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Hooligan V – Report on loss of keel

18 July 2007

The UK MAIB report has been released

During the late evening of 2 February 2007, the owner and four crew of the Max Fun 35 yacht Hooligan V sailed from Plymouth towards Southampton following out of season repairs and maintenance. At about 0320 UTC on 3 February, the boat’s keel became detached and the boat suddenly capsized causing the loss of life of one crew member.

Hooligan fig 1

The skipper/owner, two experienced watch leaders and two new crew arrived at Hooligan V’s berth at about 1630 on 2 February. The boat was checked out and the two new crew members were briefed on the safety gear, equipment and sailing procedures. At 2335 the boat passed Plymouth breakwater. There was an 8 -10 knot north-easterly wind, and the mainsail and genoa were rigged. Just before midnight the first reef was put in the mainsail. The boat was on a port tack, heeling about 15º to starboard and making about 7-8 knots over the ground. Soon afterwards, one of the watch leaders and one of the crew went to their bunks. The owner followed at 0045, after putting the second reef in the mainsail. By 0245 the wind had increased to 25 knots, gusting 35 knots, and the boat was heeling 25º to starboard. At 0300 the relief crew arrived on deck. At 0315 the heel increased to 30º and preparations were made to put the third reef in the mainsail, the genoa having already been 2/3 furled.

Before the mainsail could be reefed, the list rapidly increased, and at about 0320 the boat very quickly inverted, trapping the skipper inside the cabin. Once in the water, three of the crew found their way to the transom and immediately noticed that the keel was missing. As they set about cutting the liferaft lashings, the skipper managed to push the flare box and grab bag out of the cabin. These floated to the surface and the flares were set off. At the third attempt, the skipper escaped from the cabin, but there was no sign of the fourth crew member.

Fortunately the crew managed to free the liferaft and set off more flares. The crew were finally rescued at 0430 by a nearby ship. The body of the missing crew member was recovered by Salcombe lifeboat at 0655.

Investigations found that the fabricated steel keel had failed just below the fillet weld connecting the fin to the taper box (Figure 1). Laboratory metallurgical analysis confirmed that the keel had suffered fatigue failure in the fillet weld area, which had been subjected to high bending stresses. Defects were also found in the keel taper box welds, and two of the three keel bolts had also failed.

Hooligan fig 2
It was further discovered that the builder had sub-contracted the hollow keel construction to a steel fabricator who had no marine experience. The fabricator changed the original design, and incorporated a fillet weld in a critical area, to ease manufacture and reduce costs, but without the supporting calculations to assess the stresses to which the keel would be subjected (Figure 2). He did not consult on the changes with the designer. Although the designer was made aware of the keel changes by the boat builder, he did not validate them. In 2005 the owner contracted a UK yacht designer to optimise the yacht for IRM and IRC racing purposes. This involved adding 160kg of lead to the keel bulb.

Detached keel Hooligan V

Once again, there were no supporting calculations, nor were checks made against the “original” or “as built” design drawings to ensure that the modification would not adversely affect the design to cope with the “in service“ loads. Analysis of the “original” design calculations confirmed that they did not achieve the required Safety Factor of 2. The “as built” keel safety calculations were worse, and these were exacerbated by the addition of the extra bulb weight. The fabricated keel was unable to withstand the “in service” bending stresses and this led to the conditions of failure.

When the boat was taken out of the water at the end of the 2006 racing season, considerable detachment of the keel’s epoxy filler and anti-fouling was found. There was also evidence of possible fine cracking in the steel adjacent to the fillet weld, but this went undetected and so the last chance to prevent the accident was missed.

Safety Issues
Despite a statement by the designer that the Max Fun 35 was built to ABS standards for yacht design, the minimum Safety Factor of 2 was not achieved. The reason for this is that he used the keel steel ultimate tensile strength instead of yield strength in his calculations. The Recreational Craft Sectoral Group urges those in the marine industry to use the ISO standards listed in its Guidelines to avoid confusion and adopt a common approach.

