GGR Failures, Breakages, Sinkings compared with Round the World Cruisers.

[Slowboat35]

Clearly as racers these guys are exposing themselves and their boats to higher loads and more pressure than a cruiser might, but as they're in much more solid, stronger, more forgiving, better prepared and more conservative and better seagoing/seakindly designs than most modern round the world cruisers shouldn't they be faring better?

How many cruisers are cripped by barnacles for example, or do we just not hear of it? Or do they just duck into some fresh-water river every now and again and and drown the bastards? Or is this just a result of GGR historical regs disallowing workable anbtifoul?

Cruisers often report problems with gear, but the number of GGR self-steering gear failures among products widely touted as unbreakable seems incredible, we never seem to hear of cruisers suffering the same . How? Why?
They'e all sailng much the same routes.
I accept that leisure sailors seldom approcach the GGR limit of 44'S but all the failures to date have occurred way way North of that, way out of even the Roarng Forties..., leave alone the Fifties where the hard-core nutters go.

Or is the lack of comprehensive, organised real-time reporting and oversight hiding a failure rate among world-girdling cruising sailors on a similar scale?

Somehow I have trouble believeing that or else round the world cruising as practiced by thousands would be attended by such a disastrous success rate that it would be regarded as all but un-feasible.

Or is it?

Discuss....

 

[Concerto]

I admire those in the GGR, sailing antique yachts and using antique navigational skills. By comparison to world cruising folk, they are pushing their boats harder to maintain speed. This will always mean higher loadings on every part on the boat. Then they are also doing it in the public eye as it is a race. They have to deal with whatever the weather throws at them, without modern weather forecasts so they can avoid storms. No wonder they are having problems in some of the conditions they are meeting, in places normal world cruisers try to avoid.

 

[Frank Holden]

The barnacle thing puzzles me.
I use Hempel Olympic and/or Sherwin Williams self polishing antifouling and have done a couple of long oceanic passages - in latitudes high and low - with no fouling esp not barnacle fouling. Example - boat antifouled and splashed in Puerto Montt in Sept '13-- always afloat from then until arriving in NZ in August '14. That included a lot of time spent sitting around before departing Antofagasta in May '14.
Dived on the hull in BoraBora - some small goose barnacles which took less than 15 minutes freediving to remove. Arrived in NZ with no fouling at all.
Maybe they aren't allowed to use any antifouling in the GGR?

 

[capnsensible]

Equatorial waters, in my experience, promotes goose barnacle growth whatever antifouling paint used. I'm not unique.......

 

[ridgy]

Maybe they aren't allowed to use any antifouling in the GGR?

They can use any antifouling they like. I think some people are overestimating how prepared some of these boats are. It is a frequent source of amazement to Don and everyone else about what has been done or not done.
For instance VDH got round last time with no barnacle issues. He stated which brand and technique he used involving a hard racing undercoat with eroding top coats. You would think you would just copy this no? People didn't. At least one boat antifouled months before the start and didn't recoat before the race.
One boat has an old windvane and didn't do any servicing or bearing replacement before the race... result?
Another boat modified their windvane to use a nut and bolt where there should be a clevis pin. As a result the nut came loose, the rudder fell off and they hadn't bothered with a safety line.
Other failures are due to modifications like drilling holes where there should not be. Elliot of the broken bowsprit is a bargain basement entry with hardly the money to buy the boat in the first place. What rigging renewals did he do we wonder.

 

[geem]

Equatorial waters, in my experience, promotes goose barnacle growth whatever antifouling paint used. I'm not unique.......

Every boat I know that arrives in the Caribbean having crossed the Atlantic arrives with a good growth of goose barnacles.

 

[Kelpie]

They can use any antifouling they like. I think some people are overestimating how prepared some of these boats are. It is a frequent source of amazement to Don and everyone else about what has been done or not done.
For instance VDH got round last time with no barnacle issues. He stated which brand and technique he used involving a hard racing undercoat with eroding top coats. You would think you would just copy this no? People didn't. At least one boat antifouled months before the start and didn't recoat before the race.
One boat has an old windvane and didn't do any servicing or bearing replacement before the race... result?
Another boat modified their windvane to use a nut and bolt where there should be a clevis pin. As a result the nut came loose, the rudder fell off and they hadn't bothered with a safety line.
Other failures are due to modifications like drilling holes where there should not be. Elliot of the broken bowsprit is a bargain basement entry with hardly the money to buy the boat in the first place. What rigging renewals did he do we wonder.

I was quite alarmed about the broken Hydrovane shaft- we recently fitted a Hydrovane ourselves and are about to cross the Atlantic using it.
I was very relieved, and a bit puzzled, to read that the skipper had drilled an extra hole through the shaft. He was obviously more concerned about the rudder falling off than the shaft breaking. Second guessing the manufacturers is a worrying sign, and obviously it didn't pay off.

 

[geem]

I was quite alarmed about the broken Hydrovane shaft- we recently fitted a Hydrovane ourselves and are about to cross the Atlantic using it.
I was very relieved, and a bit puzzled, to read that the skipper had drilled an extra hole through the shaft. He was obviously more concerned about the rudder falling off than the shaft breaking. Second guessing the manufacturers is a worrying sign, and obviously it didn't pay off.

I recently heard of a modern production boat that fitted a Hydrovane to the transom. They hit something with the Hydrovane rudder on passage and the brackets holding the Hydrovane ripped a chunk of the transom off. I understand that the boat sank! Until I heard this I had never appreciated the forces that Hydrovane rudders exert on a transom compared to servo pendulum. You don't need strong brackets on servo pendulum as you are not using it to steer its own rudder. By contrast the Hydrovane need considerable bracing.

 

[BobnLesley]

Every boat I know that arrives in the Caribbean having crossed the Atlantic arrives with a good growth of goose barnacles.

We didn't. We collected a few on the five week Ecuador to French Polynesia passage but even those weren't as bad as I'd expected.

 

[capnsensible]

We didn't. We collected a few on the five week Ecuador to French Polynesia passage but even those weren't as bad as I'd expected.

On the same passage, we got loads....... I know we were clean in the Galapagos, their duty diver that checks you out on entry mentioned it. They even grew on the watt@ sea, this if mentioned this before.

 

[doris]

I recently heard of a modern production boat that fitted a Hydrovane to the transom. They hit something with the Hydrovane rudder on passage and the brackets holding the Hydrovane ripped a chunk of the transom off. I understand that the boat sank! Until I heard this I had never appreciated the forces that Hydrovane rudders exert on a transom compared to servo pendulum. You don't need strong brackets on servo pendulum as you are not using it to steer its own rudder. By contrast the Hydrovane need considerable bracing.

When I fitted a Hydrovane to a modern Dehler 39 I seriously reinforced the inside of the transom before drilling any holes. A sheet of marine ply epoxy bonded on and then glassed over. To do otherwise wold render one uninsured, IMHO.

 

[Frank Holden]

I wonder what antifoul Crowhurst used?
Check at about 1:23:00 for shots of TE.