Fabulous Crash!

Anders Kurten
CEO
Hull #1 was involved in an ugly T-Bone crash after the start of the Round Gotland race a week or so ago. My first reaction upon hearing of the incident was “Oh my God hope nobody got hurt” – and luckily nobody did. Apart from some Swedish egos on the First 50 that caused the crash on port tack – no fault found on the side of the skipper and crew of FG43001 who were heading upwind on starboard tack at the time of impact. 48 hours after the boat returned to the start area on the outskirts of the Stockholm archipelago, the Finngulf Service Team was on site, made a temporary fix of the ugly gaping hope on the port side of the hull & deck with marine plywood, Sikaflex marine sealant and epoxy. The boat then sailed back to the yard (covering 175 nautical miles in 24 hours) – so the good news is, performance was not affected!! Setting aside the disappointment and tragedy involved for losing the most important race of the season, there are a couple of interesting structural notes for us as boatbuilders that should be noted: 1. The epoxy hull & deck is VERY stiff. The crash impact of 13 metric tons of GRP slamming straight into the topsides is substantial. Yet the damage was limited to an area of roughly 1 square meter. The hull & deck seam was INTACT 30mm from the impact area on both sides of the gaping hole! Our estimate is that an equivalent impact on a polyester boat would have caused a much larger hole and greater structural damage. 2. Delamination was local only to the impact area. No creeping delamination was found in the hull topsides adjacent to the actual impact area. The boat is now stiff in all senses of the word – both in terms of ability to carry sails as well as structurally!