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US navy finds wreck of missing yacht Cheeki Rafiki


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US Navy finds wreck of missing yacht Cheeki Rafiki

 

Saturday 24 May 2014

 

"The US coast guard has confirmed the life raft aboard the capsized sailing vessel Cheeki Rafiki was secured in its storage space in the aft portion of the boat, Friday, indicating it was not used for emergency purposes.

 

It said a US navy warship helicopter crew discovered the overturned hull 1,000 miles off Massachusetts. A close inspection of the debris confirmed the identity of the yacht, which had been flooded.

 

It said: "The swimmer determined the boat's cabin was flooded and windows were shattered, contributing to the complete flooding inside.

 

 

 

 

Overturned-hull-of-the-Ch-010.jpg

 

 

 

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/23/us-hull-missing-yacht-search-cheeki-rafiki

 

Looks like the yacht has hit a submerged object. polluted Oceans and seas on the rise.

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Not sure I agree with that. 2 front bolts remain in place. Hex heads and washers visible. Rear bolt shows rust marks, possible corrosion. Center bolts appear to have pulled through the hull taking some laminates with them. There is a high res pic and ongoing discussion about this on sailing anarchy. Consensus seems to be prior damage. There are a lot of bene 40.7 s sailing all over the place, without issues.

My condolences to the families, sad to see.

Without knowing the boats history, and examining the wreck, anything else is speculation.

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the fwd two bolts look to have flexural failure. have you ever got a crescent on an over length deck fitting bolt and given it a wiggle ?

It doesn't take much to part them off at the nut.

the aft bolt has had some on going issues buy the looks of things.

post-234-141887266886.jpg

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Tuffy, I'd be interested in your source? Can't find anything online about that - admittedly only a quick search.

FNG you beat me to the pics.. :thumbup:

 

Only from a mate that did a rough Fastnet on one. Owner wasn't concerned because 'it was common' on that model.

 

Havent searched/confirmed it myself but I'll have a look.

 

The pics above seem to show rust on the aft bolt which maybe a symptom of it

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I've never understood why a lot of AWBs have keel bolts in that configuration I.e. bolted through the hull laminate rather than thru the chunky structural bit right next to it. Well at least it should be a structural member.

 

Looking at the hole where the keel used to be there ain't a whole lot of meat there... Especially with a big lever hanging off it.

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I've never understood why a lot of AWBs have keel bolts in that configuration I.e. bolted through the hull laminate rather than thru the chunky structural bit right next to it. Well at least it should be a structural member.

 

Looking at the hole where the keel used to be there ain't a whole lot of meat there... Especially with a big lever hanging off it.

 

You don't want to drill holes in frames, as it weakens them, the floors should be attached well to the frames.

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It still seems to be asking a lot from the laminate especially when its got a whole of chopped strand mat in there. .... There appears to be no keelson to speak of. I'm sure it is engineered to ABS, ISO or whatever standard but it just doesn't look right.

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The Hull has stood up well. The bolts and attachment to the hull exterior is the issue.

 

It appears to me to have suffered side impact or failure from poor attachment/bolt/s and loadings.

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I've never understood why a lot of AWBs have keel bolts in that configuration I.e. bolted through the hull laminate rather than thru the chunky structural bit right next to it. Well at least it should be a structural member.

 

Looking at the hole where the keel used to be there ain't a whole lot of meat there... Especially with a big lever hanging off it.

 

You don't want to drill holes in frames, as it weakens them, the floors should be attached well to the frames.

 

If drilling holes through the frame weakens the frame, why not make the frame bigger to cope with the hole being drilled through later?

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I've never understood why a lot of AWBs have keel bolts in that configuration I.e. bolted through the hull laminate rather than thru the chunky structural bit right next to it. Well at least it should be a structural member.

 

Looking at the hole where the keel used to be there ain't a whole lot of meat there... Especially with a big lever hanging off it.

 

You don't want to drill holes in frames, as it weakens them, the floors should be attached well to the frames.

 

If drilling holes through the frame weakens the frame, why not make the frame bigger to cope with the hole being drilled through later?

 

Exactly.

Thats how Kiwi boats are built. The 'frames' are actually called floors or floor timbers historically and have the keel bolts through them. This ludicrous business of attaching a keel to the skin of a hull is a euro idea.,, probably evolved from the days of a substantial keelson but now devolved into this state of affairs. It makes no difference that these boats 'don't have problems', they sure as hell do now. These keels are time bombs and every one needs to come off, its just like the crap metal through hull/ skin fittings that are dissolving away in a few years. They need to be changed.

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Imho I don't think where the bolts are is the issue, as in through the floors, or flanges. also note most of the floors are hollow on these types of production boats.

 

I lot of the newer production boats have the keel bonded to the hull with mastic.

 

Say this is 3mm thick and the keel top 200mm wide this is quite a lot of wiggle movement room so to speak. And again imho this will not help the fatigue life of the centreline bolts.

 

There doesn't appear to be a lot if any woven cloth in the supporting area of the keel of the boat concerned either.

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