WINGSSAIL

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Young America Breaking

I am going through a photo scanning project and right now I am working with a bunch of images from the America's Cup which I made when I covered that event in 2000 and 2003. On one rough day I witnessed the amazing destruction of New York Yacht club's boat Young America and I wrote a story (see below).

I was on the photo boat loitering at the weather mark during the Luis Vitton Challenge waiting for the last boats to round. It was a grey day and rough and most of the photographers were grumbling about the poor conditions for photos as they focused their lenses on the nearest boat, Young Australia.

I, however, was optimistic at the chance for some good shots; the waves were big and the boats coming upwind were bashing into it. I swung around to zoom in on Young America, New York's entry, just coming towards us and just as my shutter started to clatter on high speed continuous Young America hit a big wave and broke its back. I was the only photographer to get that shot. We thought the boat was going to sink and we raced over to get close, and pick up crew if need be, but Young America did not sink and was towed back to the base, broken but still floating. Read the whole story here and after that I will describe why I think the boat broke, with photos, an opinion which got me in hot water with Farr Intenational (more on that later). Here is the story I submitted after that incident:

“What has yachting come to? A bunch of wimps sailing fragile vessels that are constantly breaking apart who will not race in winds above 18 knots. I am really upset.” (A comment from a Seattle sailor in response to the racing limits for America’s Cup boats.)
We love to read the stories and see the videos of the Whitbread racers tearing through the Southern Ocean in gales of wind with bow waves shooting high, sailors huddled in their foulies and waves sweeping back across the decks. We all remember Freemantle and those terrific scenes of leaping boats and amazing seamanship. So why are these guys in 1999 such wimps and why are the new boats so unsuitable for conditions we might shrug off on a typical Gran Prix?
Actually, it’s about winning, and, as with everything with the America’s Cup, its about money.
To win the America’s Cup a boat has to sail in upwards of 60 races. Of course the boat has be together all the way to the end to win but statistically most of the races will be in moderate conditions with winds under 20 and flat water. In those conditions a light boat will be faster than a heavy boat. The IACC (International America’s Cup Class) rule contains specifications about skin and core thicknesses but section 18.3 states, “It is envisioned that internal framing will be required to support the induced sailing loads...[but] it is left to the owner to ensure that the yacht is adequately framed.” The teams have two basic choices: Build light, go fast, take a chance on breaking, or build heavy, ensure that you won’t break, and virtually guarantee that you will be eliminated early on. So the obvious choice if you want a chance to win is to cut it fine. Push the limits, take the chance. Some of the light boats might break, but one of them will win. No yacht “built to take it” would win.
What about the boats that have resulted from this design decision? They are pushed to the limit, and beyond it. The hulls are light, the sails are huge, the ballast is deep and heavy, the hulls are long and lean. The forces are tremendous. Several of the skippers, including Paul Cayard and Peter Gilmore have made comments about the power of these boats and the strains they have to withstand. Cayard states, “At 55,000lb, [the IACC boat] has a tendency to be engulfed by the seas-quite an experience as you feel it shuddering as it crashes through the waves.“ Spectators, even at a distance of several hundred yards hear the creaking and groaning of the boats in heavy seas. And the rigs? They don’t even have backstays, depending on runners and the mainsails themselves to keep the rig up. These boats are extreme.
Are the sailors really wimps? Not a chance. The boats are scary and they are undermanned. When the winds get up into the 20’s there are not enough crew to trim the sails as fast as the skippers want to turn, or as fast as the competition demands. Peter Gilmore, a veteran 12 meter sailor, said that compared to those older boats, these were undermanned. That’s interesting since they had 11 sailors on the 12 meter boats and these new boats carry 16. In 20 knots of wind there is 30 apparent across the foredeck, eight feet wide, slanting, no lifelines, leaping 10 or 15 feet in the air on the waves. Would you want to wrestle a 1500 square foot genoa on that foredeck? But they do it, and they go up the rigs in any conditions, and the sailors are clearly willing.
So then why don’t they just take their chances and sail in whatever weather presents itself? I think this is where the money comes into play. These syndicates have all (even the poorest teams) spent a lot of money to get here, and they all want to win. No one wants to see their $4 million yacht broken or lost, and they don’t even want to lose one race through an equipment failure. New York was lucky, they have a second boat waiting in the wings. But what about America True or Spain? One boat, no second chances. Then there are the personal stakes. There have been a lot of sacrifices made to get here, a lot of reputations and careers on the line. No one wants to throw it all away being macho. So in the end there is tremendous pressure to save the boats for the finals. Sitting at home watching it on TV, I’d like to see them battle it out with huge waves. However, if it was my $4 million, I’d probably be thinking about reducing the risk too.

