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Many of you have asked us to get you the real story about what happened on the sinking of TDC's USA 77. Read all the spinning and meaningless quotes elsewhere. Here, from our mole, is what happened from an onboard and damage perspective. - Your faithful Ed.
The real deal is that when the rudder broke, the boat rounded up hard. The starboard runner completely unloaded and then loaded up again very quickly when the bow blew around. They think that this was the load that caused the big vertical cracks (there are 7, not two as reported), that everyone has seen in the pictures. They are not too worried about those. The carbon laid in those areas is laid 'up and down'. They can repair those by adding cross laid carbon below. The two biggest cracks were due to the fact that the hull was very thick where the winches are mounted and transitions into a very light lay up behind the winches. The real damage is to the keel ridge and the center sections of the hull. They now think that when the boat settled on the bottom, it was in a "bow up" position from the buoyancy bags that they deployed after the rudder came off. When the bow came down after the keel settled, it flexed the forward portion of the boat downward (hope this makes sense). There is no structural strength at all for this load (all of the structure is to support the opposite forces for conditions like you get when sailing into steep chop). Because they don't plan on sailing in big waves, they have no structural plan for what they call 'counter flexing'. I don't care what the articles are saying, most of the crew and jigs think that her back is broken and she will not race again. It is impossible to repair the center sections because the strength of the construction is in the lay up itself (just like a monocoque-sp?-tub of a CART or F-1 car ). I have stood right where the boat is broken; it is like standing in a skateboard half pipe. They are no bulkheads or stringers. The only non hull support is for the hydraulic and the forward coffee grinders. There are x-raying the hull as we speak. I will know a lot more tonight. It all comes down to whether microscopic layers are still stuck together. If they are not, there is nothing you can do. These yahoos who think that you can patch or re glass (like a normal boat) are clueless. It is the bonding and curing process that gives the hull its strength. I have not seen the hull and they are in max security mode. This x-ray by the San Diego RP guys will determine whether they can try and make her race ready. They are already planning a "show off" sail as soon as possible. They are scrambling to understand how some of the funding might be impacted by losing the second boat. I know that three key sponsors had funding contingencies that there were two boats. One other thing, their insurance company has temporarily prohibited them from carrying non TDC contractors or employees. 07/25/2002 |
