Vendée safety - Forum

What would you have them check? Boats and equipment are scrutineered against class and race rules, which deal mostly with the structure of the hulls.

Structural failures in both the Vendée Globe and the Volvo seem to have been due either to direct impact or to unpredicted stresses sailing fast in heavy seas.

There are three steps we can take to reduce the chances of a competitor having to drop out of the race. (This is a wider scope than 'safety', which I think is moderately well addressed by the current regulations).

- First, analyse the failures and do our best to understand why they occurred. Without that information, we can make no progress. I'd be interested in seeing the reports that are being written about the failures - in more detail than that typical of a press release.

- Second, assess whether any pre-race inspection could have detected any structural imperfections. How do you detect poor bonding of laminations in carbon fibre structures, for instance?

- Third, commission more complex modelling of the stresses on hull and rig. Then combine this with the anlaysis of the causes of structural failures in this and other races, and amend the scantlings rules where necessary.

I have seen no suggestion of scantlings for rigs, which have always been one of the weakest components of sailing vessels. This is understandable, and even acceptable, since any over-engineering of the rig increases weight aloft, reducing stability and hence sail-carrying power. 

Maybe this should be a different thread - but I can't see how to create one.

Apart from structural failures, there was one other class of failure that led to several skippers returning to les Sables, and effectively crippled others for hours or even days at a later stage in the race: failure of electronic equipment and the systems for charging the batteries that drive them. I'd like to see detailed reports on these, too.

I've come back into the world of sailing after about thirty years, during which on-board instrumentation and communications equipment have changed out of all recognition (as they have on land, too). However, I was professionally involved with improving reliability and availability of computer systems during that period. My impression is that, considering the budgets available for construction and operation of these craft, they are not treating the problem seriously. Maybe they will now. 

Electrical/electronic equipment aboard an Ocean 60 or 70 is subject to a pretty extreme environment - vibration and shock loads, and salt water. I'm willing to bet that cabling and connectors were at the root of many failures.

These races are a superb testing ground for improving the  reliability of equipment on which 'normal' yachtsmen depend - sometimes for their very lives. Once they have been developed, it should be possible to manufatcure the solutions to today's race problems in volume at acceptable cost - the sooner the better.