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Viking Sportfish "Bad Company" hit a whale!

Discussion in 'Viking Yacht' started by CaptNeil, Feb 26, 2009.

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  1. CaptNeil

    CaptNeil Member

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    I just saw some photos of the Bad Company. They hit a whale the other day and destroyed the bow of the boat. Anyone else seen these photos?
  2. CaptNeil

    CaptNeil Member

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    Pics.............

    Attached Files:

  3. CaptNeil

    CaptNeil Member

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    .......................

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  4. CaptNeil

    CaptNeil Member

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    Not a good day for Team Bad Co... I feel like a kid with his bike stolen, sick to my stomach. Below are emails from Steve... Pat Healy from Viking said in all his years building boats, he has never seen an impact this major isolated to the front of the boat...

    But it's just a boat, everyone is safe and that's all that matters..

    Anthony

    Steve's email..

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Subject: FW: accident pics Bad Co
    Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:13:00 -0800

  5. Mavrik1943

    Mavrik1943 New Member

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    Seems a whale of a tail to me. I see some evidence of delam! Looks all too familiar, maybe the 630 Bert also hit a Whale, yes!
  6. Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

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    I would not doubt the story is accurate but i can't help thinking that a solid glass bottom would have faired much better. some cracks, some water in but not the massive amount of delamination we see here.
  7. CaptNeil

    CaptNeil Member

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    The delam occurred after the impact with the water tearing strips of fiberglass free as they made their way to port. I think it's lucky they all survived the crash and a good example of how tough Vikings are built.
  8. Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

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    I understand that, but doesn't it show that no matter how well a cored laminate is built it will fail even more dramatically once something happens?

    I don't' think a cracked solid glass laminate will be ripped and pealed like this.

    Remember that coring is not used for strength, it is used to reduce weight while keeping the laminate stiff.
  9. CaptNeil

    CaptNeil Member

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    I think that you would see this on any type of fiberglass construction. Even a solid core fiberglass is layered and layered. A crack through the hull and the hydrolic pressure would evenually find a weak point and exploit it. Whether it is solid or cored is irellevant I think. (I however like having two materials. I would prefer the strength comming from juniper planked construction though rather than a balsa core laminate construction.) In this case though I think that the laminate was strong enough to take a 22 knot beating of a breeching whale at 90 degrees and make it back to port safely. Pretty impressive.
  10. MedRascal

    MedRascal Senior Member

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    We saw what happend to the boat... but what about the unfortuante whale? Anybody knows what happened to it?

    As for the delamination, certainly the effect shown on the photos is due to the water pressure hitting on the damage area while enroute to land (any reference to the Bertram 630 case would be pure mean specualtion). Nevertheless, i think that a solid "old style" fiberglass hull, even after hitting a floating object that would crack the gelcoat, would never end up revealing the different materail layers used in building... or not?
  11. rampage38

    rampage38 New Member

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    Maybe the fact that the whale hit so close to the bow thruster it caused more damage. That could be seen as a weaker spot on the hull. Just a thought.
  12. Windswept

    Windswept New Member

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    It looks like it held up a lot better than that big Bertram with the catastrophic delam. Kudos to Viking, glad everyone is safe.
  13. K1W1

    K1W1 Senior Member

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    I wonder how much damage was done with the whale right at the time of impact compared to the damage now.

    I would be willing to bet that an inspection by the mate or deckie of the area involved in the strike may have resulted in a far different outcome with the application of some careful shipboard contingency planning for such an emergency.

    A Bunk mattress slung lengthwise over the front and secured at the top and with bands of rope may well have been able to stop the water being driven into cracks in the layers with such massive forces.
  14. Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    I agree. A solid fiberglass hull might get a crack, but I don't think you'd see the peeling like we are with the cored hulls. The solid fiberglass should stay together as it is essentially one unit when laid up and not peel like the cored hulls do.
  15. OutMyWindow

    OutMyWindow Senior Member

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    "We had seen Whales everywhere all morning. Many breaching. One had jumped two days prior and hit a boat upon falling back into the water. We had just gotten the boat to 22 knots.
    I have seen several boats that have hit Whales in the past. Usually, you ride up on the back much as a boat going up on a sandbar, roll down the side and do strut, prop and rudder damage. "