I was watching Young America when it broke. The conditions were bad. The wind was only 20 but this is the ocean and it had been blowing for days from the NE. A good swell had built up. The tide was running out of the Harbor and the waves were short and steep, the big ones were six to ten feet high. In fact it was too rough for us on the photo boat, a 45 foot aluminum hulled, 750hp inflatable. We almost didn’t make the run back up to the top mark, too punishing for just a few shots of two boats rounding, and the light was bad for photos anyhow, gray and dark. None of the other photo boats went up there, but we did. Nippon and Young America were engaged in a terrific tactical duel, both yachts approaching the mark on port tack, just below the layline, with Young America leeward and ahead by a length or two. Timing of the tack was critical. There was a big set of waves but Young America couldn’t wait for flat water. As Baird said later, “We needed to tack for the mark”. The yacht disappeared behind one big wave, then came off the top of the next wave right as the bow passed through the wind. I shot off a couple of frames as the boat dropped into the trough, and as I looked through the viewfinder I saw a huge splash and the boat broke before my very eyes. The crew looked stunned. I yelled at the driver of our boat. “Get us over there fast, right now!” We expected Young America to sink, it looked that way. No one saw Nippon round the mark, all of our eyes were on the disaster unfolding on Young America.

In seconds we were along side, Chaos. Crew leaping in the water, the mast swinging wildly, the cracking sound of carbon fibre like shotguns as the hull continued to fold. But then it stabilized, and it was clear that it wasn’t sinking, yet. The crew cautiously went back on board and began passing off sailbags. They took down the sails and rigged a tow line. Within a few minutes there were pumps on board and airbags in the hull. Amazing stuff to see, I’m am lucky I was there.

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Comparison and details

Reinforcement on the New York's Other Boat

So why did the boat break? None of the other boats broke. I believe a design decision which was unique to these boats, was made which contributed to the failure. On a very choppy day on the Hauraki Gulf New York’s USA-53 came off a wave and as it crashed down onto the next one it broke just aft of the mast. The first shows the boat breaking as it landed on that wave. The upward impact on the bow and the downward force of the mast and the keel cased the side decks to break and the hull folded. Fortunately the hull skins stayed intact and the boat did not sink. The damage can be seen in collage, Photo 3 and 4. Since no other boat broke in the way were there any unusual design or construction characteristics of USA-53 that may have contributed to this failure? The answer is yes and I wrote about it at the time. The Farr organization scoffed at my assessment, rightfully noting that I was neither a marine architect nor possessed knowledge of the engineering which went into the boat, however there were some striking and obvious differences between USA53 and other AC boats of the time. Other AC boats in Auckland that year had cockpits which formed a box with a forward bulkhead and side walls connecting the cockpit floor with the deck, adding stiffness to the midships area of the hull. USA53 had none of this structure. There were no sidewalls to the cockpit and no forward bulkhead. This can be seen in Photo 1. Further, the cockpit of USA53 ran farther forward, nearly to the mast, leaving much less deck between the cockpit and the mast. For a comparison the walls and bulkhead of La Defi can be seen in Photo 2. Imagine a cardboard tube, like a paper towel tube, with half of the top cut out. Then press down on the middle while holding the ends up. It will break right in exactly the same way as USA 53. Now imagine the same cardboard tube with a smaller cut out and a box structure taped inside. It will not break as easily. That is not to say that this is the cause. Farr organization criticized the team for not reporting cracks which had previously appeared in this area and also proposed that the lamination of the hull and deck were in adequate. But the end result of this was that the crew were spooked and subsequently treated the back-up boat USA58, with trepidation, leading to some speculate that they didn’t push as hard. They lost the Louis Vuitton series. https://www.nytimes.com/2000/01/28/sports/yacht-racing-young-america-designer-ends-silence-on-mishap.html

wingssail images fredrick roswold