Incident reports

[Black Panther 1,765]

https://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2025/02/18/vessel-abandonment-review-reports/

[Black Panther 1,765]

Within that are links to the three reports. 

My takeaway was their boats weren't strong enough and their surveys a waste of money. 

[aardvarkash10 1,103]

those rudder issues eh...

For that in relatively benign conditions is appalling.  I see that Alliance rebuilt the rudder and its bearing prior ot the race.  I wonder if it was engineered, or built "good enough"

[aardvarkash10 1,103]

...and two of the vessels having fuel supply issues (diesel bug?) on the main engines that made the situation increasingly difficult to manage.

[Frank 166]

The failure of Gunga Dins hull was concerning as I assume it was GRP ? she looked to be fairly "old School" and likely then to be quite solid.  Perhaps pounding conditions not only pump the rig and stress the mast base but also agitate sediment/contaminants  in the fuel tanks ? Maybe a better strategy then might be to heave to until flatter conditions or bail out to the nearest downwind port. 

[Psyche 795]

Diesel bug collects on the bottom of the tanks, when it gets to a certain level the first stiff beat in a chop will break it up and lead to issues despite the engine running fine beforehand. Anyway these are yachts, if there is breeze they all go better under sail!

[Rats 48]

Have to say yeah I read the reports.

These were pretty well prepared crews.

But, If you are gonna go offshore in a yacht race considering all the money you throw at that effort for a result,  to get into the short chop in a Gulf Stream,  have shitty things start to happen, then develop an engine issue and have the engine quit from bug,  seriously.

This is almost Fuel Tanks 101.

 

A lot of these boats in the Northern New England Area of the States  spend six months on the hard over a brutal winter and have relatively benign sailing conditions the rest of the year.

Then they go offshore and the soup gets stirred, I would think having your fuel polished before going offshore would be a prudent move. That or FULL fuel tank preventing bug the opportunity to make your life difficult

BTW, Seem to recall a J 111 ? returning back from Fiji to AKL a few years ago that had its rudder fall out and the boat go to the bottom, perhaps there's a pattern.

[Psyche 795]

Theres a few threads floating around the net about keels falling off, boats designed to a price and built by low skilled workers on production lines.  Maybe it's the culture in certain regions where boats don't get sailed hard and the weather is mostly benign.

[Frank 166]

There is a Youtube channel hosted by a German couple with a Grand Soleil design that suffered Keel Grid delamination  due I think to incorrect placement of the travel lift slings . There was the usual puffed up You Tube narrative while the yards insurance covered the repairs and now they are sailing across the atlantic. The vessel had a deep bulb keel and spade rudder, well call me old fashioned but I just cant see how such a fragile construction can be considered suitable for anything more than flat water inshore cruising, an accident waiting to happen ? or they may just get away with it. 

[Black Panther 1,765]

That's part of the problem,  they probably will get away with ...... until they don't. 

 

 

Globally the offshore fleet is not as well built as it should be, and the skill levels of many sailors is substandard. But now you can always press a red button and wait for help.

[waikiore 477]

As noted above -not the first J boat to have lower bearing failure leading to unmanageable ingress of water, the old IOR shaped glass yacht essentially pumped her mast through the bottom , and the Aage Nielsen yacht -well our multi skin Kauri yachts are a lot stronger from the same vintage -thinking of the Brin Wilson built S & S boats for example.