s/y Maridadi rescue, Caldey Island, anchor fracture

vyv_cox

vyv_cox

Well-Known Member
Joined
16 May 2001
Messages
26,497
Location
Now retired, anchor swallowed.
coxeng.co.uk
Just reading the winter issue of Lifeboat, which contains an article about the rescue of a yacht anchored off Caldey Island. The skipper was an elderly man, the yacht's name Maridadi. At the conclusion of the rescue it was found that the anchor's shank had fractured from the flukes. I would be very interested to see the shank if it could be arranged. Does anyone have any information about the boat or its owner? I would be very grateful for any information.
 
I don't have any information to provide, but I will be interested to see the type of anchor and failure mode. One of the reasons why I can not relax when I drop my anchor is because I use a Bruce copy as a bow anchor, which is very effective but because of the unknown metal cast quality, the risk of metal fracture could be high.
 
The owner of the boat Maridadi seems to be making something of a habit of being in trouble. Google found me this one http://rnli.org/NewsCentre/Pages/Ni...e-lifeboat.aspx?printerfriendly=true&pdf=true

And this one 26/7/2004. 2035 Concerned members of the public dialled 999 regarding the position of a 20-foot yacht " MARIDADI", with 1 person on board, which was ashore at the beach opposite the Nova centre,) Prestatyn. The owner was sailing from Fleetwood to Beaumaris, and was about 15 miles south of any straight line between the 2 locations. he was looking for a fuel bunker and had no idea that Rhyl had a harbour. The yacht was at anchor but was inside the surf line with the tide receding. The ILB launched and went alongside the yacht, and attracted the man's attention. He said he didn't need any help, and refused to talk any further. The Helmsman of the ILB tried to inform the man he could be in a dangerous position when the tide came in again, but the man refused all offers of help and the ILB crew had no alternative but to return to station by 2134.
ILB crew paged after the same yacht radioed the coastguard requesting assistance that he could not get off the shoreline as his outboard engine was not powerful enough to get off the beach. The ILB launched and got a towline on the yacht, and it took all the power of the ILB to pull the yacht off the beach and into deeper water. The skipper of the yacht then said he could get to Rhyl under his own power, and the tow was slipped, but the yacht was making little headway against the tide. As the tide was ebbing and the harbour at Rhyl was not accessible except for 2 hours either side of high water, the skipper was persuaded to take up the tow again, and succeeded in getting to Rhyl harbour where he was safely moored up. the ILB returned to station by 08.00

Looks like the boat may be a Corribee: http://corribee.org/technical/stoves/
Alan McKeand writes:
When I bought my junk-rig Corribee Maridadi in 2002 she was equipped with a single burner Origo 1500 stove and it was used regularly until 2007 when I replaced it with a single burner Butterfly brand pressure stove.
 
vyv_cox said:
Yes, a cast iron copy sounds very likely but it would be nice to see the fracture to confirm. I wouldn't put too much faith in the word 'plough' though, The Lifeboat is not a technical magazine.
Click to expand...

My boat Alysia was first launched in 1972 and came to me with a Danforth type anchor of 15kg marked SWMF (Southwest Marine Factors??) which I seem to remember was a reasonably reputable brand. Abot 6/7 years ago I anchored overnight off Traeth Bychan , Anglesey. Conditions were moderate, but when I came to weigh anchor I found I couldn't break the anchor out by hand (no windlass at that time). So I resorted to trying to motor it out, successfully it appeared, until I hauled the chain and found about 15inches of shank on the end. The rest of the anchor still on the seabed. When I examined the shank I found that the outside 4 or 5 mm was dense shiney silver coloured while the interior was more grainy and a much darker dirtier colour. After a few days sitting in the cockpit the core material got rusty. As far as I recall there was little deformation of the section, it had snapped clean away without bending. Unfortunately I binned the piece some time ago so it's not available for inspection.

John
 
Hi John,

That sounds very much like a fatigue fracture. The shiny appearance is a prior crack with the faces rubbing together. Your 'grainy' appearance is presumably the final fracture, which sounds somewhat brittle. The proportions are important: a well made and designed component should fail with about 10% of the CSA as the final fracture. Where this area is much bigger it indicates a problem, often in anchor shanks it is poor material.

The one I wrote up in YM last year, a Bruce copy, had a very similar appearance but with some differences. The fracture had commenced at one end but over a long period, so that corrosion inside the crack had taken place. The final fracture represents around 50% of the CSA. The cast metal was dreadful, with all sorts of miscellaneous grains all mixed up together. The cheapest possible casting job, source metal scrap who-knows-what. This is it.
1e097a951dc811c7c7475f9dcb6c4e10_zpsd29204f6.jpg
 
Ah yes, seen the later posts now & reread the article. It was the reference to the "plough" that obviously led me to assume it was identified as a CQR type anchor. Any chance of getting more details from the RNLI?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top