tophatyachts.com

Hi

One thing I love about Sydney Harbour is that there's usually something happening..... last weekend after sailing past the racing fleet as the rounded the windward mark I turned around some time later to see that a racing yacht had capsized. The wind was only about 10 - 15 knots. I got some poor quality mobile photos, however there's a good slide show here:

http://www.saltwaterimages.com.au/live/ ... s/Q.html#0

The yacht was on it's side for a couple of hours until (what appeared to me at a long distance) another yacht gave it a lift. I suppose under some circumstances a boat might fall over when: "Rotating the keel clear of the water eliminates speed-sapping drag, and because the keel fin is positioned so far to windward less ballast is needed to gain maximum stability". Less ballast indeed, even with the keel locked in the down position how would you like to deliver this boat from Sydney to Qld to compete in the Hamilton Island race series it was designed for? Or will they put it on a truck?

Q is 42 ft long but at less that 4 tons it's ony 55% heavier than a Top Hat. Nice looking boat though.

Keith

G'Day Keith,
One of the crew aboard "Q" goes to Belmont 16s also. Apparently what I have heard so far is that the keel is canted by rope or held in position by rope. It is a sizable kevlar cable. It simply snapped and the keel fell to the vertical. The hull was no longer ballasted and thus simply fellover.
From the crews report is was the biggest bang they have ever heard!

That is another thing I might add to the list of top hat modifications.
Canting keel, water ballast, poop deck and a piano!
Oh dear, Greg.

Hey Greg

Don't forget the sail drive
Bear

sorry but I have already beaten you to the piano mod... the trick was getting the double bass aboard I make percussionists stand on the wharf!!