Friday, November 13, 2009

First failure for BOR 90's wing sail

[Source: BMW Oracle Blog] Day three of testing got off to a good start today complete with dolphins swimming alongside the BOR 90 in the Pacific off Point Loma.

“We had a good session going,” said bowman Brad Webb (NZL). “Then as we went through a tack, we noticed that the second and third flap had come disconnected so we went head to wind and put a tow line on so I could go up and take a look.”

Rigger Bryce Ruthenberg (AUS) hopped on board and joined Brad up the wing. “We reinstalled the pin and as precautionary measure lashed the pin and second flap for safety. We probably could have kept sailing but we decided to err on the side of caution and return to the mooring for a complete check,” he said.

Third day of wing sailing for BMW Oracle's BOR 90. San Diego, 12 November 2009. Video copyright BMW Oracle

After a few long weeks in San Diego without time off and not ideal weather forecasted (even chance of showers predicted for the usually sunny San Diego), the team decided to call a day off for all (and no we’re not superstitious about Friday the 13th!) On Saturday, we will have our first maintenance day since the wing was installed, and return to the water for more testing on Sunday.

Labels: ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home