Sinking of Gunga Din tied to cutting into TAFG in US Sailing report

[southofvictor]

Read this report today on the sinking of Gunga Din in last year's Newport-Bermuda race. Gunga Din was a 1988 Sweden 41 which was designed with a TAFG similar to many Ericsons. Somewhere along the line it sounds like holes were cut into the TAFG to allow access to keel bolts. A subsequent grounding is thought to have created unsupported stress around the modified TAFG which was invisible but eventually led to hull damage and last year's sinking. It's sobering reading for anyone who like myself has ever thought "that looks really solid a couple of small holes won't hurt it".

https://bermudarace.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/BROC-Structurcal-Sinkings-Final-Report-1.pdf?mc_cid=4e1e2e100e&mc_eid=b64a1e8c6f

 

[gabriel]

Those holes should have been patched with good ‘ole G10!

At least they all made it back safe and sound.

 

[Drewm3i]

Scary stuff--she seems to have been a well-built, well-equipped, and well maintained boat. All vessels have their limits!

 

[Loren Beach]

I would guess that creating an unreinforced opening in any internal grid would be similar (?) to cutting out a section of a rib or part of the keel in a wooden boat. Basic structure is really important.

 

[AdventurousAnton]

Man, that's a nightmare!

As is the spelling of "structural" in the URL. Sorry...old habits die hard for a magazine and newspaper editor/publisher.

 

[Drewm3i]

I would guess that creating an unreinforced opening in any internal grid would be similar (?) to cutting out a section of a rib or part of the keel in a wooden boat. Basic structure is really important.

Are you saying you could actually make sense of those included drawings/diagrams? I couldn't tell much from them. It didn't seem like much material was cut away at all, but I could be wrong.

I feel like replacing a keel on any vessel for performance preferences is a fool's errand bound to eventuate in tragedy. Why mess with a sound and calculated design? STUPID.

If one wants another keel form, sell that boat and buy another better suited?! It's not worth risking lives over and they are fortunate noone was killed.

 

[Drewm3i]

Are you saying you could actually make sense of those included drawings/diagrams? I couldn't tell much from them. It didn't seem like much material was cut away at all, but I could be wrong.

I feel like replacing a keel on any vessel for performance preferences is a fool's errand bound to eventuate in tragedy. Why mess with a sound and calculated design? STUPID.

If one wants another keel form, sell that boat and buy another better suited?! It's not worth risking lives over and they are fortunate noone was killed.

Okay, so it looks like someone stupidly cut away an integral part of the mast step support structure (hence the mast essentially compressed through the step and busted the hull integrity) and thought that would be okay? It's shocking someone signed off on this if true since glass laminates get their strength from longitudinally-connected (i.e. continuous) strands of resin-soaked glass fibers. With a break in the laminated composite structure, almost all strength of the beam (aka transverse and longitudinal frame/girder/stringer system in the form of a one-piece grid structure) is lost--since the whole point of such a system is to redistribute loads from the stress points throughout the whole hull and grid system.

Crazy stuff: