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Posted by Sean MeagherSean Meagher:
Maritime Security both Cyber and Physical | Yacht Broker | Master Unlimited Captain in Sail and Power.
Either the boat was of an unsafe design or it was a safe design and the accident was caused by human error.
they made a yacht from parts that dont float, human error
More popping up in the press - this, translated from Giornali di Sicilia, accuracy unknown…
“In the previous interrogation, the captain had answered on the position of the dinghy, the open door and when the alarm went off after the worsening weather conditions.
The approximately 32 minutes that elapsed from when the sailing ship began to take on water to the firing of the rocket at 4.38 a.m. have also been reconstructed, …”
He’s all above the fray, not going to make a comment and then says this:
The ultimate responsibility will fall on the shoulders of James Cutfield, the Captain of Bayesian who was quoted as saying “We didn’t see it coming”.
That strikes me as a backhanded way of not making a comment.
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Tall mast, short keel, Works to keep the owner ‘erect’ and comfortable until it results in a catastrophe. Says something about the designers trying to satisfy the owners ego vs practicality. Whether the mast height has anything to do with it remains to be seen. Worked for yacht owners early in my career and found most to be bright individuals though in a constant dick measuring contest among their peers, there WERE expections. They knew you couldn’t design any yacht to be comfortable in all sea conditions so they sent the yacht ahead and were ferried aboard by tender after landing in their private plane. They could have stayed at a 5 star hotel for a fraction of the price but that wasn’t the point. They had to show everyone how rich they were. Silly rich people. Schadenfreude is the only reason this sinking is of interest as 99.99999% of the people on earth will never be on a yacht like this
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What an excellent video to understand the true size of the yacht and rig. Thank you for finding it.
She is a proper ship.
Think of the windage on that including all the running & standing rigging. Now think of it at 120 or more knots. On the beam. Very quickly.
Wow …
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Correct me if I’m wrong, or possibly just a bit fuddled.
How much use is the second biggest mast in the world if you is upside down?
She is NOT upside down. Laying on her side in 50 m. of water.
Not much use for a mast at that depth anyhow.
It was a rhetorical question.
Maybe I should have flagged it as such.
Apologies, again.
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For my fellow dummies who don’t know what AVS stands for, I just looked it up.
“In sailing, the limit of positive stability (LPS) or Angle of Vanishing Stability(AVS) is the angle from the vertical at which a boat will no longer stay upright but will capsize, becoming inverted, or turtled…”
That was a very interesting reading, and the most sensible I have come across so far.
The fact that the downflooding angle with the the vent dampers open is about 40-45° makes it seem more plausible that a downburst could keep it heel over the DFA long enough to doom it.
If what the former captain of the Bayesian says is true, the Bayesian would start to flood at 40-45 degrees angle with vents opened, perhaps similar vessels should consider installing selfclosing dampers? Something like the Belimo actuators that will close on their on after a power outage or when an Emer button pushed?
This is one of the comments on the video posted above (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbdidVAbxhk).
This is something I did not consider, that a waterspout could basically reduce the density of the water as to make the vessel sink, or at least lose a significant amount of buoyancy.
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Don’t know about yachts but from my experience vessels dragging in strong winds with an anchor down but not holding will often put the wind on or near the beam.
The crew securing gear on deck at the time reported (but not verified) that the Bayesian was heeled over in the wind about 20 degrees. If a violent downburst struck the yacht at that point, with the wind on the beam, heeling another 20+ degrees would have reached the downflooding angle.
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Vessels this size constructed to class have dampers, variously actuated and manual.
Vessels this builder typically delivered classed and ILLC (loadline) compliant
One report indicates vessel was built to ABS class which is also typical this builder but they build to other class rules as well
Regulatory status (class & flag) this vessel at time of incident is not clear at this moment with info at hand.
Reportedly operated as a private (not commercial) yacht but veracity of that also unclear. This affects rules & regs applicable.
One might be surprised but large yachts built since 2000 typically have very similar loadline, LSA, FFA arrangements as the best equipped of ships and OSV. And usually a lot better maintained.
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it was dark