Skandia's capsize
Thursday December 30th 2004, Author: James Boyd, Location: Australasia
Heinous upwind conditions in the Rolex Sydney Hobart saw the two maxi boat race favourite Stewart Thwaites
Konica Minolta (ex
Zana) and Grant Wharington's
Skandia retire from the race due to major structural problems.
Skandia navigator Will Oxley described to thedailysail the nuts and bolts of the fate that befell his 98ft maxi:
"We were sailing upwind in 35-40 knots. The GRIB file and all of the data showed that the theoretical fastest route to Tassie was to go on one long board that was the favoured gybe all the way down to 75 miles east of Tasmania, and then tack because the breeze was going to go left and then you would be on the making leg all the way in.
"We were 75 miles offshore as we went past Flinders Island. We got almost back to the rhumb line as far as we could up by Gabo Island and from then on we were just on the one board, so we were committed to what was going on. So we came down to Eddistone still on starboard.
"All the GRIB and forecast data showed there was a good 40-45 knots from the southwest once you got a bit further south and with the swell wrapping around the bottom of Tasmania that was going to be a very difficult place to be, so the model option was not the right thing to do. We were aware that Nicorette was inside and that Konica had tacked and was inside us as well. So we tacked inshore as well onto port. It was the making tack, but it was clearly the safe option and with the wind direction it was much easier in the seas."
At the time Skandia was sailing in 35-40 knots of wind. The tack took place at 23:30 on the evening of the 27 December. "At that stage it hadn’t deteriorated at all. It was fine. The boat was in good shape. We were not dropping off waves. We had two reefs in the mainsail and we had a no.4 which is in a good rig on that boat up to 45 knots. Of course we have a highly experienced crew."
On board Skandia aside from skipper Grant Wharington and Will Oxley was Whitbread/Volvo veteran Barney Walker and ocean racing stalwarts such as Andrew Henderson and Billy Merrington.
"We felt we were very conservative. We were 5-6 miles south of Konica with the breeze going left. So we had the data coming from the Yacht Tracker and we knew were faster and higher than Konica so it was just a matter of time until we were in front of them. Our data was an hour old and we had halved their lead in the previous hour. There was no concern that we were going to do better than them in those conditions. So we felt we were sailing the boat conservatively."
They had tacked back towards the Tasmanian coast in order to get into the lee of the island where there would be less of a sea running.
"There were a couple of people who said ‘how come we tacked?’ And it was like 'we tacked because this is the safest option – we’ve got to finish the race'.
Then at 01:49 it happened. "I was sitting at the nav station trying to download the latest positions and we just launched off this enormous wave and were mid-air. I got hit by someone who that came flying out of the top bunk and we both ended up by the leeward hull. And when we came down there was this terrible crunching sound of carbon."
Skandia has a canting keel driven by two rams. Unusually (compared to Open 60 configurations) these are both mounted on the port side. "On port tack the rams are extended pushing the top of the keel over to the starboard side and what appears to have happened is that both rams snapped and the keel went immediately to its normal position which is to leeward and it was driven forward at the same time - presumably as we bounced off the wave - and it lodged in the forward side of the little bulkhead ahead of it which meant it went forward and it stopped even though the rams had broken."
Oxley says this all happened, including the keel dropping, in a split second.
"The speed with which the keel went to that side of the boat. Of course we were immediately over on our ear and we knew our race was over and our first job was to keep the crew and the boat safe. We dropped the sails which was fun with the foredeck leaning over so much.
In order to bear away they were forced to drop the engine leg (this drops down from a housing inside the hull (see the rather good pic of it at the top of this article) and were forced to motor. "That was difficult because the leg was coming out of the water often. We found that when we could keep it dead downwind we were at 15-20 degrees of heel. And every so often we were driven up and of course the boat became uncontrollable."
Six minutes after the incident Oxley says he put out a 'Pan Pan'.
At the time they were 70 miles east of Eddistone Point at the northeastern corner of Tasmanian but in order to keep the boat upright they were having to steer around 015deg (ie heading out to sea towards New Zealand). "That was not a good situation. And we had to be motoring at 8 knots in order to keep some sort of stability. At about 02:30 we had a call advising us that there was a police boat on the northern tip of Tasmania that was available. We decided it was a good idea that they came to us. We worked out an intersecting bearing that would get them to us at 09:15 in the morning. We knew that we had to keep the thing operating until then.
