Nordhavn severely damaged on fall from boat lift - lessons learned

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TradewindSailor

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I have just come across this excellent article explaining how a 14 month old Nordhavn came to fall to the ground whilst supported in a boat lift, the subsequent struggle for restitution, and lessons learned. The owner/author makes some very sensible suggestions on how to guard against similar accidents in the future and what to do if you find yourself in a similar mess.

http://www.nordhavn.com/news/articles/Passagemaker_Aug 07.pdf
 
You should see the travelhoist at out local marina, cracked and bald tyres, scuffed and tatty slings,hydraulic fluid pissing out everywhere, rust and corrosion. An accident waiting to happen.
 
It's always a relief to see the boat go back in the water after the annual haul out. Watching her swinging around sat in a couple of big seatbelt straps is always a nerve-racking experience.
 
In the sideways shot of the back of the hull, it looks to be as if the propeller is more or less horizontal while the shaft slopes steeply down? If that's s correct impression, is it a result of the damage or do big motorboats have some sort of CV joint arrangement to enable this?
 
There's no damage in that photo.

The centre line main engine shaft is horizontal and inline with its prop, but you are noticing the wing engine shaft which is inclined, but still in-line with its folding prop.
 
Ripster said:
It's always a relief to see the boat go back in the water after the annual haul out. Watching her swinging around sat in a couple of big seatbelt straps is always a nerve-racking experience.
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I really enjoy see the boat go in. Seeing the skill of the driver and team and knowing that should something go snap the risk is not mine. :)
 
I watched this happen, and reported it here some time ago. Peakes Yard had just lifted out my boat (10 tons) and for some reason did not change the straps for the much heavier Nordhavn. When the aft strap snapped the stern fell just a few inches onto the hard. At first sight the damage seemed confined to a bent propshaft. But I was amazed to hear a couple of days later the yacht was likely to be a write off as a result, and to see the extent of the structural damage - not an advertisement for the build quality of a supposedly luxury yacht. (I'm quite sure my steel yacht had suffered blows every bit as bad, for example when I ran it onto a reef). We all felt so sorry for the Perrines who we understood were just starting out on their sailing dream.
 
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They seem accident prone these Nordhavns, that's what sank on fire in Cowes last November isn't it?
 
AndrewB said:
- not an advertisement for the build quality of a supposedly luxury yacht.
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That's an absolutely groundless observation. Dropping any (including steel) 50 ton yacht even a 'couple of inches' down onto solid concrete and having it land on its rudder and aft tip of its keel is going to cause damage.
 
TimBennet said:
That's an absolutely groundless observation. Dropping any (including steel) 50 ton yacht even a 'couple of inches' down onto solid concrete and having it land on its rudder and aft tip of its keel is going to cause damage.
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How do they cope with groundings in a big of a swell? Not that one should plan to do such things, of course.
 
TimBennet said:
That's an absolutely groundless observation. Dropping any (including steel) 50 ton yacht even a 'couple of inches' down onto solid concrete and having it land on its rudder and aft tip of its keel is going to cause damage.
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Interesting question. Ought a yacht be capable of surviving a vertical drop which, at the time, was reported as being 18"? My feeling is yes, if it is intended for serious blue-water cruising, though obviously one wouldn't expect this of an AWB. As I said, I'm confident my 10 ton steel yacht would, the damage it would suffer would not be fatal. I also believe much heavier small ships have suffered blows like this during groundings (as Jumbleduck says) without being destroyed.
 
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AndrewB said:
Interesting question. Ought a yacht be capable of surviving a vertical drop which, at the time, was reported as being 18"? My feeling is yes, if it is intended for serious blue-water cruising, though obviously one wouldn't expect this of an AWB. As I said, I'm confident my 10 ton steel yacht would, the damage it would suffer would not be fatal. I also believe much heavier small ships have suffered blows like this during groundings (as Jumbleduck says) without being destroyed.
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Yes
i have been on a 350 ton steel trawler when she fell over. No real damage, just a slight depression of the plating where she landed. A 10 ton steel yacht must surely be able to handle being hurled against reefs or ice, otherwise why bother?
 
What you have here is an unsupported free drop onto concrete ..... a very unforgiving surface. In a grounding the yacht is initially fully supported just before the grounding, then partially supported as it grounds, followed by possible lifts and drops ... still partially supported ... as the swell comes and goes. Further, the load is usually taken by the keel and the forward motion gradually lifts the yacht out of the water. The collision is further softened by the crushing of the coral or dispersal of the sand. However, not many boats survive a rough landing on a coral reef!

In this case the aft strap would have been taking about 3/4 of the displacement, say 35 tonnes ..... and it landed on it's rudder and aft end of the skeg. I don't think the amount of damage is surprising at all, nor it seems do the loss adjusters for Peakes.
 
TradewindSailor said:
What you have here is an unsupported free drop onto concrete ..... a very unforgiving surface.
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Yes it's the sudden stop that does the damage and the point loading of the rudder and aft point of the keel.

The energy involved with a 50 ton yacht falling are much, much higher than with a 10 ton boat. Also with steel boats they get proportionally 'weaker' as they get bigger because there is a physical limit to the plate and frames that can be used for both construction and stiffness requirements with the smaller designs. Therefore the 'global strength' of a small steel boat is enormous whereas a steel ship can be torn apart by a rogue wave.

I would guess that if a 50T steel vessel was dropped in similar circumstances, there would be considerable distortion of the aft part of the hull with major disruption to the sterntube, rudder gland and possibly the engine beds. There would also be major dislocation of the interior joinery work and structures. Of course it would be repairable in the same way the Nordhaven is repairable, but whether it would constitute a economical write off could only be calculated in a case by case basis.
 
Wasn't a 67 foot ex British Steel Challenge boat written off after being dropped by a yard in the last few years?

I'm sure there was an article on it in one of the mags. As far as I can remember the yard rejected all blame and the boat insurance didn't cover the on shore damage... I might be totally wrong about that and can't remember reading about how it all turned out.
 
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