interesting info on some boat testing

[carl291]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-jqwkNXMIY Here's a link to some interesting you tube video on yacht testing, they have several vids on various test. What is interesting is the strength of the fiberglass pins

[Crazer]

Was just watching this series. The dismasting test was very interesting, and I was particularly fascinated by the capsize test that was intended to replicate what happened in the '79 Fastnet race. It just goes to show how even the slightest preparation for something can pay off quite dramatically in a worst case-scenario.

[ebb]

Great that they actually did it!
At my local plastic supply you can buy various diameters of white colored fiberglass rod.
It's not the structural stuff you think it might be, probably because there's no woven glass in it.
So maybe, if it was similar, they had reason to believe it was friable enough to tear apart in the clevis holes under the tremendous breaking load they put on it.

MAST DOWN
Interesting issue is the weight of the mast when overboard - and how difficult it was to do anything with it.
This is good argument in trying to keep water out of the mast by filling it with, say, styrofoam beans. Keep your wires from slapping.
By my math our mast contains about 3 cubic feet , which turns out to be about 200 lbs of saltwater.
And the mast is encumbered with all kinds of other expensive weight: fittings, internal wire, external rigging, weight of downed sails if you think about trying to capture it.

There were at least three or four guys aboard. No way could a single sailor do anything but cut the deadweight away and maybe buoy it for later recovery. I'll be watching for HarborFreight to offer a neat hydraulic or racheting cable cutter. Hydraulic, even racheting cutters are outragiously expensive and all seem to originate in china. Do you really think you can brace yourself on a broken boat with a dangerous downed mast and cut wire rigging with both hands using a regular cutter? Yah sure!
[Actual instructions to use Felco C12/C16 cable cutters,
"Sit down on upper handle by keeping your balance and drop your body down hard on the cutter handle."]


BOAT HOLED
Equally important was the realistic jagged hole that guy ("the tech") smashed into their test boat.
HOLED, out on the water: finding a locker lid - somehow punching a hole for the line in the middle - and then pushing a looped line thru the niagara hole to find and capture it from the deck with a boat hook - then attach it to the lid and toss it overboard and pull it from inside the boat as tight possible against the hole seems completely unrealistic. The boat is SINKING. Can't be done, it's nonsense, unless conditions are perfect (you're in the marina) and the hole is in a convenient place (you're in the lift).
Bringing a sail around the hull seems more reasonable, but they had a difficult time with it. And correctly hadn't practiced before hand. That was realistic. Using a sail would only work on an A/C at the bow or very stern. They also tested a piece of plastic sheet. If you are calm in the water it could work, but agitated by moving water, the covering imco would not stay. You still have water coming in using both those methods.
Part 2, which I missed the first time, really convinces the viewer that the best solution is to get something OVER the hole. not through it. And keep it there. Jamming stuff into or THRU the hole makes it LARGER. Trying to hammer a piece of stiff plywood over the hole with nails after spraying some unknown foam on it is truly NUTS - but somebody would try it! If they found any nails onboard. Super-duper self-drilling screws might work if your onboard cordless drill was charged.
It's a fine video. We see, dramatized for the first time, all the idiotic ideas that have been around forever for shutting down a geyser filling the boat. A foot on a cushion imco is the quickest most intuitive response to a conveniently placed holing. An Ariel/Commander filled with water will sink. Period.

Difficult to figure out how to rig the cushion to stay tight on the holing if you want to remove your foot. Some people might not want to.
Also there could be 100 other scenarios where your foot is not convenient and there's no stick at hand to act as a substitute foot.
That scenario is more likely and realistic. In the Ariel, remodeling, I've used 'spring battens', jamming sticks, across the interior.
Something to consider would be to have onboard a couple 8 footers tucked away. Mahogany trim (3/4"X1 1/2") would step-break more cleanly than fir.
Having some smallish cushions around, cased in a fairly tough fabric like Sunbrella would be useful.
At one point in the video we see the jagged hole inside has been flattened out a bit. Less water gushing. Closing still attached jagged pieces back into place stems the flow pretty good!!! Then it becomes reasonable for a piece of something flat to be jammed over the hole INSIDE without the first response cushion.
If there was a piece of closedcell foam around, the leaking could be stopped and the boat bailed.


POSSIBLE HOLING SOLUTION. If I was a CRUISER, the bosun's locker would have kits of 2-part epoxy of the type that can be used UNDERWATER,
or can bond to wood or fiberglass inside the boat if it is sopping wet. And for calmer repairs on happier days.
The stuff exists.* Don't think it's in kit form. YET.
It is likely to be a structural type of 2-part epoxy gel, but you'd have pieces of thin fiberglass pliable sheet or 1/8" marine ply that could be added to make it a PERMANENT repair. Later, when you have the hull out of the water, the wound can be dished out and fixed with the same material.
I'm imagining how that hole in the testboat could have been fixed right away - imco that is the kind of thing I wish they had thought of doing.
Otherwise, what's the point??? Hey, guys, show us the QUICK FIX. The marina is 1000 miles away.

Ability to permanently repair a hole in the boat - WHILE UNDERWAY - is something to aim for.
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ___________
*epoxyproducts.com has a direct sales website www.epoxyUSA.com that has two closely related 2-part pastes for underwater repair.
QuickFix2300, kevlar thickened Qt kit $50 ground, shipping included. (No HazMat, can be air shipped.)
WetDry700, also Kevlar reinforced, Qt kit $50 ground only, shipping incl.

WetDry sounds like you can open the cans and close them a number of times. Haven't tried them. The longterm storage problem comes with cans getting rusty. Don't know the shelf life, but kept cool, epoxy lasts for years. Known as third generation epoxies. No out-gassing or crystalizing.
These ARE cold setting epoxies, put on thick would exotherm and get hard. Imco these no-solvent epoxies should be packaged in plastic containers with screw-on lids so they can be stored onboard - then they'd earn 'kit' status.
Another factor the vendor misses is how to mix the two parts together. Instructions are to use a mechanical mixer in your drill. RIDICULOUS. You mix by quickly lifting and turning the two parts together on a flat locker lid using a putty knife. 1 to 1 mix ratio, getting equal amounts is the hard part. The kits should come in pint size, even 1/2 pint size, so that the contents of each 2-part pot could be emptied and mixed ie, premeasured. There's no time for BS.
Type into google a goop name followed by 'tech data' and get the technical data first page. QuickFix has a potlife of 10-15 mins at 75degrees!!!
Wet/Dry potlife 1 hr plus, with a long cure time. They both say, "Superior adhesion to cold damp surfaces" but WetDry is my choice.