Golden Globe Race

[Yellow Ballad]

I'm not sure if this has been posted on the GGR Facebook yet but have you heard Susie's call? Talk about running on adrenaline... I'm not sure if she's about to cry or just elated she's got through it in one piece.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/sailing/46484919

From the darkness of this all I can see is good for Susie, Vendee anyone?

 

[oschonrock]

Hydrovane it.simple.

Actually a hydrovane has a similar "designed failure point". It is the pin which connects the auxillary rudder to the shaft. These have also broken multiple times under load for both JLvdH and Loic. In fact hydrovane recommend that they are replaced every 2000nm for this reason.

Take a step back for a minute.

All traditional Windvane systems have "Shearpins" or "Safetytubes". Both, Auxillary rudder systems, and older style Pendulum systems have these, because they must. For example:

- Monitor: has that tube
- Aries: has a similar device
- Hydrovane: has a pin which holds the auxiallary rudder

These have been all been regularly failing on the Monitor (Are Wig, Susie) and the Hydrovane (JLvdH, loic) in the more challenging conditions of the GGR. Not on the Aries yet. Perhaps lucky, perhaps a stronger shear pin.

The point is: It is very hard/impossible to size that pin/tube correctly. Too weak, it breaks too early. Too strong, something else breaks - the pendulum/axillary rudder itself breaks, the frame/mounts break or the whole unit tears right off the stern (all these have happened)!

Only the Windpilot is fundamentally different. It's a more modern design. The blade is not restricted in its movement to either side. There is no frame for it to bash against and break...it just rotates around when extreme things happen in big/bad waves.

Given the number of failures of the "safety devices", the windpilot design is proving to be a critical advantage in storm conditions?!

 

[Robert Wilson]

Sounds good, she said the wind had calmed down to 45 kts
(ONLY45?....:hororr:.)

She's won a lot of hearts, I reckon.

 

[Wandering Star]

She's won a lot of hearts, I reckon.

Absolutely, what a girl. Just gutted for her that it ended as is has.

 

[Simonpk]

Just wondering what will happen to the boat in this situation? will they sink it, leave it or attempt to recover it?

 

[Frank Holden]

Just wondering what will happen to the boat in this situation? will they sink it, leave it or attempt to recover it?

She should have scuttled it by cutting the SW engine cooling intake or galley drain just before stepping off... but probably had other things on her mind...

Salvage it? No chance.... even if she had got her yacht into Puerto Williams it would have been a lost cause with zero negative value...

 

[doug748]

Just wondering what will happen to the boat in this situation? will they sink it, leave it or attempt to recover it?

Seems to be still transmitting and making 1/4 knot towards the west coast of the US.
I think I read somewhere that they left them floating so as not to excite comment about pollution of the oceans.

 

[Roberto]

Seems to be still transmitting and making 1/4 knot towards the west coast of the US.
I think I read somewhere that they left them floating so as not to excite comment about pollution of the oceans.

I can t remember who was he, possibly Alex Thomson a number of years ago (?): anyway an abandoned racing boat, left afloat somewhere west of south america, down south, months later some Andean lama farmer found it stranded on the rocks. Or similar story.


edit
Yes it was his boat, abandoned in 2006 during the Velux race and found in Patagonia by a group of kayakers about 10years later; so the news says.

 

[zoidberg]

The designer Richard Woods abandoned his cruising catamaran off the coast of Baja California, concerned about an approaching hurricane. The hull, without rig, was found afloat several years later off the coast of, I believe, Ecuador. It had become a roosting platform for sea birds.

 

[Daydream believer]

All traditional Windvane systems have "Shearpins" or "Safetytubes". Both, Auxillary rudder systems, and older style Pendulum systems have these, because they must. For example:

- Monitor: has that tube
- Aries: has a similar device
- Hydrovane: has a pin which holds the auxiallary rudder

My Aeries broke this August for the first time in 12 years of sailing. I was doing 8-9 kts when there was an almighty bang. When the boat was lifted I had slight damage to the main rudder as well. Clearly I had hit something in the water. Looking at the size of the sacrificial tube it has to be a massive shock to break it. If the Monitor is similar, then to break it without it actually hitting anything seems almost impossible.

 

[Robert Wilson]

The designer Richard Woods abandoned his cruising catamaran off the coast of Baja California, concerned about an approaching hurricane. The hull, without rig, was found afloat several years later off the coast of, I believe, Ecuador. It had become a roosting platform for sea birds.

And let us not forget the infamous Teignmouth Electron of Donald Crowhurst fame in the previous the race of this name. Found years(?) later way down south on the east coast of South America (memory fails as to location/country)

 

[Kukri]

Actually a hydrovane has a similar "designed failure point". It is the pin which connects the auxillary rudder to the shaft. These have also broken multiple times under load for both JLvdH and Loic. In fact hydrovane recommend that they are replaced every 2000nm for this reason.

Take a step back for a minute.

All traditional Windvane systems have "Shearpins" or "Safetytubes". Both, Auxillary rudder systems, and older style Pendulum systems have these, because they must. For example:

- Monitor: has that tube
- Aries: has a similar device
- Hydrovane: has a pin which holds the auxiallary rudder

These have been all been regularly failing on the Monitor (Are Wig, Susie) and the Hydrovane (JLvdH, loic) in the more challenging conditions of the GGR. Not on the Aries yet. Perhaps lucky, perhaps a stronger shear pin.

The point is: It is very hard/impossible to size that pin/tube correctly. Too weak, it breaks too early. Too strong, something else breaks - the pendulum/axillary rudder itself breaks, the frame/mounts break or the whole unit tears right off the stern (all these have happened)!

Only the Windpilot is fundamentally different. It's a more modern design. The blade is not restricted in its movement to either side. There is no frame for it to bash against and break...it just rotates around when extreme things happen in big/bad waves.