"At that stage we felt that once we got a bit further north we would be able to come around to get into the shelter of Flinders Island. So the intention was that the police boat would come to us, then we could make an attempt to stabilise the keel in a slightly different position. If we could get it closer to centre we could change course. If we couldn’t they could tow us. And if something went wrong it we had assistance close to us."
Following the incident the crew of course whipped the top of the keel box (as with all canting keels the keel's hinge point at the hull allows in water so the top of keel is housed in a box) off and attempted to lash the top of the keel to keep the foil with its 14 tonne bulb in check. Oxley says that the keel was speced by designer/engineer Don Jones with a safety factor of 6x. Unlike the arrangements on Open 60, the entire weight of Skandia's keel due to its substantial weight is not solely taken at the hinge point, but on a set of curved runners on the fore and aft side of the keel box.
"We had ropes everywhere and we had ropes up to the main genoa winches and we had ropes to either side of the boat. We were constantly working on trying to make it stable. Unfortunately at about 07:30 it started to move a little bit. But there was the noise of carbon tearing. Fortunately there was an ABC chopper on scene by then and they were relaying to the police boat. I said at that stage there was a 50% chance we would be leaving the vessel. 15 minutes later when there was more tearing I raised that to a 75% chance."
"Then at about 7:45 or perhaps a little earlier, the keel broke free. The ropes attached to bulkheads ripped through the frames, then we had the keel swinging like a pendulum out of control. It was not connected to anything because the ropes just sheared through the things they were attached to."
At this point they raised their distress to a MayDay. "Because the police boat had been speeding up, the police boat was within 30 minutes. We had two helicopters on site and we had Yendys close by. We got everyone on deck - it was safer there and the keel was continuing to move, albeit periodically. At about 0800 we made the decision: The liferafts were on deck but if the boat was to lose the keel and roll over a) the liferafts might not be accessible, b) people could get tangled in the rigging and c) we would have 16 individuals in the water as opposed having two groups in two liferafts, which was entirely manageable. Since we felt we were in control of the situation if we got into the raft. We would put eight put into one raft. 15 minutes later we made the final decision to inflate the other raft and put the remaining eight people into that raft.
"We felt there was a real danger that the keel would suddenly go. At that point it was a relatively simple operation to inflate the liferafts and the crew get on. I mean no one got wet…. And I had comms with the helicopter. They knew how many people were in each raft. We had one chopper over one raft, we had Yendys within five minute and when we got in we had the police boat 10 minutes away. The police were also keen to have us in the raft because it was going to be easier to recover us."
By 09:15 all the crew had successfully been picked up by RIB from the police boat. "The most dangerous part was getting on to the side of the police boat in 40 knots of wind and a six metre sea state."
At this stage the keel was being held in the boat by the remainder of its axle and its bearings. However every time the boat was caught by a wave causing the keel to move it was sawing its way through the bottom of the boat.
"When we left it she as leaning over at 30 degrees. We lashed the helm so that she was sailing very slowly towards Flinders Island. When we got to Flinders Island we got on a plane and flew out to the position, because we’d left an EPIRB on board. We managed to locate it which was amazing in itself and that was probably at about 17:30. And when we fly over her she was upside down without her keel. So clearly we’d made the right decision."
Skandia, inverted and with her rig still attached, has since been taken in tow to Flinders Island. Once there the plan is to send a diver down to attach an air bag to her masthead to get her horizontal and then to try and right the boat with a crane to take the rig out. Hull and rig will then be put on a barge bound for Victoria. [Ed: We have since learned that Skandia's mast has broken]
And the moral of this story? "The moral is that clearly the lessons of the 1998 Hobart have been learned: it was a text book exercise of a Pan Pan being raised to a MayDay and the way the shore handled it and the way Race Control had deployed police boats in the area and the ABC chopper had a highly experienced pilot. So everyone is safe and well because of the lessons of the things that happened after the 1998 Hobart. In 1998 I was upside down in B52 in the middle of Bass Strait and at that point I made a mental note only to go to sea with people who you trust with your life. And as a result of the crew Grant surrounded himself with it was a very very calm exercise."
"So we live to fight another day. It was very frustrating. We all felt we were doing everything right and we were all in good shape for the double. I would stress we were sailing conservatively. People are pointing towards the canting keel but Konica had a major failure that involved a fixed keel. We backed off, but I guess having had this happen you mjight have to back off some more."
It appears that 100ft maxi monohulls need the same tender loving care that large multihulls require. You can only keep the pedal to the metal when conditions allow it.
Latest Comments
Add a comment - Members log in