Photos: L ©Oskar Kihlborg R © Team movistar

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Thu, 25 May 2006 16:30:00 UTC

Russel Bowler says he is “absolutely devastated” by the movistar
keel damage which forced the crew to abandon ship last Sunday,
but admits the reasons behind the repeated failures may never be known.

Bowler, whose Farr Yacht Design company designed the Spanish yacht, is in Portsmouth consulting with the team to try and figure out what caused the critical damage to the boat’s keel, but suggested the bonding between critical components of the keel may have been responsible.

He said, “. . .absolutely devastated with what’s happened to the boat in the last few days. We are here to try and talk to the crew and figure out what went wrong. It’s just very difficult to figure out what went wrong at the moment.

“There are a number of parties (responsible). Obviously we designed it, and our design is completely open to scrutiny. In fact Bouwe (Bekking, the movistar skipper) at the start of this project called in SP Engineering who reviewed all the drawings as well. We have had the best in the business look at the drawings before the boat was built and we have got nothing to hide in terms of the design and the way it was analysed and detailed. We will put that on table for anyone to look at.

“The build processes weren’t simple processes. Things need to be stuck together; it all relied on bonds. I’m only speculating what could have gone wrong. Until we look at, if we get the opportunity to look at the pieces, then we might have the clues as to what went wrong.”

He did, however, point to the other three boats designed by his company – Ericsson, The Black Pearl and Brasil 1 - to deny that a lack of knowledge of the slamming loads led to a design susceptible to damage.

“We should have some good data from Pirates trip over here (due to technology implanted onboard). Through 40 knots they crashed and bashed, and we should have a good handle on the accelerations. The fact three boats have not had this problem, and the detailing is virtually identical, would lead me to believe it is another cause we don’t know about.

“Horacio (Carabelli) from Brasil 1 has had several conversations with me and he hasn’t found any issues in the same area and we will be doing the same thing with Ericsson and Pirates. We have gone through the drawings again and again; we are not in the state where we say “we should have doubled that load,” or anything like that. It’s more on the detailing, building and maintenance and making sure that what you intended to be on the drawings occurred on the final product.”

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