Rich Roberts Reports
| The Sinking and Raising of Stars & Stripes USA 77 Story and Photos By Rich Roberts
LONG BEACH, Calif.---Stars & Stripes USA 77, the newest of Team Dennis Conner's matched set of state-of-the-art America's Cup boats, was recovered after sinking in 55 feet of water during two-boat testing two miles off the beach of this Southern California city Tuesday. None of the crew was injured, but besides the damage in the rudder area a significant crack opposite the mast was revealed as the boat was raised early in the evening, minutes before sundown. The 80-foot International America's Cup Class sloop suffered structural failure in the rudder housing while sailing upwind on a sunny day in 12 to 14 knots of wind in 2 to 3 feet of chop. It dropped straight down to the bottom in about five minutes. Conner was not aboard but was en route by chase boat to join the session on what his office described as a sponsor fulfillment event. Primary helmsman Ken Read was driving the boat with a mixture of the team's "A" and "B" crews. Tactician Terry Hutchinson was driving USA 66 alongside.
Bill Trenkle, Team Dennis Conner's general manager and the longtime portside trimmer, said, "There was a loud crack when the rudder broke and then there was a big gaping hole with water pouring in." The team's two hardbottom inflatable chase boats came alongside with air bags to provide buoyancy while the crew tried to block the hole and prepared to use onboard pumps. "At first we thought we could handle it," Trenkle said, "but then it became pretty clear that it was gonna go down." Some of the crew stepped directly onto the chase boats, but a few jumped into the water to be picked up.
The boat settled on its keel on the sandy bottom with the top three spreaders of its carbon fiber mast projecting skyward at a slight tilt to starboard. Trenkle never doubted it could be salvaged. "We're very fortunate we weren't out in the channel halfway to Catalina," he said. If that had been the case, the boat probably would have been hopelessly lost in the 25-mile-wide San Pedro Channel between Santa Catalina Island and the mainland where the team has been testing, training and tuning since February. That was the fate of oneAustralia in the 1995 Louis Vuitton Cup challenger trials at San Diego. That boat broke amidships off Point Loma and remains there on the bottom to this day, too deep to be salvaged. It was the only America's Cup boat to sink before Tuesday.
The incident also was reminiscent of the fate that befell Young America when it cracked across the middle at Auckland in '99. Largely because of the inspired initiative of bowman Jerry Kirby, that boat was saved, repaired and sailed again, although not in competition. Coincidentally, that boat also was a New York Yacht Club entry, as are the Stars & Stripes vessels---and Kirby now sails for Team Dennis Conner, although he wasn't on USA 77 this time. Conner was quoted in a statement later, "We feel extremely fortunate that no one was hurt. The hull appears to be in good shape and the mast is fully tensioned and does not appear to be damaged.
"Our training program will proceed as scheduled, with the last sailing day on Thursday (July 25) and both boats being shipped to New Zealand separately during the first two weeks of August. Ken Read and other members of the afterguard will be departing Long Beach on July 26 to participate in the UBS Challenge in Newport, Rhode Island as planned." This wasn't the first setback for the team. In February, three months before USA 77 was delivered, USA 66 lost its mast in a testing run. This incident occurred at about 1 p.m. local time---oddly, virtually offshore from the apartments in the suburban community of Seal Beach where several of the crew members have been living. Divers were summoned immediately to stabilize the boat underwater as the team's barge-mounted crane was brought to the site from the training base in the massive APL container terminal on Terminal Island in Los Angeles Harbor about 10 miles away.
The barge arrived at about 5 p.m. and positioned itself just upwind from the sunken boat to shield the site from wave action during the lifting process. Divers connected the crane's line to the boat's lifting point that is used daily to move the boat in and out of the water, and the lift commenced at 7:05 p.m. The lift paused at two points---first, when the deck was still awash as hands cleared the headsail and loose lines, then later when its trademark dark blue hull was exposed below the white stripe along the gunwales. At that point the 18-inch-long crack in the deck and hull opposite the mast was revealed. By 8 o'clock the boat was raised clear of the water, then still suspended by the crane was towed back to the base on a darkened sea.
|
Back to:
