Thread: RAID41 No2 joins Texas200 fleet after 82 day build

Brian,
When I read the title my immediate thought was, I thought Concorde had stopped flying .

Wow and wow look forward to some sailing stories.

Thanks
Mike

Wow! This week is full of wonderful surprises!

Bob

Hold on to your hat BobWes,

There might never be another week like it!!!

MIK

When is RowBoat launching!

Brian

Waht an extremely fast build!!! And does she look pretty

Congratulations!

Joost

Just thinking Brian ...

Actually, it is late so I am BARELY thinking ... maybe getting it wet first makes it RAID41 ... um ... number one!

(hehehe)
(not serious)

Hi ... just got a tiny snippet from David Graybeal on facebook.

at 3pm

Really interesting news. I can't wait to hear what his experience is. Heck of a shakedown cruise!

Just before 6pm

I just heard that Brian somehow got separated from his boat. The Coast Guard was called, and the boat was recovered. Rumors of Brian hitching a ride on someone else's boat. No further details at this time.

Sounds like Bryan is OK.

All I know from the general race report is that people got hammered a bit by conditions the previous day and were preparing for more wind in the morning

MIK

From Andrea in a small production trailer sailer

1. we have decided, along w/ 3 other boats, to cut the trip short and cut out to rockport at the crack of dawn. we have pushed Phillip's repairabout 2 hours ago from mobile web
2. in lydia ann channel-do not want to repeat the last 3 hours! bailing is over rated!about 9 hours ago from mobile web

What rotten news. After all that work to meet such harsh conditions on a first sail, with so much to learn about the boat and her rig. Main thing is that Bryan's ok, please confirm as more news comes in.

just read this on the wikiproa site

"In related news, Brian Pearson - who finished his Michael Storer designed Raid41
in time to enter the T200 slightly late apparently had a mishap. His boat was
found by another participant, floating on its side, and with Brian nowhere to be
found. From what I understand, Brian was later seen hitching a ride on another
boat. No word yet on whether the two will be re-united and continue the journey.'"


Brian

Pleased to hear Bryan is ok. Some further thoughts....

Given the wild conditions, it sounds like RAID41 floats so high on her side that she
gets blown away from the dumped crew.

Not much risk of swamping instability on righting as commented on Openboat list.

Life-line in open waters essential.

Evidently he was well ahead of at least some competitors which had room aboard to
carry him, which suggests they were larger, faster boats, not PDRs. Which in turn
suggests RAID41 has a decent turn of speed.

Will be -very- interested to hear from Bryan what happened.

cheers
AJ

Just heard from Chuck of Duckworks.

Michael:

I was totally blown away to see a Raid 41 at the Texas200! I have attached three photos and there is a link to a short video clip that I think you will be interested in.

Brian was not able to make the entire trip but I will let him tell you his story. In the meantime, this will have to suffice.

This time there were 5 PDRacers and all five finished the entire 200 miles. Along the way they saved one capsized boat, one grounded boat and gave a dismasted Bolger Cartopper a spare rig which he then used to complete the course himself. The guys were total heroes who amazed everyone.

Chuck

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QseyL7BKkCc"]YouTube - Raid 41[/ame]

She looks great! Can't wait to hear the story.

Bob

Bryan got off lightly !!

http://www.wwpotterowners.com/JohnTurpin3.html

Come to think of it, although Bryan had to pay a significant amount of salvage,
breakages to other boats sound like they cost heaps more to restore.

I haven't put the story here yet! So, here fixed up with the latest version.

Read the link in the post above to get the feeling for the conditions.

There have been a number of different versions because we were working on half descriptions all the time from different people.

The boat was built with double the water ballast, which is why she looks low in the video - Bryan's first build from a plan set that arrived in bits and pieces.

So its total sailing displacement (experts - please forgive me for that redundancy in the term) was quite high - from my CAD program about a total of 300kg (660lbs) and a lot of it low in the hull. This is a lot for a boat of this length and beam.

One of the weak points was that the mizzen could not be reefed. Though it could be furled. This meant that there was a lot of power at the back of the boat that meant a tendency to round up.

The boat capsized several times - read the West Wight story above. Winds at different times were 20 to 25mph averages, however some on the water readings showed it a lot stronger, with a significant chop.

Remember the boat had not been sailed before, so sailor is not used to it.

Bryan found that if the boat capsized that if he stood on the lower side of the cockpit and leant over the side toward the bottom of the boat. That it would right itself without having to leave the cockpit. This is way more stability than envisaged. Will be interesting to see what happens with the calculated water and no water.

Bryan had a bad capsize and the boat turned turtle. He brought it up the other way and had it on its side with him sitting on the centreboard.

He saw a red cushion floating nearby and decided to reach for it.

The boat came up very quickly while he was reaching and surprise and suddenly being swimming (I guess) meant he was unable to grab the boat.

It sailed off without him - sailing on the cleated mizzen (broad reach position) and the loose mainsail. I would guess averaging a beam reach course.

He was left with two options. Follow the boat - 2 miles to shore. Or go in the opposite direction - about one mile with the wind.

The boat was spotted by one of the young Hobie sailors who went to report it to one of the boats with a radio. It was radioed in to the Coast Guard. They dispatched a Tug and presumably would have despatched a rescue boat as well. Tug boat picked up the boat and Brian had to pay the salvage. He negotiated down from the standard salvage rate of $150/foot. Boat sustained a crack in the side between the bow and the first bulkhead.

Bryan was found standing in 4ft deep water by Chuck and Sandra in the main support vessel and they radioed in that the sailor had been found.

There has been a big discussion on the Wooden Boat forum here
http://www.woodenboat.com/forum/show...t=93391&page=6

Some were saying it was features of the design that made this happen - too influenced by raceboats, but I answered saying most every individual point made did not match the circumstances.

However we did agree about a tether between boat and crew.

John Welsford confirmed this, talking about how a 14 footer of his pitchpoled at sea and he did the world's record 25m dash with seaboots and wet weather gear, pointing out how even a swamped boat could blow faster than the crew can swim.

I like John Welsford more and more as a human being - he didn't need to come to my rescue!

Best wishes
Michael