Cynthia Woods:Bad Repair, Bad Design, or Bad Luck?
The current investigation into the capsizing of the Texas A&M University's Cynthia Wood which resulted in the loss of the life of one sailor and the endangering of five others who waited, treading water, for 26 hours, is focussing on the examination of two previous groundings of the boat.
'Cynthia Woods under examination, photo by Cynthia Woods Daily News'
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The Cape Fear 38 sailing boat ran aground in both 2006 and 2007. According to early reports, the initial grounding caused no damage, but in last year's grounding, the 5 ft 5000lb bolted on keel had to be repaired, to a total coast of under $2000.
However, the A&M System official in charge of investigating the capsizing warned against reading too much into the earlier incidents.
'Vessels run aground, and vessels get repaired,' Jay Kimbrough, the system's deputy chancellor and general counsel, told the Austin American Statesman. 'Just because it ran aground does not give me an 'a-ha' moment.
'That's why cars have bumpers. The question is to what extent was it damaged, how was it repaired and was it fully repaired.'
Three days after the incident, A&M University officials suspended use of a twin vessel, the George Phydias, pointing to concerns that the vessel may have had a design fault.
Kimbrough also asked 'Was it bad luck or bad design?'
The sailing world will be, at the very least, mystified, if a finding of 'Bad Luck' is the result of the investigation.
by Sail-World Cruising 
Bateau Bay, NSW
