Beneteau First lost her keel, four good men lost at sea.

[Steve C Cronin]

A lot of people are either criticizing or believe it is the keel bolts that are cause of this tragedy.

That maybe so, but those bolts are attached through a GRP laminate structure (usually heavily reinforced in the keel area) and with the pictures shown it would appear to my layman eyes that the keel took part of the laminate structure with it which MAY point more towards a serious failure of the GRP structure or a combination of both.

Solely X-raying keel bolts on a fairly regular basis will not show damaged laminate and is in my view not the total answer to checking all is well.

I think that MOST people were referring to the keel AND it's attachment. I certainly was.

 

[Neil_Y]

Oh that is clearly the case, my point being that this particular case features a yacht found in under two days due to electronic equipment and your post specifically called out the expectation that electronics mean you'll be found quickly. The yacht was found very quickly indeed, and due to the circumstances of the disaster nobody was there to be rescued. We can only assume that staying with the yacht was untenable in this situation due to the weather, or that crew perished inside possibly due to safety equipment preventing them leaving such as auto inflate life jackets.
While your post was sensible, very few of us (and I assume you're included in this) have experienced what happened to this crew and so suggesting you'd be somehow better prepared is basically nonsense until you know the full story. The crew may very well still be in survival suits. Their food may be floating nearby. The thing I find most absurd on this thread is the implication that no long keeler has ever sunk mid ocean, and that this yacht "sank" because its keel fell off. This yacht is still floating, has yet to sink as far as I'm aware, although I've not kept up to date for a few days. Had the crew been able to stay on the surface next to the yacht and alive they would have been rescued, but chances are that doing so would have seen them smashed into the upturned hull as a monster wave passed.

Sorry if I gave that impression, I don't think I'd have been better prepaired for this incident, the keel coming off and the boat rolling makes it almost impossible to plan or have a controlled exit plan. However I don't think I would have sailed this boat back without a smaller liferaft, and that may have made a difference.

I do get the impression though that Atlantic crossings are taken somewhat lightly and hope that the points I raised might make an owner/skipper re evaluate their preperation, or go through it in detail with the crew to see if it can be improved.

 

[Newfoundland]

I'm not seeing how blame should be assigned to anyone in this case as it is somewhat possible that no one knew of the boats previous damage or issues. There are those that are totally ignorant to hitting things and that may have been a recent charter customer. As for Beneteau or any other builder not producing adequate boats...well that's simply hogwash. If I were to assume that Rolls Royce were the safest cars in the world simply based upon numbers I would be in for a terrible surprise simply based upon those numbers. I'll actually take the company with the thousands of ocean crossings over the custom build that has vastly fewer crossings but is assumed to be safer based upon one summertime crossing with the worlds most experienced crew because given all the variables the boat may if fact be the least important in this case. I do indeed sail a Beneteau out of Northern Newfoundland and have chosen this boat due to the increasing numbers at the local yacht clubs that sail in some terrible weather but don't suffer any failure. My own delivery saw winds consistently above forty with gusts up to 47 knots with no concerns. In fact we spent many hours of the trip sitting on the cabin top drinking coffee. My point is that if you are going to compare Toyota to Rolls Royce based upon numbers it only seems that the Rolls Royce should come out on top given many are driven by professional drivers in good weather for special occasions. Unlike my Toyota that has 223k on it in the last five years.

 

[Newfoundland]

What's really neglected in many posts is that poorly built boats will often lead to bankruptcy. If you don't give the people what they want they will find it elsewhere. We wanted comfort and despite looking at hundreds of boats chose the one we have based upon a combination of features including build quality. As a former fibreglass technician I find it obvious from the photos made available of the overturned boat that the glass work had suffered previous damage that went undetected for some time. I have seen one other boat look like this after keel failure and it was reported to have been repaired one year after built due to simply terrible quality control carried out by a sinking company. The repair came back to haunt the owner 26 years later and fortunately they were in a deep bay with the coast guard nearby when they sent out their mayday.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

….. As a former fibreglass technician I find it obvious from the photos made available of the overturned boat that the glass work had suffered previous damage that went undetected for some time. …

What is it that is obvious to you that makes you conclude that a previous damage has been undetected? I would be ver interested in the obvious signs.

Thanks,

BlowingOldBoots

 

[Newfoundland]

What is it that is obvious to you that makes you conclude that a previous damage has been undetected? I would be ver interested in the obvious signs.

Thanks,

BlowingOldBoots

The thing I see is the discolouration of the material just in front of the last keel bolt. This looks like growth along a distinct line there which if is so would indicate a previous breech of the hull that allowed enough time for algae to form in the glass where antifouling would not have been present.