Given all the circumstances I would say this is high on the list of possibilities. I would be very wary sailing that area just now (thinking about it, this summer as well!). Brian
According ITV Westcountry News tonight CG denies that any containers are in that area, and that the keel dropped off due to some sort of failure in the fixings. This led to the capsize. Salcombe Lifeboat was diverted to investigate what appeared at first to be a lifejacket in the water and when they got there they discovered there was a body wearing it.
can anyone confirm the boat - apparently it was Hooligan V, does anyone know if it was the maxfun35 by that name? Someone mentioned it, just wondered if anyone knew for sure?
Ed Broadway from the Royal Southampton Yacht Club is mentioned as the skipper in several news reports. He does sail a Maxfun35 called Hooligan V, so it looks like it is that one.
From what I have read so far it is difficult to believe that the CG knows the location of all the missing containers, or that they are in a position to comment on the cause of the keel being lost?
thanks for info. I had seen in a report that the boat was 35ft and just wanted to confirm. I have raced ectensively on the other racing maxfun in the solent and was out today for the first time in about 6 months. The owners know Ed quite well.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but containers are very unlikely to remove your keel (unless you're heeled enough to shift the bulb outside the line of the hull). They are not floats in a Galileo Thermometer. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif Once they are submerged they will generally sink to the sea bed, they are worst with a few inches of air in the top and still breaking surface but practically invisible. At this point a corner will merely smash a large whole through your hull which will let in shedloads of water really fast /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
The one thing we can all be sure of at the moment is that we don't know what happened - we think we know the primary factor from the reports but we know none of the causal ones, which I guarantee will be both numerous and significant.
It's a very sad thing thats happened. God bless the poor soul who lost their life and their greiving family