have seen PRB lose the top 3 meters of their mast and Estrella Damm suffer severe damage to their rudder are a strong reminder just how hard it is to race at this kind of pace, on these 60-foot racing machines, racing around the planet non-stop. Nearly 10,000 miles in, and the damage toll is mounting. Ocean racing competition at this level has many human performance factors, but it remains nonetheless a mechanical sport. The adage ‘that to win you must first finish’ has never been more true. This is a cruel fate though for this well prepared team that was working so well together onboard, and sailing prudently by their own admission. Also, just as Jérémie was getting his first taste of the Southern Ocean, an ocean he will now have to wait until the 2008 solo Vendée Globe in a year's time to revisit."

The Boat Specs

The DELTA DORE monohull will perform well and be more powerful than the old Imoca Open 60 class generation. Safety is also one of the key features of its design. It will be slightly less wide than most of the current 60-foot Imoca monohulls.Designer : Farr Yacht Design
Shipyard : JMV Industries

Length : 60 foot or 18.28 metres
Displacement : 8,450 kg
Draught : 4.50 m
Mast height : 27 m
Mainsail Surface : 180 m²
Spinnaker : 440 m²
Genoa : 125 m²
Materials : carbon and Nomex


Having your rig fall down is never a good experience. To have the event take place in the nasty reaches of the Southern Ocean in the conditions that are currently present for the Barcelona boats and crews is flat out ugly and dangerous.

This is the second boat in a week to experience serious mast problems, as they make the turn from the Atlantic into the Indian Ocean, on the long thrash eastward at the bottom of the world. On Decmeber 8th, race leaders, Vincent Riou and Sebastian Josse, aboard PRB, lost the top section of their mast and began making their way to Cape Town, retired from the event. (Estrella Dam is also sailing to Capetown with a seriously damaged port rudder)

Certainly, one of the very real strategies of this event will now be how to power-up the boat enough and still keep something in reserve, while watching the fleet become decimated around you. A careful, pragmatic approach could very well turn into a race leading/winning program if things keep going along this path.

 

Page 48 of "Time" 17th December issue has a short article about SkySails. The first cargo ship with a SkySails kite is scheduled to be launched on 15th December.

http://www.skysails.info/index.php?L=1

It occurs to me that these Open 60 boats and their ilk should carry one as standard, instead of trying to jury rig a dismasted vessel, per the thumbnail on Chris Ostlind's post above.

Who else agrees?

Pericles

 

I do!
Even forget about conventional rigs and run only kites!
......Hei, what an idea! Kiteship, why don't you promo a round the world race with kites only?

Cheers!

 

That's an excellent idea. More power and more reliable than a jury rigged sail.

 

Imagine what could be done with the hull form is such a promo race was done, and good designers had a go at it!

 

It (Kiteship/parasail) was tried prior to last Sydney to Hobart yacht race, I feel there were issues with sail control alluded to but no media analysis to my knowledge.

I had thought of something like the parasails but could not think around how to "shock-absorb" the link/sheets/control-lines between sail and heaving foredeck.

 

Rob Humphrey is going to try it with an SkySail on a trimaran: http://www.skysails.info/fileadmin/user_upload/Pressedownload/Dokumente/Brochure_Humphreys.pdf

As SkySails allow for some winward ability (Up to 50º off wind) the idea is feasible with this system. No rigs, no canting keels, no hassle. Just 150 sqm kites delivering up to 300 HP under the proper conditions.

Trimarans, or more properly 'amas assited slender monohulls', seem to me to be the most convenient configuration as it allows to carry the system at the bows of the central hull.

The biggest problem would arise at the doldrums, when there is no enough wind to keep the kite flying (Although, as it flies at a couple of hundred of meters over surface, maybe it can always find some wind :?: ). A posssibility to avoid becalming for ever could be mounting an electric motor powered by solar cells, able to bring the boat to a maximum speed of, let's say, 3 knots, or something in that line.

Then it would become an 'eco-race'

More ideas?

Cheers.