It is not possible to state whether a keel built to the designer’s specification would have failed because it was the fabricator’s design that was fitted to all of the Class. However, the designer, having been made aware of changes, should have checked that they were appropriate and did not compromise safety. The addition of bulb weight was not supported by calculations, and neither was reference made to the design drawings. Where possible, drawings should be consulted and suitability of the changes discussed with the designer/builder.

None of the yachts inspected had the required EU marking showing RCD compliance. No builder’s plates were fitted and there were no Declarations of RCD Conformity.

The repairer was not sufficiently experienced to appreciate why the keel filler and coating detachment occurred. He occupied himself with removing the corrosion products and priming the bare keel metal rather than finding the reason for the detachment which was probably due to keel flexing. Fabricated steel keels are vulnerable to bending stresses. Where there is doubt, repairers should seek advice on the suitability of using Non-Destructive Examination techniques to determine the keel condition.

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UK Marine Accident Investigation Board full report (pdf file, 3MB)

Good article from UK’s Yachting Monthly, October 2007 (pdf file, 5MB)

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Pictures taken by Salcombe Lifeboat during attempted recovery: (click to enlarge)

Hooligan V in September 2005. Note the liferaft at the transom.

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Lulu’s day

15 July 2007

Fungi and Louise

I took this picture during our honeymoon in Dingle. Fungi spent a lot of time chasing the 420. Learn about the Dingle dolphin here and here.

Topics: Sailing | 1 Comment »

Rescued at Sea

12 July 2007

Huglo rescue

What began as a solo sailing trip across the Atlantic for a French schoolteacher on his summer holiday became a near-death experience.

On July 5, Pierre Andre Huglo’s 28-foot yacht, sailing from Dieppe, France, to St. John, Newfoundland, capsized in heavy seas.

He was rescued in mid Atlantic by container ship and taken to Philadelphia. His boat is a Pogo 8.5 (mini transat) called Yum.

Link Link lost at source.

US TV coverage. Link lost at source.

French TV coverage. Link lost at source.

Topics: Lost at Sea | 1 Comment »

America’s Cup wrap up

4 July 2007

Here is a quickie video which wraps up the America’s Cup finals between Alinghi and Emirates Team New Zealand.

And here is the amazing final race.

[update: upgrade to WordPress 2.2.2 has caused a bug in embedding YouTube…]

Who would have thought won second!
All of the Louis Vuitton Cup final and America’s Cup races broadcast by Versus are archived on Canada’s The Sports Network’s broadband site. Click here.

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The Vikings are coming (again)

1 July 2007

sea stallion

A reconstructed Viking longship, based on one of five deliberately scuttled wrecks found in 1962 at the village of Skuldelev, near Roskilde, Denmark, has set sail heading for Dublin.

Analysis of the wreck’s timbers showed it was built in Wicklow around 1042 of oaks felled at Glendalough.

The longship, named Havhingsten fra Glendalough [the Sea Stallion from Glendalough] has been built by hand using the materials and methods of the original builders. It was completed in 2004 after 4 years work, with some modifications since.

A good deal of info is at the BBC and at the Sea Stallion from Glendalough website including an interactive map showing the progress of the ship, and crew. They hope to make Dublin in or around the 14th August and the Sea Stallion is intended to form the centrepiece of a Viking Exhibition at the National Museum of Ireland until June 2008.

Here is a Reuters video of the ship departing Roskilde
And here is a video showing it undergoing trials

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Bounder loses keel

30 June 2007

Fourteen people were rescued from the 55ft race boat Bounder when her keel reportedly fell off two and half miles south of St Catherine’s Point off the Isle of Wight this afternoon.
The crew were airlifted off safely and taken to Lee on Solent. None was hospitalised. The yacht reportedly sank after the rescue. The new yacht designed by Juan Kouyoumdian and owned by Chris Little, recently came third in class in the JP Morgan Round the Island Race and was lining up for a big season on the grand prix circuit.

The brand-new Juan Kouyoumdjian-designed IRC 55 Bounder which was built by Goetz Custom Boats in Bristol, Newport Rhode Island lost her keel and capsized on Saturday while sea-trialing off St Catherine’s Point in 18-20kts of breeze.

