Make sure you tune into ABC's Nightline tonight...they will be discussing (for the full 30 min show)a recent trans Atlantic record attempt in a big cat. They didn't reveal the name but from the short clip they showed, one of the big sponsors names was Monster.com. Boat looks fairly conventional, two ~square bows with no noticeable bridge pod.
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<br>Mike.
<br><br><br>Mike Dobbs
<br>Tornado KC 283 "Double Mint"

It's a pretty good bet it's Team Adventure and their broken bow. This was posted on the old forum the other day. There seems to be a problem in the accuracy of the reporting (see link). At 35 knots, 100ft would be closed in 1.7seconds which is hardly enough time to slow one of these cats down! (this was also pointed out on the old forum).
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<br>http://abcnews.go.com/sections/nightline/DailyNews/transatlantic_bowbreaks.html
<br><br><br>[color:blue][b]Jake
<br>[color:blue][b]Nacra 5.2 (2112)
<br>[color:blue][b]Hobie 18 (???)

Jake,
<br>You mis-understood. They said they stopped the catamaran. 100' is plenty enough to do that. BTW... Scuttlebut had what I think was the correct reporting on the mishap. The nightline article mentioned Randy S. The crew list that I saw for the record attempt didn't list Randy. Whats up with dat....
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<br>Clayton
<br>H20
<br>H16<br><br>

Exactly how do you stop a 110 ft long catmaran that is sailing at 30 knots and traveling 58 feet per second in 100 ft?
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<br>Could you stop your Hobie 16 or 20 in less then one boatlength while reaching at warp speed?
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<br>It just does not seem possible
<br>eric
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<br>Eric<br><br>

shooot - maybe they had anti-lock brakes! and to only pick up a radar signal of a cargo ship 30 meters away? me thinks someone was snoozing at the radar console - or that radar system really stinks. I would imagine that the cargo ship would have picked them up and perhaps sent an emergency message (zzzzzzzz, zzzzzzzz)
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<br>I think Clayton was being sarcastic (I hope).<br><br>[color:blue][b]Jake
<br>[color:blue][b]Nacra 5.2 (2112)
<br>[color:blue][b]Hobie 18 (???)

Jeez, maybe it's like when I try to tack in moderate air... I'd swear the goldarn boat goes in reverse *instantly* :-)
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<br>Seriously, though, to return to the bow for a second... I'd love to hear Pete Goss or Adrian Thompson's opinion... what with TeamA's delamination problems off Good Hope last year, maybe the so-called 'prototype' aproach to Team Philips yielded results that weren't quite so spectacularly far from what's usual with these big kitties... especially when you consider Fossett's Playstation's mishaps... even with a year more than Goss had to work up.
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Goss' construction practices were not up to par and nomex core delaminated from the skin - bows off in first trials. Then they just got nailed hard. They forgot that the whole purpose of designing these things light and fast was to be able to sail around bad weather systems, rather than plunging into a mega storm in the Irish sea. The most the big cats got in the Race was around Cape Horn at 60 knots. Goss had seen much more than that when he had to abandon.
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<br>Fosset blew his wad early and did not have a clue on how to tune his boat right. Thin bows may work on A cat but suck in heavy ocean conditions. Installing 20 extra feet of real estate may have been smart (albeit very expensive) but putting an untried main for a Round the World race nicely offset that advantage. Result - out of the race by the time they reached the equator.
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<br>TA whacked their fwd crossbeam in the seas when trying to catch Dalton, the first instance of delamination. This is no different from what Dalton experienced when qualifying on his cat a year before, he just had time to fix it up and reinforce. On top of it, South African carbonologists did not do a good enough repair and Eric Goetz was called on in New Zealand to do the repair once over.
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<br>None of this relates to the misfortune of hitting someting when flying in the fog. We'll see the details tonight.
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<br>S.<br><br>

I watched the show, I almost didn't make it but somehow managed to stay awake. It could have been much worse but what a let down for those onboard. Now if we can only convince ABC to do the worrell with those mini cams there so proud of.........<br><br>

"Right On" to all your points, Rick. I even made the one about sailing around the bad weather myself a year ago or more as "bl**dy Yank" on the TP BB.
<br>My point is, to a layman, or, more importantly, in the eyes of some bean counter in the marketing dept. of a major corporation like Philips, considering whether to sponsor another Goss (miss?)adventure, Goss' troubles seem spectacular. In the light of his fellow Race competitor's various meltdowns, (all, as you point out, ascribable to different causes) the sheer scale of Goss' disaster is less unique.
<br>To slip up on a construction technique, which in turn cascades into a variety of 'short-schedule' consequences, culminating in total loss, seems less shocking when TA, a "three-off" was imperfectly ready for her challenges; (CM, too, although they remedied their shortcomings prior to the race, if memory serves) PS - with far more time available to her than Goss lost on his bow - still wasn't prepared, and older, well-worked up Bullimor's boat hadda stop in Gib for 3 days.
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<br>Incidentally, AT's "ball-and-socket" mast foot, which he was quoted to claim was 'modeled on nature' was a complete botch, and the reinforcements installed after it's failure may or may not have been sufficient to prolong it's (IMHO inevitable) second failure untill after 24,000 miles of The Race.
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<br>Regards,
<br>Ed<br><br>

You got it Jake. Hell going at speed I need 100' just to think about stopping. And thats on da little boat.
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<br>Clayton
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