Posted by Tom Vesey (tvesey@…>)
I received an e-mail today from Frog Kiss owner Patrick Mouligne who reported as follows:"The break is truly unheard off. 20Knts of true wind on the beam, a reef in the main and a reef in the mizzain, small jib up, she was in a somewhat conservative sailing mode for the night, moving along at 7 knots. Seas about 8 to 10’. Perfect conditions for the F44. The mast broke a foot above the gooseneck and fell to leeward… It will be examined carefully to find out what happened. Carbon Fibers and composites in general do not “fatigue” as much as metal and are very resilient. I do suspect a possible lightning strike which might have compromised the integrity of the resin system…but…we do not know yet. As soon as the experts have decided I shall be happy to communicate the results to you…I am still in love with ours and she has been a dream to sail for many years. She sailed back from Bermuda singlehanded and wthout her main mast in 4 days…What other sailboat could have done that???"Patrick wasn’t sailing Frog Kiss at the time of the incident (he was in his motor yacht, Frog Kiss II)…It was his son Tristan.If I get any more information, I’ll pass it on to the group.TomFreedom 44 JackrabbitBermudaPS I’m heading out on Jackrabbit at the end of next week to sail to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland for the summer. On Jul 2, 2007, at 6:31 PM, michel.capel wrote:Fargo,There are a couple of F44’s for sale for quite a long time now. A challenging offer might set off something… I’m not sure however you want to bid on Frog Kiss in her current condition…Michel— In FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com, Fargo Rousseau <fargo_r@…> wrote:>> Michel:> > I am following this issue as well…though from a safe armchair distance. I know the Frog Kiss team loves their staysails…but don’t know if the replacement mast (that failed again) was redesigned to take a point load so high off the deck. I am confident that a carbon mast can be designed take whatever load might be applied…but I wonder if this one failed because of a design problem…or a construction problem. The Mull and Pedrick masts were designed for the point load of the jib stay. In the case of the Pedrick boats…those loads are quite large and very high up the mast. I know of no problems with any of those mast designs.> > I hope we can find out the details of the failure. I love the F44… love, and in my more delusional moments, lust after. > > Fargo> recently boatless…and looking> > > > “michel.capel” <michel.capel@…> wrote: All,> > As we know, F44 Frog Kiss won the first (singlehanded) leg of the > Bermuda-one-two race. On the doublehanded upwind leg, Frog Kiss lost > one of the masts. As it now appears from the quote “Tristan has set > a staysail forward of the rear mast and is sailing fairly well.” > which I picked up from the Bermuda-1-2 website, the mainmast was > lost. That was the mast with the nifty little jib attached. Was that > too much for the CF mast? I’d really like to know what happened and > what caused the breakage. I recall that Frog Kiss had already lost a > main mast in the past, due to the mast becoming unstepped and > falling over, then got squeezed in the deck opening.> > Is there someone here with contacts with the Mouligne family? > Someone willing to visit their Newport RI base to ask what > happened? I have an F44 myself and a bit worried about my sticks.> > Thanks,> > Michel>
Posted by michel.capel (michel.capel@…>)
Tom, many thanks for passing this along.
Michel
— In FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com, Tom Vesey <tvesey@…>
wrote:
I received an e-mail today from Frog Kiss owner Patrick Mouligne
who
reported as follows:“The break is truly unheard off. 20Knts of true wind on the beam,
a
reef in the main and a reef in the mizzain, small jib up, she was
in
a somewhat conservative sailing mode for the night, moving along
at 7
knots. Seas about 8 to 10’. Perfect conditions for the F44.
The mast broke a foot above the gooseneck and fell to
leeward…
It will be examined carefully to find out what happened.
Carbon Fibers and composites in general do not “fatigue” as much
as
metal and are very resilient. I do suspect a possible lightning
strike which might have compromised the integrity of the resin
system…but…we do not know yet. As soon as the experts have
decided I shall be happy to communicate the results to you.
…I am still in love with ours and she has been a dream to sail
for
many years. She sailed back from Bermuda singlehanded and wthout
her
main mast in 4 days…What other sailboat could have done that???”Patrick wasn’t sailing Frog Kiss at the time of the incident (he
was
in his motor yacht, Frog Kiss II)…It was his son Tristan.
If I get any more information, I’ll pass it on to the group.Tom
Freedom 44 Jackrabbit
BermudaPS I’m heading out on Jackrabbit at the end of next week to sail
to
Nova Scotia and Newfoundland for the summer.On Jul 2, 2007, at 6:31 PM, michel.capel wrote:
Fargo,
There are a couple of F44’s for sale for quite a long time now. A
challenging offer might set off something… I’m not sure
however
you want to bid on Frog Kiss in her current condition…Michel
— In FreedomOwnersGroup@yahoogroups.com, Fargo Rousseau
<fargo_r@> wrote:Michel:
I am following this issue as well…though from a safe armchair
distance. I know the Frog Kiss team loves their staysails…but
don’t know if the replacement mast (that failed again) was
redesigned
to take a point load so high off the deck. I am confident that a
carbon mast can be designed take whatever load might be
applied…but I wonder if this one failed because of a design
problem…or a construction problem. The Mull and Pedrick masts
were
designed for the point load of the jib stay. In the case of the
Pedrick boats…those loads are quite large and very high up the
mast. I know of no problems with any of those mast designs.I hope we can find out the details of the failure. I love the
F44… love, and in my more delusional moments, lust after.Fargo
recently boatless…and looking“michel.capel” <michel.capel@>
wrote: All,As we know, F44 Frog Kiss won the first (singlehanded) leg of
the
Bermuda-one-two race. On the doublehanded upwind leg, Frog Kiss
lost
one of the masts. As it now appears from the quote “Tristan has
set
a staysail forward of the rear mast and is sailing fairly
well.”
which I picked up from the Bermuda-1-2 website, the mainmast
was
lost. That was the mast with the nifty little jib attached. Was
that
too much for the CF mast? I’d really like to know what happened
and
what caused the breakage. I recall that Frog Kiss had already
lost
a
main mast in the past, due to the mast becoming unstepped and
falling over, then got squeezed in the deck opening.Is there someone here with contacts with the Mouligne family?
Someone willing to visit their Newport RI base to ask what
happened? I have an F44 myself and a bit worried about my
sticks.Thanks,
Michel