A New Circumnav to Argue About!

[camaraderie]

Since Heather has let us all down so badly, and the prospect of a long, cold winter faces all of us armchair sailors living vicariously through others, , I submit for your approval or denigration the strange voyage of Mr. David Vann...about to commence in ....the Tin-can Zone.....


Latest news here: http://www.esquire.com/the-side/blog/tincan

No word yet on how his mommy feels about the voyage....but rumour has it that he DID buy her flowers on mothers day so obviously he is merely acting out her long repressed sea-dream she once had while opening a can of Sacremento Tomato Juice!

[nolatom]

I thought we'd discussed this before.

Either way, my thoughts and heart are with those who may have to risk their lives to rescue him after someone calls the Coast Guard of some maritime nation after they haven't heard from him in a week or two.

If it's a risk he and his family are willing to see him take, then I hope he makes it. But I don't see how those three hulls are going to stay together on what seems like a really aggressive schedule.

If he makes it, great. If he doesn't, then I'd prefer there be only one casualty and no more.

[citation34]

No word yet on how his mommy feels about the voyage....but rumour has it that he DID buy her flowers on mothers day so obviously he is merely acting out her long repressed sea-dream she once had while opening a can of Sacremento Tomato Juice!

By building a boat out of the cans? (disclaimer: SAID IN JEST)
Actually I bet it's fast and I hope it goes far.

[teshannon]

He can't be serious!. Maybe that's Giu's neighbor working on his dad's boat.

[artbyjody]

Well at least he has crossed the ocean before...(apparently from his blog or some bio I read)....but I thought that the whole purpose of owning a cat or trihull is that you get more room ...

From the looks of it - it almost appears his mast has more room inside of it than does the main hull....

[T34C]

Since it looks like he going to try sailing an I-beam I don't think the CG will have to look far. He's likely to be sitting on the bottom at the end of the launch ramp!

[sailingdog]

This guy was mentioned on this forum before IIRC.

The two things I see wrong with this... is he wants to build a 50' x 30 trimaran for $25,000, and one of his heroes is Ken Barnes... and yes, he does know how Ken Barnes's most recent voyage ended.

I know how expensive boats are to work on and to refit and build... and I just don't see him making a seaworthy vessel capable of handling the Southern Ocean for $25,000.

The fact that David Vann says:

Ken [Barnes] was well prepared and knowledgeable, and he had the proper equipment aboard to survive the conditions.

pretty much sums it up for me.

Looking at the images of the boat design and the actual photos of the boat, I don't think the boat is going to be able to withstand the kinds of stresses it is going to be encountering.

[JohnRPollard]

I mostly avoided the other thread, because I had no doubts that the Flicka was capable of the voyage, which afterall was the original question. But this one is irresistible.

I did not read the blog, just glanced at the photos. Here are my predictions, all of which I hope are wrong:

-The vaka is too fine with insufficient buoyancy, and will submarine; also, it does not seem to have a very hydrodynamic-shaped bottom

- The akas are too flimsy, and will not withstand the torsion loads places on them by the amas; they will either collapse or the weld/bolt points will fail where they attach to the amas

- The amas MIGHT have been adequate if not for the shortcomings mentioned above, but in this case will be sorely taxed by the inadequacies of the over-all design

- The first adverse weather event will leave this "vessel" in pieces.

I wish he would seek the opinion of a few naval architects and reconsider the proposed route. His family should urge him to play around with it in local coastal waters for a while, as sea trials.

I also hope there is a watertight compartment in the main hull and an escape hatch on the bottom of it.

[sailingdog]

Umm.... JRP, he did speak to a few naval architects IIRC.... and most walked away from the project.

He's also filled the amas and most of the vaka (main hull for you monohullers) with foam supposedly. The foam struck me as a really bad idea, since most foam isn't waterproof, and if the foam starts to absorb water... the buoyancy of the boat is going to drop rapidly, with little way of fixing it. If the amas were empty, they could at least be monitored for water leakage and then pumped out—as they are on my boat... but with foam in the amas and vaka—there will be little if any warning.

The akas (crossbeams for monohullers) would have been much stronger and better designed if they weren't crossed. That would give them much more strength against torsional loads at least... since the torque lever arm on the amas wouldn't be so much greater than that the vaka can apply, due to the difference in distance between the akas.

Also, the akas and frame work of the boat is supposedly steel, and the skin of the amas and vaka are aluminum. Last I checked, welding the two was a difficult task with the proper equipment....and chancy at best otherwise... Why would they make and sell Triclad otherwise??? Galvanic corrosion is also an issue at the welds and between the metals.

Given the mass of the framework and skin of the boat, I don't think the boat will have enough buoyancy to really be safe in the Southern Ocean. Whether it has enough buoyancy to resist the forces cause by the sails is another question entirely.

[T34C]

It's like natural selection, in slow motion.