 

Guillermo, do you have young people riding surfboards/wakeboards through the surf towed by kitesails? There is one over here which is double sided (like an aeroplane wing but open at the front) and some inflatable ribbing as well to keep shape and allow re-launching from the sea. A larger version of this is what interested me, but the riders arms are too effective as shock absorbers and surface controls when moving quickly over the uneven surface (waves and going up and down).

Even with elastic rope, control would be lost, as there are other lines to shape the wing by powering up or de-powering. Sky sail is large enough to permit a control box up near the kite to do this guided by radio signals from the computer on the bridge. Difficult to scale down to a 40 ft yacht/multi.

A full spinnaker is OK downwind but to get value a wing form is necessary to enable modest pointing ability.

 

Masalai,

The catenary shape of the kite line acts as a shock absorber, in a manner similar to the long rode of chain and hawser when anchored. Typically, the very large traction kites fly at over 200 metres (600 feet), so that's a very long kite line. In addition, there's considerable lift at the bow. The Sydney-Hobart experiment was from another organisation, also competing for the traction kite business.

http://www.kiteship.com/outleader.php


Guillermo,

A combination of helium filled balloon and traction kite could stay aloft in the Doldrums.

Best regards,

Perry

 

Perry,
in fact I think the kite can be helium filled itself, but I don't know if it has enough ascension force to lift the commanding canopy. Something to ask SkySails.

Masalai,
because of the shape and dinamic fly, the Skysails can make the boat to point up to around 50º off wind. As far as I know the Kiteship system being rather based in anchor type kites, are only able to run downwind rhumbs, but I'd like to know Kiteship's opinion.

Cheers.

 

Guillermo.

What speed could IDEC do with the SkySail? See its shape at bottom of this page. Have you seen anything as narrow as it before?

http://www.trimaran-idec.com/icm_presentation.asp

IDEC has just travelled 616.07 miles in 24 hours, but has slowed to 20 knots as the winds are not playing the game!! Huge high pressure to north of Joyon. See cartographie.

http://www.trimaran-idec.com/actualite_article.asp?id=53

I cannot see how Thomas Coville stands a chance of beating Francis Joyon, if and when he starts.

http://www.sodebo-voile.com/actu/ne...d-Olonne-vendredi-23-novembre-vers-16H00.html

Perry

 

Guillermo, I have looked at both the models (I think there are only 2) currently for marine applications. A mate goes para-sailing (literally jump of a hill and glide) much as a hang-glider but with no aluminium frame or spars. That first alerted me to the idea of using inflatable sections which the wind-serfers use (so it sits ready to re-inflate by the breeze when powered up), and with the wing structure used in para-sailing with its far superior foil shape.

The para-glider has lots of ropes coming down from the sail to pull to reshape for lift etc. The wind-surfer lines coming down to a bar which is held in place by eyelets & travel restriction so it can be let go to re-insert his feet in the board? then reach out and pull towards him for power/lift ease out eases lift/power.

I will probably try it out when I build but that will be some time (years) away yet. I am sure others will try it soon.

 

A careful, pragmatic approach could very well turn into a race leading/winning program if things keep going along this path.

This approach has won the day many times in the past.
It is interesting to note that when Delta Dore and PRB showed at their debut race (the Route de Rhum), the question of the boats being too powerful to handle in an around the world race was floating around the docks. Some of the experienced solo skippers say that there have been designs that were considerably faster boats that were not going to win a long ocean race. The solo skipper just cannot handle them.
The double handed idea for the BWR may have emboldened the designers a bit too much, thinking they would have them tamed by the start of the Vendee.

I am not so alarmed by two rig losses of the Farrs. They are very powerful boats.

 

If I can work it here are some images

Ahhh, I got one. This illustrates the wing with the double skin. some more recent designs are a bit flatter in the arch and have vertical winglets where the main lines are attached. I think the control lines influence the fore aft shape to the port & starboard for tacking and both for lift or reducing lift (power). Apparently the slots in the front do not adversely affect the wing shape as airflow reacts similarly to a normal chord full air-foil. Inflated ribs P & S and elsewhere keep the sail lifting a face on the water ready for powering up and take-off again