"Christine Sheffield" wrote in message
...

"BrianH" wrote in message
...
Bart Senior wrote:
You have to be joking Bjarke! Even in racing boats,
keel bolts have backing plates. This is an obvious
error in construction and reveal serious quality control
and perhaps also a design problem.

I agree, it was such a silly comment I thought it better not
to respond. "It happens every day on performance boats" !!!

One of the bizarre outcomes of this incident was the
response of Bavaria Yachts who tried to initially claim the
yacht had hit a rock - since disproved - a panic damage
limitation exercise. All over the world, this model is being
modified to strengthen the keel mountings. But the
disquieting thing is of a company that lets such apparent
design and quality assurance failures out of the factory
door and its implication on the quality of other models,
perhaps unfairly. I hope so, judging by the vast masses of
charter boats out there from this company. Especially in the
Adriatic where this incident happened and where I also keep
my boat, which is what stimulated my interest as I see so
many there.

A damning preliminary survey report by the German marine
surveyors Zucker & Partners is here (in German):
http://www.adriatic-challenge.com/ne...survey-new.pdf
And a rebuttal by Bavaria Yachts (in English) is he
http://www.sailing.hu/files/pressrelease42m_4.pdf
And the response to that from the charter company
responsible for the regatta is here (in English):
http://www.adriatic-challenge.com/news.php?news=16

A further preliminary survey by a Croatian consultancy (in
English) with some very revealing photographs is he
http://www.adriatic-challenge.com/ne...cro-survey.pdf

BrianH.



"Bjarke Christensen" (nej,

But this is a MATCH. It's designed for performance over security,
quality
and cost. It happens "every day" on performance boats. Just looking at
the
keel design you can tell it's not the designed to last nor to blue
water
sailing.


"BrianH" wrote

http://www.sailing.hu/files/82/82558_640x480.jpg
Here's a picture of a Bavaria Match 42 keel .....
Full photo set at:
http://www.sailing.hu/galeriak/verse...ira_mare_kupa/

Report in English at:
http://team.sailing.hu/Accident%20in%20Croatia.pdf

HTH.





What I can't get over is how few bolts the Bavaria keels are held on by,
especially given the size of boat/keel.

My little Foxcub has _10_ keel bolts!!!

I'd trust my little boat (17'6") over a big Bavaria any day, thanks.

Christine


The bolts in the Bavaria are probably a fair bit thicker than the ones in
your Foxcub.

The bolting and backing plates look OK to me. It seems the problem is that
the hull was simply not thick enough to withstand the stresses involved.
There is a nice square hole where one of the backing plates was located so
the bolts didn't let go of the hull. The hull let go of the boat.