By John Shury
In Composites TVMarine
1 min read

Conducting Emergency Carbon Fibre Hull Repairs in the Deep Southern Ocean

Skipper Ian Walker supervised an incredible five-hour job that saw 30 bolts screwed through the hull of Abu Dhabi’s boat Azzam (which means ‘determination’ in Arabic) to prevent further damage

The Azzam crew make a masterful “at-sea” repair that will hopefully keep them in the race. In order to carry out the repair the crew slowed the boat to a standstill before tilting it onto it’s side during heavy weather. Bowman Justin Slattery was then lowered overboard to tighten the bolts outside of the hull.

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73 Comments

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  7. i bet half of you complaining about the boats breaking dont even sail, this race is so competitive that if a team were to make a heavier stronger boat, they simply wouldn’t be able to keep up with the rest, the longest leg of the race and it came down to like 15 minutes at the finish, the whole point of this race is to push everything to the limits, and that is where the skill comes in, when to push when to hold back

  8. i bet half of you complaining about the boats breaking dont even sail, this race is so competitive that if a team were to make a heavier stronger boat, they simply wouldn’t be able to keep up with the rest, the longest leg of the race and it came down to like 15 minutes at the finish, the whole point of this race is to push everything to the limits, and that is where the skill comes in, when to push when to hold back

  9. The complaints from us “armchair sailors” aren’t really about weight per se, they’re about design failure in offshore race boats. The VOR should have stricter design/builder specs to ensure this type of failure doesn’t happen. The HULL IS DELAMINATING ON A BOAT THAT’S NOT EVEN 2 YEARS OLD!!! Ultimately, for the VOR to retain credibility as a preeminent sailing event, they need to enforce designs that guarantee more than half the boats finish. If they can’t do this, the race becomes a joke.

  10. The complaints from us “armchair sailors” aren’t really about weight per se, they’re about design failure in offshore race boats. The VOR should have stricter design/builder specs to ensure this type of failure doesn’t happen. The HULL IS DELAMINATING ON A BOAT THAT’S NOT EVEN 2 YEARS OLD!!! Ultimately, for the VOR to retain credibility as a preeminent sailing event, they need to enforce designs that guarantee more than half the boats finish. If they can’t do this, the race becomes a joke.

  13. 100kg where, exactly?? 100kg in core, skin, what? If skin, what orientation should this 100kg of fibers have? Please, from the insightful perspective of that armchair of yours, enlighten the fools that design, build and sail these boats.

  14. 100kg where, exactly?? 100kg in core, skin, what? If skin, what orientation should this 100kg of fibers have? Please, from the insightful perspective of that armchair of yours, enlighten the fools that design, build and sail these boats.

  16. Ian Walker’s crew preform an amazing repair on Azzam in middle of Southern Ocean. Is this the future in ocean racing?

  19. Ian Walker’s crew preform an amazing repair on Azzam in middle of Southern Ocean. Is this the future in ocean racing?

  20. Ian Walker’s crew preform an amazing repair on Azzam in middle of Southern Ocean. Is this the future in ocean racing?

  21. Ian Walker’s crew preform an amazing repair on Azzam in middle of Southern Ocean. Is this the future in ocean racing?

  22. You guys crying about the boats needing repairs do not understand cutting edge design. Sure their boats break, but when they do, the engineers learn something new and incorporate it into the next design. Without failure you can’t truly learn the weaknesses

  23. You guys crying about the boats needing repairs do not understand cutting edge design. Sure their boats break, but when they do, the engineers learn something new and incorporate it into the next design. Without failure you can’t truly learn the weaknesses

  28. your old Moody would survive a Nuke!! those old Moody’s were built well! The newer ones are lack’ing though

  30. 30 years build’in sailboats,,that repair won’t hold up long,,, But if you gotta do something you do,Hope the wind don’t go back to skunk mode!!

  31. 30 years build’in sailboats,,that repair won’t hold up long,,, But if you gotta do something you do,Hope the wind don’t go back to skunk mode!!

  34. Excellent video but it’s a shame it’s about repairs rather than actual racing!! Next time designers should remember the Volvo Ocean Race is about endurance around the world not pure speed.

  35. Excellent video but it’s a shame it’s about repairs rather than actual racing!! Next time designers should remember the Volvo Ocean Race is about endurance around the world not pure speed.

  36. Excellent video but it’s a shame it’s about repairs rather than actual racing!! Next time designers should remember the Volvo Ocean Race is about endurance around the world not pure speed.

  50. two of six boats withod repair or structure problems. Sure- southern ocean, but this is not sailing anymore. Next race the crew will be: navigator, one bowman, two huge guys for grinding, one skipper, one cameraman and twelve repair guys and a lot of carbon for repair.

  51. My 30 year old moody could take 100x more than that. vo70’s are pathetic. However don’t stop putting repair videos on! They are good to watch and learn. TOP JOB! 😀

  52. My 30 year old moody could take 100x more than that. vo70’s are pathetic. However don’t stop putting repair videos on! They are good to watch and learn. TOP JOB! 😀

  56. That says it all really “This is a yacht racing competition, not a boat building competition” Volvo should have set stricter requirements for the boats. Very disappointing….

  57. That says it all really “This is a yacht racing competition, not a boat building competition” Volvo should have set stricter requirements for the boats.Very disappointing….

  58. Want to see racing, not guys risking all to make it to shore! Design failures seem to be the issues!

  61. id say its more fair to say 3 out of 5 boats… only because sanya is a 2nd gen boat

  62. Its not difficult to build a carbon/foam sandwich core properly but it appears that this work is being done by people who don’t know what they’re doing. This is supposed to be the most competitive yacht race in the world and now it’s turned into the “how to repair your boat at sea” contest. What a joke.

  64. So that’s 4 out of 6 boats now with problems on this leg alone?? I just hope VOR HQ take note at how disappointing this race has been so far. These boats either need to be specced down at the design stage or built better.

  65. Please add 100kg to the Boats next time, so they withstand one leg without repair. Could not make this much difference in speed, when you look at the time they spend for repairs.

  66. Neat idea ingeniously executed. Fair play to Azzam’s crew. These new generation O70s are obviously not strong enough. It seems to me that ‘speed’ has been the overriding design driver and ironically the net result is that we haven’t see enough racing. I’d rather see slightly slower speeds if it increased the chances of more sustained racing.

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