The Wizard

my condolences to the famlies

Dean Ferry

http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbc.../70109004/1086

Very sad!

cowisl

Thoughts and prayers to all those involved

DJD

I can tell you first hand that Stu runs a tight ship. Not only have I seen him chew people out for running in a dangerous manner, I have seen plenty of people get tossed out of the club for not following safety rules. Stu can't follow every boat during a run & police their activities. That is up to the person running the boat and in the end, the person who is responsible for anything that might happen.
Wear your jackets people! You might be the best captain in the world but the worst one might be right beside you.

PhantomChaos

Nice post!

Springbrook

Talked to a member of the recovery team the other day:
Water depth - 20 feet
Tabs - down all the way
Trim - negative, tucked all the way in
Location - 3.8 miles from the cut or .8 mile offshore

Just an FYI

tommymonza

If it was an outgoing tide the wreckage might have been recovered in much deeper water than the incident occured in.

Chris Sunkin

No material is "fatigue-proof", FRP being no exception. The big issues are construction quality and the previous stresses imparted to the object." 20 years ago, before some of the big advances in materials and construction techniques, raceboats were just laid up light. It was known that they wouldn't last long- they were built knowing that after x number of races, they'd be used up. On the other hand, you had boats that are still legendary for their durability. Take Cigarette- Don didn't want to deal with customers coming back whining about broken boats. He also wanted the reputation of Cigarette to be that of an unbreakable superboat- playing into the whole mystique of the brand. This opened the door for Reggie and others who knew they could make their boats faster by making them lighter. It also made them more susceptible to damage. Now we have materials unimaginable 20 years ago- but you still have manufacturers competing on a very level playing field. There are few secrets in boat design and construction. (like the magic 24 degree bottom). So what's left? Autoclave cured carbon boats like Tencara? SOTA construction like Skater? Making the boats lighter? The first two are fine for big-dollar raceboats. The third is what's left for someone who wants to build more than two boats a year.

As far as fatigue, fiberglass is a very forgiving material- especially in a well-engineered boat. It also gives plenty of telltale signs of fatigue. Unlike steel and many other metals which can develop microscopic fissure and all at once fail, FRP will usually show signs of over-stress prior to failure. As an aside, when Kevlar first hit the market, it got a bad rap for being less forgiving than FRP. I didn't give off the same tell-tale signs of impending failure. That of course has been proven over the years to be BS. There were some isolated incidents of broken raceboats but lamination schedules and inexperience with the material were the true culprits.

In the end, having a boat professionally surveyed before purchase and subsequently having it examined by a qualified pro on a regular basis makes absolute sense. In the Powerplay mishap, it seems to be a recent purchase that was showing outward signs of distress. Problem is, many times what you need to look at in a performance boat is covered up by a cockpit/cabin liner and lots of luxury stuff that can't easily be removed.

In short, if you're dealing with a well-made boat that has not been stressed multiple times close to its yield point, it should have a fairly long lifespan. If it has been pushed hard, there will definitely be telltale signs. The older resins can deteriorate over decades- if your intention is to run very hard in big water, an older boat most likely is not a good choice.

marylandmark

Thanks for that post Sunkin- very insightful.

Back4More

I was afraid of that with 3 weeks of seat time...