Australian boat goes down on the starting line at SailGP San Francisco

[-]

rebasbutcher@reddit

Catastrophic failure of the wing or rig is what it looks like. I'm sure their diagnostics will pinpoint what exactly gave way for the dismasting.

[-]

sailgp@reddit

We can confirm that it was a wing failure and are still looking into the root cause. We can revisit this post when have a confirmation around what occurred 🫡

[-]

sailgp@reddit

We see the reminder and we're letting you know, the investigation is still ongoing 🙂

[-]

flipantwarrior@reddit

I agree. It looks like a wing came off. It was up, then it came down hard! That down force and the sudden loss of speed, caused the mast to come away.

[-]

rossco-dash@reddit

These masts dont have lowers. The only have uppers, which act more like running backstays as they are adjustable.

There are some better angles on the SailGP + SailGPAus instagrams, but it looks like the bottom section failed under compression.

[-]

It appears that the starboard hull was up on its wing (way up) whilst it was maneuvering the 'coming about'. At the completion of the turn the bow of the starboard hull pitchpoled (as I viewed the scene, a determinate amount of bow splash occured) into the water as it came down very hard. Thus the presumption that the mast gave way do to compression of the mast step? Which is weakest, a mast stay or mast step?

[-]

RLDriver01@reddit

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1B7UtVKb9v/?mibextid=wwXIfr

[-]

flipantwarrior@reddit

Thanks for the link. Very interesting view. Did the Aussie craft strike that upwind vessal? Any interview of the crew on that upwind vessal? But I still percieve the starboard bow going under water at the same moment the mast fractured. I keep in mind that when the mast broke, and as it did, the wind pushed it around to port, then the wind spilled off...thus it is the reason it came down the way it did. I am interested in what has been determined as to the cause ofcthe mast fracturing.

[-]

RLDriver01@reddit

Another view: https://www.facebook.com/share/r/18eQu5DDzd/?mibextid=wwXIfr

[-]

RLDriver01@reddit

And I have no answers for your questions. I have the same.

[-]

flipantwarrior@reddit

I agree with me. Starboard bow dug in hard. The maneuver force of the hard coming about. The mast and or stay could not retain the forces. If the material had more integrity, that would have been an awesome sailing tack, and the speed would have launched them into a leading position. Or they would have hit the other boat. 5-6 feet was to close!

[-]

rossco-dash@reddit

By bottom section I just meant the lower half (third really) of the mast tube itself. You can see the mast buckle about 2 - 3m above the step.

It’s similar in nature to the failures Alinghi had with their AC75, which were almost certainly compression failures due to too much cunningham load. These boats don’t have cunninghams, but there may be something that loads the sail or mast in a similar way.

[-]

the-official-review@reddit

Ah, that makes sense as well

[-]

start3ch@reddit

Seems to me a mast stay line failed

[-]

empireofjade@reddit

Looks like they come up to wind so hard the mast/wing just buckles. Maybe this aggressive maneuvering wasn’t designed for.

[-]

the-montser@reddit

It is exactly what the boats were designed for.

[-]

arbitrageME@reddit

Shouldn't they be designed for like 5-10x operational load?

[-]

JimFromSunnyvale@reddit

They’re race boats. They live on the edge of performance and catastrophic failure.

[-]

beamin1@reddit

This, while I don't build these boats, I do build racing boats and there isn't a gram that isn't accounted for.

There are literally places you can poke your finger through some boats, because it's a single layer of cloth and some gelcoat. Strength parts are what the # says it's supposed to be on the layup sheet, not a gram more, or less 100% guaranteed. Every boat is dialed in for weight, center of gravity, moment of inertia etc etc.

So when you make maneuvers like they were making when this happened, there's little margin for error, do it wrong or in an unintended manner and it may not be capable of handling it and then things break.

[-]

kdjfsk@reddit

thats pretty insane. To the point you could see failures like this due to things like temperature and humidity values being outside of a given range for epoxy or whatever to setup like its supposed to.

Or like..."oops...was i supposed to use 6 or 7 pumps of hardener? Ill just do one more to be sure..."

several race days later: BONK

[-]

ViewTrick1002@reddit

Not really. It is a one design class so they build in enough margins for the boats to reliably work. Still of course less than on a heavy production boat.

[-]

Fit-Alarm2961@reddit

If it doesn't break it means it was too heavy

[-]

kdjfsk@reddit

the nature of racing would be to reduce the safety margin in favor of performance as much as possible before hitting the absolute limit. (they failed and instead found the limit)

[-]

ResilientBiscuit@reddit

That's a lot of wasted weight.

