Island Time 1,235 Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 For those who dont know, this accident was on the return delivery following the Sydney Hobart From Sailing Anarchy - https://sailinganarchy.com/2020/01/09/jason-ker-speaks/ jason ker speaks Editor January 9, 2020 58 I’d like to make clear that the keel lost by the Ker 40 ‘Showtime’ was not designed by Ker Yacht Design. The yacht had a retrofit keel fitted, designed by its owner’s local design office near Sydney and built by a local fabricator. We have designed a great many keels over the last 23 years which have been constructed by many different builders around the world, none have ever failed. To the best of our knowledge, Showtime is the only yacht designed by us to have had a keel fitted that was not designed by us. The keel, designed by the owner’s local Naval Architect, was configured as a vertical hollow strut welded to a horizontal mounting plate, which in turn was sitting in a shallow recess in the boat’s hull and bolted to the boat’s structure. This is not a design approach we would ever endorse as the high stress point at the junction is coincident with the horizontal welded joint. The skipper of the delivery voyage Rob Buchanan and his crew only survived through extremely calm thinking and bravery under stressful circumstances. Rob woke hearing a metallic ‘Ping’ just before he was thrown across the boat from his windward bunk as they capsized. While they made their plans to escape it was apparent to Rob that the inverted boat was holding air pressure in the hull, so the top plate of the keel can only have remained fully bolted to the yacht. When the crew swam down out of the boat, they saw that the vertical part of the keel was missing, revealing that the keel had failed at the welded joint between the exposed vertical and the recessed horizontal parts. Ker Design would support any World Sailing move to ban this low cost but high risk style of ‘welded T’ keel construction. Best regards,Jason ______________________ Great Article Jason, and I completely agree with your comments on this design. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Black Panther 1,586 Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 Don't know if accident is the right word here. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Ex Machina 365 Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 Very robust debate on this incident in SA forum with the boat owner saying some not nice things about Jason Ker . Ker did a superb job of keeping his cool and explaining the facts while a bunch of rabid Ockers tried to burn him at the stake. Something I learnt from the debate is that there is a company in kawerau that is highly regarded worldwide for building internal steel structures for race boat keels , but this one wasn’t one theirs either . 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
MartinRF 53 Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 Reminds me of the loss of Drum's keel during the Fastnet Race in 1985. /Martin Quote Link to post Share on other sites
wal 27 Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 With Duran Duran's song to follow......"A view to a keel" Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Clipper 343 Posted January 10, 2020 Share Posted January 10, 2020 I did a fiji race and a hobart on this boat with the original keel. We gave the boat a solid thrashing, lots of heavy upwind work. Sounds pretty horrific for the crew onboard. Had to swim out, and then skipper(?) had to remove his lifejacket and swim under to retrieve raft. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bigal.nz 59 Posted January 11, 2020 Share Posted January 11, 2020 I did a fiji race and a hobart on this boat with the original keel. We gave the boat a solid thrashing, lots of heavy upwind work. Sounds pretty horrific for the crew onboard. Had to swim out, and then skipper(?) had to remove his lifejacket and swim under to retrieve raft. What do the crew do if in that situation they have those Auto inflate lifejackets? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Bad Kitty 252 Posted January 13, 2020 Share Posted January 13, 2020 What do the crew do if in that situation they have those Auto inflate lifejackets? That's part of the decision making process when you buy a lifejacket! Probably worth another thread. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Kestrahl 6 Posted January 14, 2020 Share Posted January 14, 2020 Didn't Icebreaker (Kerr 40) have keel issues in the Noumea race a few years back, where they had to stop at Norfolk Island and get off. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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