Just finished reading "Swirly World Lost At Sea" The story is about the famous Kiwi Rockstar sailor who tried to circumnavigate via the Southern Capes in a 5.18 meter plywood sloop. He failed because his rudder fell off and was rescued by a container ship. He has published other books on his other voyages and hold various records.
Its over 300 pages long and does not cover much of the technical details in terms of preparations, stores or any modifications done for the voyage. This is one thing that annoys me about sailing authors who write sailing adventure books as if the target market is ordinary people forgetting that in most cases its will be yachts people who are the main target market who are more interested in the technical details.
There is a brief mention and breakdown of why Andrew Fagan thought that he rudder fell off. Looking at a detailed picture it looked rather flimsy and weak whose scantlings seemed to look right for a weekend trailer sailor. This is just my opinion and may not have any technical basis for this criticism. A design by Gary Appelby.
I mention the rudder because of the increase in Orca strikes and people like Sven Yrvind who is embarking on a voyage to NZ who covers in great detail the strength aspects of rudders and skegs on small craft designs. Its also interesting to note the effort in designs such as the Class 5.8 boats and projects like the Wave Rover that placed considerable analysis into rudder and skeg failures.
The web is full of social media, podcasts and other material for those interested in Andrew Fagan and the vessel Swirly World.