Given the number of failures of the "safety devices", the windpilot design is proving to be a critical advantage in storm conditions?!

Thank you for a very good post.

In the case of the Monitor, the safety tube comes in various lengths, to suit the height of the transom, and I do wonder what effect the different lengths have?

 

[oschonrock]

My Aeries broke this August for the first time in 12 years of sailing. I was doing 8-9 kts when there was an almighty bang. When the boat was lifted I had slight damage to the main rudder as well. Clearly I had hit something in the water. Looking at the size of the sacrificial tube it has to be a massive shock to break it. If the Monitor is similar, then to break it without it actually hitting anything seems almost impossible.

I think it's reasonable to assume that the Aries "designed point of failure safety device" (or as others call it: "fuse"), is stronger than the Monitor's.

Your situation was clearly extreme, and it broke, as it should. The point in the GGR, where sailors are experiencing "10 years worth of sea-state and storms in a few months", is that severe things also happen without hitting anything.

Typical examples are:

- Falling sideways off a wave. When the boat hits the water sideways, the keel, rudder and the windwave pendulum or axillary rudder are subjected to huge forces for a fraction of a second.

- Knockdowns, similar really, see above

- Obviously full rollovers, but you probably have other issues then.

No windwane is designed to withstand these forces. They would have to be as strong (and heavy!) as the main rudder and the keel to withstand that. So they put "fuses" in. Some stronger, some weaker, but they all have them. Except the Windpilot, which uses more of a Judo technique, ie "Use the attackers force to your advantage. Go with the movement". Not "Karate". The Windpilot just swings out of the way. (Hopefully that makes sense)

Now, you could argue: I have not had any trouble for X years, and I don't sail in 8m waves. Fair enough. Most, mere mortal blue water cruisers don't.

However when that rare event happens, and you get caught in a big storm/sea you can't avoid, do you want to have to deal with a broken safety coupling as well? Especially since to replace it, you need to dangle overboard?! And maybe you're not singlehanded, but your crew is seasick, exhausted or injured...?

 

[elenya]

Only the Windpilot is fundamentally different. It's a more modern design. The blade is not restricted in its movement to either side. There is no frame for it to bash against and break...it just rotates around when extreme things happen in big/bad waves.

Given the number of failures of the "safety devices", the windpilot design is proving to be a critical advantage in storm conditions?!

The Windpilot has excellent ability to to move away from any object hitting it. There is a video of a whale using the in water blade as a scratching post at the link below. It’s my video so I declare I think it’s good.

https://windpilot.com/blog/


Got to admire Susie Goodall, I will have to support someone else now. What a race with so much differing action taking place.

 

[Robert Wilson]

Nine or ten retired, six or seven still going, apparently.
Tough race.
Remind me never to go near the high southern latitudes!

 

[Frank Holden]

Nine or ten retired, six or seven still going, apparently.
Tough race.
Remind me never to go near the high southern latitudes!

18 starters... 5 still going ... plus 2 boats in Australia that may or may not continue.....

Across the Pacific they all seem to have just driven along the 'exclusion line' https://goldengloberace.com/livetracker/ with no attempt to go north to avoid weather.....

The shortest way is not neccesarily the fastest way.......

 

[Kukri]

I was thinking that.

If you break your boat, you don’t finish.

I was also thinking that the weather systems along the edge of the exclusion zone may be more vigorous with the warming that has already taken place.

 

[zoidberg]

Interesting that GGR/MacIntyre 'opened' the Exclusion Zone encouraging Susie and Uku to use that space to avoid the worst areas of the predicted storm. Uku did manage that. It was too late for Susie to dive south out of the way.

Jean-Luc also penetrated The Zone and picked up a time penalty, as I recall.

I believe the two Zones were instituted to keep competitors from gambling on a dive into the ice-strewn waters down around 50° South, a much shorter but much more hazardous routeing. It may have been effective in that objective, but seems to have put them squarely in the sights of a series of ferocious storms.

 

[Frank Holden]

Diving south to avoid a small intense area of low pressure would seem counter productive....

Better methinks to stay north of the centre.....as far north as you can get..... bearing in mind that most lows on approaching the Chilean coast are driven south themselves by either the Andes or the offshore high - if it chooses to manifest itself...

 

[zoidberg]

Diving south to avoid a small intense area of low pressure would seem counter productive....

I'm not about to suggest optimum tactics for the avoidance of storms, in high latitudes or elsewhere. This would require comprehensive up-to-date met information and interpretation skills of a high order - and specialised comms equipment beyond most budgets. That becomes, in my book, 'weather routeing' and there are other ventures where that is commonplace.

Certainly, there's much to be re-considered and re-learned from the crop of misadventures in the South Atlantic and South Pacific, but the people who are most worth listening to are those with considerable recent experience of doing it.

I understand the GGR organisation is already responding to expressed concerns by priming Sir Robin Knox-Johnson to prepare a report on 'the lessons to be learned'....

Sir Robin Knox Johnston is currently undertaking a comprehensive investigation into all issues surrounding the storm tactics of GGR entrants, rig designs, and the events that have led to dismastings and three rescues in the Race. This very thorough report is widely anticipated and will be released at the conclusion of the Golden Globe Race.

This is welcome, for RKJ is certainly a 'prominente' in those circles. He holds strong views, as we all know, espoused over several decades, and I would hope that the investigation includes opinion from a spectrum of those with current high-latitude sailing experience regarding what worked well, what didn't, and what they'd do differently next time. Such sailors are rightly but notoriously highly individualistic, and I suspect such an enterprise would be akin to 'herding cats'.

I s'pose we should be grateful that the investigation is not being conducted by the MAIB......