Sailed to pieces

ooopsee

Dang, sheeted a little too much!

Crap...there went our best shot at breaking the record for a while.

As an inside note on this attempt, because it was blowing so hard, Bill Parcells was asked to squeeze in the ****, which turned out to be a little too much for the rig. When questioned after the incident he stated "Those girls can't do anything right."

Is he getting big or what!?

those new masts really twist off in a gust.

More coverage (passed along from ayrs@yahoogroups.com)...

There's a fantastic photo and a write up on
http://www.boatingoz.com.au/news05/1213.htm

And video:

Large, http://rapidshare.de/files/9080440/mi.mp4.html (7 mb)

Small, http://www.speedsurfing.org/press/videos/MICrash.wmv (1.7 mb)

Gives new meaning to the term "wind shear"

What a story. They entered the course doing 45k and the boat doesn't hit full speed until about 3/4 the way through a run. I can't wait for them to get back!

Was this caused by equipment failure or a gust? I saw the main twist off just before it fell apart. I didn't know if he was dumping in a gust or if a sheet gave way.

-Rob V.
Panama City
Nacra 5.2

It looks kindof like the wing separated or delaminated intitially...it is a full wing with two sides. They said that it was a "low tech" item that failed but I can't imagine what that might be. If you watch the movie, you can see a gust just come across the sand a few seconds before MI's wing comes apart.

Not enough leech tension in the second part of the run ...
Amazing how far they travelled under reefed mainsail. I`m also amazed they say that the craft only gets up to full speed 3/4 down the run, that, surely, is not the right way to break a record. It implies that to break 50knots they would have to be doing 57knots or so at the end of the course. Much better to enter the course at full speed to get a good average run I would have thought. Unless it`s a factor of keeping the craft together long enough to do 500m (or not, in this case.)

Or a matter of finding a stretch of flat water long enough to get a 400 meter run up to the start line of a 500 meter course.

Texas City Dike - 5 miles long, prevailing wind is @ 100 degrees going out and 80 coming back. Yes, after blowing across the Dike.