If you design it for 5x and I design it for 4x I can keep things that much lighter and be that much faster.

Racing is about winning. You need to weigh reliability over a series to speed in each race.

If your vehicle isn't occasionally failing, it probably can be lightened and be faster until it does, then add just a little bit back.

[-]

the-montser@reddit

That doesn’t mean parts can’t fail due to defects or accelerated wear.

[-]

csdirty@reddit

Nah, wind wasn't that strong, maneuver wasn't that aggressive. Equipment failure.

[-]

SDN_stilldoesnothing@reddit

He headed up, which put too much power on the wing.

the Wing should've been able to take it. But not today.

[-]

PrimaxAUS@reddit

Slingsby doing Slingsby things

[-]

nwvtskiboy@reddit

Did someone press the "Destroy Boat" button again?

[-]

slosh_baffle@reddit

"Mast fall off" button was too close to the hot chocolate dispenser button.

[-]

sailgp@reddit

That hot chocolate is so good, too

[-]

KuriTokyo@reddit

The last time Aussies pressed the "destroy boat" button

"The boat is turning into a banana"

[-]

MARYOWL5599@reddit

Wow!!! Was any one hurt? That’s one hell of a failure!

[-]

sailgp@reddit

No one on the team was hurt 🙂

[-]

Tikka2023@reddit

The front fell off

[-]

TheFluffiestRedditor@reddit

Looks like the top fell off.

[-]

Dubbs314@reddit

They towed it out of the environment

[-]

javoss88@reddit

What’s out there?

[-]

redaction_figure@reddit

Probably made out of cardboard or cardboard derivatives.

[-]

BigBlueMan118@reddit

Paper, string, sellotape, rubber is out. There is a minimum crew requirement (one, I suppose).

[-]

kingtacticool@reddit

I'd like to remind you, that's not very typical.

[-]

Coastal_Gentleman@reddit

At least it happened outside the environment.

[-]

TheEmbiggenisor@reddit

Cardboard derivatives!

[-]

gogreenpower@reddit

I'll buy one

[-]

iratecommenter@reddit

For starters

[-]

Prize-Grapefruiter@reddit

that's such a shame ! they lost the mast ?

[-]

SDN_stilldoesnothing@reddit

its actually a wing.

These boats don't have masts.

[-]

SDN_stilldoesnothing@reddit

r/ThatLookedExpensive

[-]

NotInherentAfterAll@reddit

“Do a flip!”

[-]

mamasemamasamusernam@reddit

Don't think that ever happened to a superfoiler

[-]

sean_ocean@reddit

This race always reminds me of the overconfidence that rests within carbon fiber. Like really, who oversold that one?

[-]

gregariouspilot@reddit

A great cry of “or nor” went out.

[-]

olddoglearnsnewtrick@reddit

Hope no one was hurt.

[-]

ssschilke@reddit

Alternative Angle: https://www.facebook.com/share/r/18RrWUEdh8/

[-]

Zealousideal_Neat_36@reddit

1995 again

[-]

rrp1919@reddit

They were in the back of the starting box but came in hot on the opposite tack of most of the other boats about 10 secs before the starting gun, trying to split two boats and come over the starting line with speed just at the right time. It looks like they ran out of room and had to change course quickly to avoid a collision. As the announcers said it looked like their boat turned but the sail kept going. It wasn't clear from the youtube stream whether there was a collision or not which might have damaged the bow, but something snapped and everything fell apart.

[-]

manzanita2@reddit

not an opposite tack. Everyone is on starboard from about -20 second until the first mark. but they were sailing a different angle until a few second before the mast came down.

[-]

swampopawaho@reddit

We're the cre ok? Turns out this is a violent sport, occasionally

[-]

Cruisenut2001@reddit

I wonder if they had been fully up on the foils if they just would have tipped over. I'm surprised the boat builder didn't send out a warning after NZ broke their sail not to put that much stress on the mast. Kind of why race cars got governors.

[-]

Scooter87942@reddit

Gravity It’s not just a Theory, It’s the Law!

[-]

Windowlikker137@reddit

Looks like it went...

Down under

[-]

ppitm@reddit

I don't have a problem with multi-hulls like some people, but can't help but sniff at how so many modern racing craft are basically just multi-million-dollar sandbaggers. The demands of seaworthiness are half of what make sailboat design interesting, and this just isn't that.

[-]