This new, sleek-looking racing machine was shipped across the Atlantic earlier this year and launched at the end of March in Portsmouth, UK commencing sea trials in preparation for the Rolex Fastnet Race and the Sydney Hobart.

Her owner Chris Little (Admiral of the RORC) was not on board at the time of the accident but the 14-strong team was successfully airlifted to safety. According to Jeremy Robinson who was at the helm on Saturday, the crew feel very lucky indeed that it happened where and when it did. “The boat went over so quick I didn’t even have time to put on my lifejacket. It was all pretty scary stuff.”

Because the new 55ft yacht draws a lot Robinson and team decided to head offshore and put her through her paces… here’s what happened: “We’ve recently changed the ballast round a little bit so we needed to head out and check the trim. We were sailing upwind when suddenly the boat captain – Anthony Haines – called for everyone to put on their lifejackets. Don’t quite know why but he must have had a sixth sense that something was about to happen. I handed one of the crew the helm so I could put on my lifejacket but just as we did that the boat started to heel excessively over a wave. I called for the main to be let out, then there was a huge bang and someone said ‘the keel’s gone’.

“The boat started to capsize immediately, just like an Ultra 30 really. I hadn’t even got my lifejacket on. At this point, as she went over some of the crew went into the water. I climbed over the top and was able to get hold of the rudder. Some who’d gone over the top slid straight off again so there were three of us on the hull and rest in the water. Fortunately they all had their lifejackets on so we were able to grab them and pull them up over the transom. Kevin George managed grab a spinnaker sheet which everyone was able to hang on to.

“Once everyone was on the hull we used a mobile and rung 999 and got through to the Coastguards. But then the hull sank down a bit leaving us sitting on the water rather than above it so we rang again and said we needed a helicopter now. At that stage the freeboard was actually quite low in the surf.”

Fortunately the 14-man crew was successfully lifted to safety about half an hour after the initial call to the coastguards. Despite a couple of the crew suffering with the cold none of them needed hospital treatment and within a few minutes of landing on shore at Lee-on-Solent all 14 of them were sitting having a cup of tea. “In fact we had a quick cup of tea,” added Robinson, “and then went to the pub so it was pretty much business as usual in that respect! The worse job we had to do of course, was having to ring the owner and tell him what had happened to his new yacht!”

Although Robinson was unable to talk about the keel and the cause of the accident at this stage he did confirm that the yacht is still afloat and will hopefully, weather permitting, be salvaged as soon as possible. The coastguards are continuing to monitor her about 2.5 miles south-east of St Catherine’s Point but the strong winds are currently hampering salvage progress.

Bounder recovered in Southampton.

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J80 chosen for ISA SailFleet

25 June 2007

The ISA (Irish Sailing Association) announced today, 25th June 2007, that the J80 Keelboat will be the boat of choice for its new SailFleet initiative. In total eight J80 Keelboats will be purchased by SailFleet Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the ISA.

Robert Dix, ISA President explained, “SailFleet will provide great opportunities to expand participation in our sport. We aim to facilitate the growing interest in match racing and additionally provide an introduction to sailing to those who may not otherwise have access to a boat.”

The J80 Keelboat was selected as the boat most suitable following a thorough selection process by the SailFleet Working Group. All eight J80’s will be equipped with road trailers to facilitate transport to race and training events throughout Ireland.

Commenting on the boat selection, Patrick Blaney, Chairman of the SailFleet Working Group said, “This boat is an excellent choice as it brings a wide range of possible applications and meets our key users needs. In addition the experience of other sailing associations with the J80 has been very positive and ultimately had a strong influence on our final decision. We aim to build on that knowledge and look forward to establishing SailFleet at the heart of Irish sailing”.

The capital funding for the SailFleet project is split between a €180,000 public sector contribution under the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism 2006 Sport Capital Programme and the balance sourced through private sector sponsorship.

It is planned to launch SailFleet at the 2007 All Ireland Sailing Championship, scheduled for 6th & 7th October 2007 at the National Yacht Club, Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.