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From Capt. Chris Bingham-Hunter
Could Team Philips have worked? That the two pieces of Team Philips wreckage recovered to date are so widely separated is not necessarily a sign that the North Atlantic currents are doing things that we might not know about. The hull discovered near Iceland has a reported air draft of approx one metre, whereas the "bow section" ( I believe it's actually part of the accomodation pod and cockit) discovered near Malin Head was apparently almost completely submerged. The hull, with it's one metre air draft could be expected to lie broadside to the weather and would be more influenced by prevailing wind than would the pod section, which, being awash, would be more influenced by current. If you examine the directions of prevailing wind and current in the areas of interest, you will find that these two pieces of wreckage, given their differing characteristics and resistances to the two influencing elements, have ended up in pretty much the "right" places.

From Philip Tucker
Could Team Philips have worked? The idea of TP was akin to the development of the monoplane from the biplane. Traditional cats have the forward bracing that stabilises the bows. It is obvious from the race that the yachts such as Team Adventure and Club Med sustained damage when ploughing into the back of waves. This puts huge amounts of load on the structure, especially the mast. Team Philips initially had its problems, and it is a shame that the sponsors required her to be tested in the public gaze, as in comparable sports such as motor racing the testing is conducted in complete privacy.

With such new technologies we must expect development problems. Unfortunately the project was not awash with cash as the public probably thought, otherwise there would have been the testing that might have prevented such failures, such as the torsional loads exerted on the central pod that ultimately led to the boat being abandoned, not that the bows and masts were absolutely fine, although the rescue procedure necessitated Pete to produce some fine helmsmanship to steer TP against the ship to safely transfer his crew. The craft also had many safety features; imagine being able to sail dead downwind and be able to weathercock the mast so that the sail can be reefed with the greatest of ease (of course the other mast will still be powering the boat downwind so making a low apparent wind speed).

Of course the pod was an innovation for the crew, who would have been more rested than their counterparts on other multis due to their accommodation being out of the water, and smoother due to the wave-piercing bows, which would have promoted better resting periods off watch. Team Philips can be the only way forward for large racing multis, but it will take time to regain the interest and trust in such a structure before it is reborn.

More on page two.....