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From Ant
Carbon fibre rudders - are they safe? what else could you make it out of that is as strong? Anyway composite materials rarely have complete brittle fracture with no warning, hence Tyco have at least had a few hours that the whole thing was going wrong, unlike an alloy that, though may be stronger in some respects (ie, more ductile) has not got the reliability.

This can be seen by alloy masts that used to break regularly on some boats but carbon fibre has rectified this to some extent. Carbon is a relatively new material and its use is still not a completely exact science, the first carbon dinghies were build using carbon like wood, hence a crap result. Give them more time to iron out imperfections and they will become more reliable just like carbon masts and hulls.

From Red Mullet
Carbon fibre rudders - are they safe? Why not? It's a reasonably straight forward engineering problem - provided you have a grasp of the magnitude and pattern of the loads involved, coupled with knowledge of how to engineer a composite structure. Any of the possible causes of failure listed below are equally applicable to a stainless or titanium stock.

A failure of this type can have several possible causes:
1. Miscalculation of loads - not the first time this will have occurred in the history of this race - most of the first generation Whit 60's suffered core shear failure since ABS had not conceived of water-ballasted boats smashing into waves and not slowing down.
2. Fibre stress miscalculation - simply not allowing sufficient material.
3. Design issue - specifying a build process which results in poor stress transfer.
4. Manufacturing fault - improperly cured matrix, incorrect fibre selection, poor workmanship, less than ideal fabrication conditions, etc.

From the description given at the beginning of the article, the idea of a stock like this being built in two halves is quite astounding. Why would you deliberately build in a failure point of this nature in a component where failure would be catastrophic and imperil the lives of the crew? Sounds like a design issue.

From Paul and Kath
Carbon fibre rudders - are they safe? This is yet another example of making a boat too light for the conditions it will meet. I would like to see how many cruising boats use the carbon fibre set-up. Lets see: masts breaking, keels falling off, sails shredding, lack of food. Are these guys crazy?

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