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Four days ago Orange had a delamination problem

mardi 2 avril 2002

"To be honest, I must say that apart from what you already know, we had a little problem that could have had more serious consequences..." wrote Bruno Peyron in his e-mail of the day. Indeed, four days ago the maxi-catamaran Orange had a delamination problem with a part of the aft beam fairing. In addition two inside bulkheads were cracked in this zone that is very exposed to the violent slamming of the waves. After diagnostic, reflection, and repair, this "little problem that could have had more serious consequences" has now been sorted out and the maxi-catamaran Orange will be able to get back into her stride and "really show what how these boats can perform !" dixit Bruno Peyron.

There’s no doubt about it, the Indian Ocean cost the maxi-catamaran Orange dearly ! And while the weather conditions have hardly favoured the Marseilles giant’s progress, this delamination of part of the aft beam fairing 2.5 metres from the port hull did not exactly help them ! "Indeed, the aft beam fairing had delaminated in the area that gets the onslaught of the waves. Rather like what they experienced on Team Adventure in The Race, but less serious," wrote Bruno Peyron in an explanatory e-mail. "Add to that two cracked bulkheads in this impact zone... It must have happened when we were pushing a bit too hard in the crossed seaway on the continental shelf to the south of Africa and beating just before the Kerguelens". Happily it wasn’t as serious as it first seemed, because the damage was quickly found during one of the systematic check-ups of each part of the boat. It was the composite wizard Yves Le Blevec who noticed it from the access to the aft beam from inside the Video room in the port hull. "In fact the honeycomb core had collapsed due to the slamming of the waves", explained Philippe Péché who assisted Yves with the repairs. "Then, the inner and outer skins started to peel and little fibres of carbon were even beginning to hang on the outside of the beam. But thankfully it wasn’t too serious because we noticed the problem in time, but it’s clear, if we hadn’t noticed it, it could have become much more serious !"

How did Yves and Philippe go about it ? Bruno explained : "They started by cleaning the zone, then laminated a patch inside the beam, then mended the cracked bulkheads, then Yves made a part in carbon that he applied on the outside of the beam, which was bolted and bonded with a carbon backing piece on the inside. And all that with the difficulties you can imagine, like working inside the beam, at 20 knots, in a crossed seaway and with an air temperature of around 7 or 8°C ! We diverted the heating duct to favour the lamination process with a system for extracting the air at the same time. A real yard job !"

While this little problem took about twenty hours to sort out, will it influence in any way how the Marseilles giant will be sailed ? "We’ll have to keep an eye on this weakened zone, and in any case it has incited us to lift our foot off a bit until we feel comfortable with it" wrote Bruno. "So we’re now going to have to find a more organised seaway before putting our foot down again". Then the skipper told us during the chat session : "But the problem was sorted in time and we’re still in the race. The prevailing westerly is continuing and our course is good. Today we’ve got about 30 knots of wind and we’re under either a full main or with one reef and the storm spinnaker..."

Watch it Pacific, "it’s not over yet !" as Bruno said..

Pierrick Garenne / Mer & Média / Translation David Palmer - SeaSpeak / Orange

Map : Orange autour du monde



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