    This guy obviously learned nothing in his 30 years of boating and has little respect for his environment.
    A sensitive whale breeding area that he’s aware of, and they blast through at 22 knots.
    Personally, I would hope his boat gets confiscated and he gets a big fat fine.
  16. stevenpet

    stevenpet New Member

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    I never grow tired of watching whales off the coast of California’s Monterey Bay and off the coast of Maui. Of course, there are always a lot of tourists out watching them and I’ve always wondered how often the boats collided with the whales. I have a friend who’s contributed so much money to the Monterey Bay Aquarium that he practically has his own key. One time on a private tour I asked the scientists how often boat/whale collisions occur and if it’s a serious problem or not. They said that actual collisions are surprisingly rare and they believe that the whales are incredibly aware of the people in their environment. They also said that when collision do occur it’s almost always because the boats are going far too fast while moving through the pod or the boat is trying to keep up with a whale or trying to get too close—and then they end up hitting it.

    Both of these reasons show an incredible disrespect for the whales. Unless the collision above occurred well away from the pods, where no other whales were sighted, then I would have to agree with OutMyWindow on this one.

  17. PropBet

    PropBet Senior Member

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    Echoing that theme, I recall one dive in the Carrib. just off Saba, where you will often encounter shark and barracuda. A friend was on board with us who was a relatively new diver and asked 'what do we do if we see sharks?'
    "we continue or dive of course, respect their space, and go on about our business"

    85 feet below, I get a tap on the shoulder and my buddy, eyeballs as big as serving plates, giving me the "shark" signal. I return the "OK" signal to him and we go on about our way, observing the sharks which were down around 120 / 130 feet circling around the bottom of a lava tube and continuing on our dive.

    Once we got back on the boat, the conversation continues: "Man, that was awesome, but sharks are dangerous!" he says with spirit.

    No, I reply. The most dangerous thing in the ocean is the human. We are guests in someone's house.

    Back OT, I'd hate to think that the captain of the boat was anywhere near cruise speed with whales anywhere near the boat. Obviously damage like that doesn't happen while strolling along without a wake, cautiously making your way through the water where whales are spotted or known to be.
    Should they had not been extremely cautious of the whales and were clipping along at cruise, this is clearly a mark of gross negligence and irresponsibility.

    I wasn't there, I only have the information from this thread so I won't jump to an assumption, however I hope I'm wrong in my first thought.
  18. Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    This is totally out of line, were you there? How do you know what their situation was or why they were moving from that spot in the first place. How do you know it was a whale breeding area? Maybe the whales were concentrated in a spot a mile or two away off to the side and this was a stray whale. They were obviously moving at 22 knots and not there normal 35 knot cruise. So they obviously slowed down to be prudent.

    In that book where the guy and his wife were lost at sea for 58 days (I forgot the name and it was sometime around 58 days that they floated around in a liferaft in the Pacific), a whale kept hitting their sailboat while they were at sail doing 5 knots several times until it totally breeched the hull. WHales do things like this sometimes. Who knows why it happened. I'm sure the Whale knew the boat was there when it came up.
  19. Silver Lining

    Silver Lining Member

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    I think it is unfair to attack the captain without better knowing the situation. I have been out in the gulf stream a number of times and have seen whales off at a distance playing. They seem sufficiently far off to maintain a reasonable, safe planing speed but have always felt their presence and the potential danger of hitting a random whale. As a result when doing a crossing or out in the open ocean I always keep inflattable open ocean life jackets and tethers close at hand.

    But the point I really want to make is that after having worked with formula race car laminants for years, cored laminants are in no way comparable to solid laminants, assuming both are done correctly. Yes cored laminiants offer superior stiffness and rigidity, but only for as long as the laminant fully maintains its bond integrity. I have seen so many properly vacuum bagged laminants slowly fail from repeated pounding and stress cycles, that I simply wont own a cored hull. The only coring I have ever seen done properly is vacuum bagged and OVEN baked chasis and suspension components use in F1 or similar chassis. For these to be succesful, solid inserts are used at all heavily loaded or attachment points. I have just seen so many vacuum bagged components delaminate when subjected to endless hours of stress cycles.
  20. K1W1

    K1W1 Senior Member

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