America's Cup: Artemis

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Artemis

Printed From: Yachts and Yachting Online
Category: Keelboat classes
Forum Name: America's Cup
Forum Discription: Your thoughts on challenges to win the 'Auld Mug'
URL: http://www.yachtsandyachting.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=10867
Printed Date: 27 Jun 25 at 8:36am
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 9.665y - http://www.webwizforums.com

Topic: Artemis

Posted By: craiggo
Subject: Artemis
Date Posted: 09 May 13 at 10:04pm

Artemis AC72 has had a big smash. From the various reports it would seem that the front beam failed and the boat then tore itself to pieces. Unfortunately one of the crew appears to be very seriously injured!

Live coverage @ http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/live-video/

Replies:

Posted By: Mister Nick
Date Posted: 09 May 13 at 10:17pm

The seriously injured crew member was given CPR on the dock and apparently that was unsuccessful.

Absolutely awful, I really hope everyone pulls through.

Really not convinced that these boats are a step in the right direction, it was only a matter of time before someone got seriously hurt.

Posted By: Owenfackrell
Date Posted: 09 May 13 at 11:19pm

Just read this. It is awful news if true. These boats were are at the cutting edge and it was only a matter of time before another capsized considering how often small cats go over when pushing it.

Posted By: KennyR
Date Posted: 09 May 13 at 11:25pm

I'm shocked. It's Bart Simpson that's been killed. What a shame to take such a hugely talented sailor and such a nice guy from us. My thoughts are with his family and team mates. Just stunned personally

http://artemis-racing.americascup.com/news/4511

Posted By: ohFFsake
Date Posted: 09 May 13 at 11:32pm

I've been worrying about the wisdom of these things since reading the comments on the NZ team's blog the other week. Now it seems all our worst possible fears have been confirmed.

What absolutely dreadful news.

Posted By: stewart smith
Date Posted: 12 May 13 at 12:09pm

I see from the above posts, that the 'elf and safty/ban all fun, bridgade have now found themselves a new soapbox! As with all walks of life, pushing the boundarys has its risks. If we ban AC 72s, where do we stop? I note that Gael Pawson was quick to lable them as "death traps" in the Mail. Should we ban catamarans? I'm sure Miss Pawson would like that! What about other dangerous persuits, Hill walking, cycling etc...?

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Stewart Smith

Posted By: Mister Nick
Date Posted: 12 May 13 at 3:19pm

Originally posted by stewart smith

I see from the above posts, that the 'elf and safty/ban all fun, bridgade have now found themselves a new soapbox! As with all walks of life, pushing the boundarys has its risks. If we ban AC 72s, where do we stop? I note that Gael Pawson was quick to lable them as "death traps" in the Mail. Should we ban catamarans? I'm sure Miss Pawson would like that! What about other dangerous persuits, Hill walking, cycling etc...?

Flipping one of these things is not like flipping some tiddly little beach cat or taking a tumble whilst walking up a hill. Every time one of these things goes over or experiences gear failure, every single person on the boat is placed at huge risk. We've lost one of the brightest sailing talents that this country has ever produced and you can't see why taking a trip down the flying over-sized beach cat with a wing sail route may not be the best of ideas?

Huge amounts of thought has gone into making these things as safe as possible. RIBs full of doctors, divers and all the equipment you'd need to get everyone out alive in the event of an accident follow these boats around whenever they leave the marina. All of this and yet still somebody has died, so to be honest I'd say that questioning the safety of these things is entirely reasonable. I'm not saying they need to be totally banned but something needs to be done.

Posted By: craiggo
Date Posted: 12 May 13 at 3:41pm

When tradgedies like this occur it does seem to be one of the first things people start ranting about, I guess its human nature. We all want to have fun but we also want to be safe. In recent years what with the overly litigous US model gradually being rolled out across the entire western world, there does seem to have been a gradual decline in personal risk assesment and more of an expectation on others.
Its a real shame that our media instantly clamour towards the darker side of issues but it goes hand in hand with the litigous culture, painting things as unsafe, and often uncontrolled when in reality there are teams of people in the background striving to make things safer and better, but who reports this heh?
I suspect many of us have had close shaves in various craft resulting in us doing things differently in the future. I know of Dart 18 sailors who've cut through the tramp as a last resort and numerous hookings up on monohulls with wing elastics, control line etc. I've even knocked myself out tacking my 600 and luckily came to lying face first over the new windward rack. Sailing is risky and the only way to totally de-risk it is to stop, but many of us relish the challenge and accept the risks, although clearly we do what we can to minimise the latter.
The sensible approach is not to stop althogether, but to reduce the risks. The AC teams will undoubtadly investigate, they will learn and they will reduce the risks where possible but I personally dont think they should stop.
Thursday was certainly one of the darkest days in competitive sailing and a day I pray never occurs again but lets give those involved the chance to do what they do best, and get on and sail.

Posted By: ohFFsake
Date Posted: 12 May 13 at 9:00pm

I think there's more to this than an over-reaction to a tragic accident. From the very candid comments posted on the ETNZ blog the other week it seems to me that these boats are fundamentally unsafe, even when there are chase boats with fully suited up divers trailing around after them.

Quite apart from the entrapment risk, the other fundamental issue is that when these massively overpowered boats flip over they tend to leave most of the crew hanging on between 40 and 70 feet up in the air, depending on which way they go over; with no end of hard objects to hit on the way down when they fall off.

Obviously we can't eliminate risk from sailing, and no we shouldn't ban anything that involves risk, but what we should do is make a sensible assessment of what constitutes an acceptable risk, and from what I can see the AC72s fail that test.