Vo70

hydraulic ram?

I've read that the shelf to which the ram was attached failed-I've seen no mention of the ram itself failing. Do you have a url with the ram failure story?
Besides the one just posted by Vega,this is one of the most detailed stories I've read yet:
Volvo boats crippled by raging seas - Sport - Times Online
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,4041-1871396,00.html
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Heres one from SA saying they did have a broken ram:
Sailing Anarchy
http://www.sailinganarchy.com/

So I guess you have to pick one story or the other for the time being-

 

Again this is proof that my previous obeservations were/are not out of scope. In fact, the designers have not the slightest idea - agree, a bit exaggerated - about forces that play a role when a boat is driven to the limits and the material down too.

A boat should be buid around the canting keel and not vice versa. Very often, designers tend to model their ships but forget about engineering, which is in fact the most basic requirement.

The race had just begun and already 3 boats are out. A bloody shame.Very poor designwork, very poor craftmanship and very poor material knowledge.

Racing boats tend to break? No, I don't think so. Did the Flyer brake down along the first 100 miles? Never!

If movistar and pirates and friends cannot finalise this leg, there winning chances should be nil and therefore lots of money is down the drain. It does not pay off to design marginal strong boats and people that drives them not knowing where to reef down in order to avoid material failures.

 

No Hydraulic Ram Failure-

From this story on the Volvo site they talk about two rams both of whose mounting structure was destroyed with the force of the collision/water impact pulling one ram loose and forcing the other ram and structure forward resulting in a buckled bulkhead. No where is a ram failure mentioned-in fact, apparently the ram held the load so well in one case that it buckled the bulkhead:
Volvo Ocean Race 2005 - 2006
http://www.volvooceanrace.com/news/article/2005/november/badbut/index.aspx
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D'ARTOIS- if in fact the damage to Moviestar was caused by a collision with a container the awfull feeling we all had due to what seemed like plain structural failure and a design/engineering mistake was misguided. This would be good news for the other Farr boats and should reduce the criticism directed at the design team a lot.
The other failures, so far, are apparently not on the scale of Movistars trouble though it will be interesting to hear more from Cayard and the Sunergy boat. And ,so far, it seems that
there have been no keel failures(non collision related) and no keel mechanics failures with the exception of the "seal" on Cayards boat-anyone with details about this?

 

Why use a seal? Wouldn't an otter have lower wetted surface and less drag?

 

Lorsail: The never ending story of the hit container - the real painkiller for the dummy's - I tell you not a story: Dutch world circumnavigator Henk de Velde, on his last voyage to break the world record circumnavigation in his catamaran "ZEEMAN" hit in the middle of the ocean a container - according to his explanation. A coincidental available Russian freighter, took the injured Henk from his ship.
What Henk didn't know was that his cat was found and saved; she came even back to Holland where she was taken care of by Simon Rhebergen, the builder of ZEEMAN.
I had a chance to see the damaged cat and saw clearly that she never had hit a container but that she collided with the Russian freighter, that was also to blame a bit by having no watch on the bridge.
Hitting a container is a corker, clincher, finisher of an argument. It's the last resort, as no other explanations are possible.

 

I am trying to find out about a 1917 26' boat made by monterey, anybody have anything or know where to find out about this craft?

 

Looking at the photo in the story referred by Vega, I think it is incorrect to think this boat hit a container at speed. There is no sign that the keel made that kind of impact.

Furthermore, since they didn't even know they had hit anything until the boat was hauled I would question a great impact of any sort. Even hitting a lrage shark or sunfish makes quite an impression on the people sailing boats of this size.

I thnk they may have hit something, or you would not have two foils damaged, but certainly not a container and probably not the sort of impact that should break the keel system.

 

Cynical?

Well, D'ARTOIS I guess the only thing to say is that I HOPE they hit a container or something big enough to cause that damage-the alternative is too damn depressing....

 

A serious reply. If you HIT!!!!!!!!!! a container, at high speed, it is like hitting a boulder, a rock. The boat goes to the smithereens!!!!! I say, they don't just know and say "Oh, it's a container."

Don't think that I am rebellious. I like racing, I like fast boats (not only fast boats) but I hate the stupidity around. The +++++==t, the balloney, the unprofessional comments, the hype.
I admired Conny Van Rietschoten, who coolkilled two times his opponents. A few years ago I was on Flyer II - what a difference with the today's racin circumnavigator. A luxury palace compared to Pirates or Movistar. Absolutely not as fast. Absolutely twice as seaworthy.

 

The first boat of Conny Van Rietschoten was designed by Sparman & Stephens, the second one by German Frers. Conny suffered from a cardiac arrest during his 2nd Whitbread Campaign, but eventually took the helm again.

I herewith would like to commemorate Conny Van Rietschoten, twice winner of the Whiotbread and financer of his own ship. Commemorating also Wolter Huisman from (now) Roayal Huisman who build both ships. Both have gone, both are legends in the samll Dutch boating scene. No super ego's, no ballerina's of the media but just plain busiinessmen who liked their sport. The first to race and the 2nd to build the supreme boats.

I remember Wolter Huisman as being an openminded boatbuilder, capable and willing to accept new techniques - that made Huisman till what it is today.

 

The picture of the chewed off dagger board and the the damage to the very rear of the keel and its sealing gasket could be 2 different impacts. The dagger could be struck from any direction. The keel and the seam packing are a impact from the rear and or part of what ever took the dagger board tip. It could all have been a large fish attacking the odd noises the keel and dagger make at speed. Fish attack under a different set of rules. The damages are to me, a 50% chance of a animal attack. I know, I am not blaming the humans.

 

The tips of the rudders and dagger boards are usually sacreficial. They are just foam with a carbon skin and the stock ends somewhere closer to the waterline. So they are DESIGNED to break off easily to absorb the impact and to safe the stock from overload.

The issue with the canting keels is that they work at maximum righting moment most of the time. Also the accelerations are quite different to normal keels. Vertical accelerations causes bending in a canted keel but only up - down loads in a normal keel. Also the canting keel can probably see a reversal of the load depending on how hard you hit the water. So they are quite different.

 

To be fair, the second win for CVR and Flyer II would probably have gone to the smaller-yet-faster Ceramco NZ, if not for a fitting failure that cost them their rig and the race.

 

To be fair, boats that don't finish intact don't win.

 

Rename the race

Paul Cayard made a good point about the scoring in the Volvo Ocean Race. It is scored as a series, not as total time around the world.

From what I've read a boat does not have to start all races or finish all races to win. The VOR site states, "As a point of interest, by the time the boats get to Rio, they will be three quarters of the way round the world, but two thirds of the points will still be up for grabs." This means that a winning strategy could be to build a boat that was optimized for the Brazil to finish legs and the port races and not sail the first legs at all. You could fly your 70ft dinghy to the port races, kick ***, and with 2/3's of the points still available starting in Rio you get to race a fresh boat and crew against boats that have been beaten 3/4's of the way around the world to get to your start.

It should be the Volvo Open 70 Series, its not the Whitbread.