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I caught that segment about new specs for the masts next year to cope with enormous forces generated.
Felt sorry for the skipper demasted ...she was heart broken.šŸ˜¢
These daily updates are a roller coaster of emotions. Nice to hear her pal commiserate....so much more immediate now. (y)
 
The compression loads on the masts are in the thousands of pounds and all carbon so itā€™s really strong till it blows up . Usually breaks lucky at the first spreaders so you have a stump to jury rig . But what a painful slog to the next piece of land . Pip Hare has seven hundred miles to cover at four knots , thatā€™s a long week .


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I was thinking that ....and no real ability to deal with adverse weather..a somewhat steerable cork. :eek:I assume she has a small sail rigged and some sort of ICE propulsion as well?
 
Think bubble on a pee pot . She will have a small sail up to keep motion forward and it also stabilizes the boat a bit , less bobbing . They do have a small diesel engine but Iā€™m not sure how much fuel they carry , itā€™s usually a get in / out of harbour engine .


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crankcall said:
The compression loads on the masts are in the thousands of pounds and all carbon so itā€™s really strong till it blows up . Usually breaks lucky at the first spreaders so you have a stump to jury rig . But what a painful slog to the next piece of land . Pip Hare has seven hundred miles to cover at four knots , thatā€™s a long week .


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Lots of thousands of pounds. I think the tornado was over 1000lbs of compression and it is a tiny bug compared to these. I never measured but 16:1 downhaul and it was a big pull to get the sail shape I wanted. Windsurfers are just under 500-1000 lbs of down pressure. Those are just static numbers, add a gust and the pressure will spike by a bunch. On our echo, my wife and I were both hiked out and everything went loose. The mast had punched through the hull. Whoops.
 
Most of these big boats use halyard locks , the sail hangs from the masthead , you donā€™t get the halyard running loaded back down the mast which cuts loads , alternately they will use a two to one block system which also helps , specially when your into a second or third reef when the halyard lock is no help. The trickle down technology is fascinating, but so stupidly expensive.


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crankcall said:
Most of these big boats use halyard locks , the sail hangs from the masthead , you donā€™t get the halyard running loaded back down the mast which cuts loads , alternately they will use a two to one block system which also helps , specially when your into a second or third reef when the halyard lock is no help. The trickle down technology is fascinating, but so stupidly expensive.


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Tornado had a masthead hook for the sail. Made it very interesting at the end of the day. If you couldn't hide from the wind it was an absolute bugger to get the hook released (need to pull on halyard and rotate mast simultaneously to try to get hook out of shackle, with wind, the hook liked to bind). Halyard pulled it up to the hook and was then left slack. Downhaul hard to bend the mast quite similar to a windsurfer. No ability to reef. Add some more downhaul and outhaul if you were terrified. It wasn't a relaxing boat to sail if there was anything more than a breeze but damn was it ever fun.
 
We had a Tornado at out club for a couple years , once they got tossed out as Olympic class the boats became dirt cheap , like a used Star class , one hundred and eighty thousand new , five grand used . I sailed it a few times , when the breeze was up you better know what youā€™re doing . Very wet experience.


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Pip looking a little happier in sun and calmer seas.
2/3 of the way to Melbourne with strong headwinds coming up. šŸæ
10 hours ago (edited)
Pip there are many thousands of people following your progress, and in fact, it's far more interesting than the race, in spite of your troubles mid ocean. You'll be No1 arriving in Melbourne
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No , the classic Chicago / Mac race , since 1904 . Actually 1898 but they took a break . Boat from my club won it in 2014 .


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Actually the Newport / Burmuda has been around since 1906 and the Fastnet British race since 1936 . Cheeky Aussies indeed .


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MacDoc said:
Ouch :cry:

Why are they not wearing helmets ?:unsure:
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With the weight and energy of a boom swing, I'm not convinced a helmet makes any difference other than containing your goo. They make a sledgehammer attack look low energy.
 
Sure - helmets can't save the worst hits but there are glancing blows that they could mitigate - I'm just a bit surprised it's not mandatory
We donā€™t have to drag out the facts, we know that helmets promote safety, but still many of us in the sailing world donā€™t use them. The best comparison story is the use of helmets while on the ski hill. In the mid to late nineties when I was learning to ski and later snowboard, not many people on the mountain wore helmets. You would often hear people say the lines such as, ā€œtheyā€™ll never take off.ā€ But nowadays, almost everyone on the mountain has a helmet, and itā€™s the people without helmets who are the random oddballs. On top of that, we donā€™t even think about it either. We just grab our helmet to give us that extra protection and peace of mind knowing itā€™s better to have it then not.
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sail1design.com

Put Your Helmet On! - Sail1Design

You wear a helmet for a bunch of other things. Why not wear it for sailing? Iā€™ll admit that when I first heard about helmets being introduced to sailing I sneered and said things like, ā€œthat will never happenā€ and ā€œit wonā€™t take off.ā€ But over the past few years my views have taken a [ā€¦]
sail1design.com sail1design.com
snip
Sailors competing the Americaā€™s Cup all wear helmets, so do a lot of others in foiling boats classes, along with many high school and college sailing teams. The helmets are well designed and after a while sailors get used to them, they become just another part of the gear.
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Given that the Hobart race had a major safety review and update recently - I'm just surprised.
As a former whitewater kayaker I'd never consider getting in a whitewater kayak without one.
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