Maxwell (Not So) Smart

By now you know of our liking the 30' R/P Cone of Silence, and you also know of their aborted Transpac effort which of course is a huge bummer. We wanted to know what happened, and the owner James Neil sent us this short report.

As you will have seen from the Transpac web site, the problem was that someone kicked open the cleat (downstairs) which holds the rope which holds the jet drive doors shut. In retrospect we now think it happened about two hours after the start. We were cruising along upwind pacing it with the ID 35s then all of a sudden slowed. We thought we hit weed, backed off and indeed saw some weed come off the keel. After that we kept wondering why we were slow – checked the keel again by getting someone in the water, etc., etc. Thought we must be imagining it and continued on and were now separated from the other boats who tacked off to the north so couldn’t measure pace in lumpy water.

Needless to say that the cleat holding the doors shut has not come open before in a race and no one thought to check it. As we picked up speed the water rushing through got too much and ripped the door right off. The rudder was all funny and when the sea backed off a bit we got someone in the water to have a look. The rest is history.

Anyway we’ll probably be back in two years time with a few simple mods to make sure same problems do not occur again. The Cone is now being shipped back to Syndey by our sponsors ANZDL.

I think you put the mockers on us making us favourite for our class!

Regards,

James Neill

07/18/03