Voyager Mission 2.6 - Good, but too rough for the sail!
Voyager was launched as version 2.6 from Torquay back beach at around 7:30am 30/3/2023.
The expected conditions were for south westerly winds over the coming few days of 15 to 25 knots, with a 2 to 3 metre south westerly swell.
Some breaking swells could be seen out to sea after the launch.
It was going to be rough.
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| Voyager 2.6 just prior to Launch at Torquay |
It soon became apparent that Voyager was not holding course in the strong south westerly wind and swell. It looked like it was coming back to the rhumb line, but that was just wishful thinking, and it became clear she would wash ashore on the ocean side of Blairgowrie.
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| Voyager 2.6 only held course for a few hours. |
The important question is to find out what has happened.
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| Typical appearance of the coastline near Blairgowrie (except it was dark at 8:30pm). |
Standing on the coast as Voyager approached, it was very pleasing to receive telemetry signals.
This shows that the electronic systems were largely operational.
A new addition to the telemetry was measurement of range and bearing.
This relies on a GPS module that was added to the TFT Telemetry terminal which is used to compare with the reported position from the vessel to calculate range and bearing.
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| First Telemetry signals could be received at around 1.7km. |
The vessel finally washed ashore at around 8:30pm.
It could not be seen visually as it came in, but could be tracked using telemetry, to provide range and bearing.
The shoreline appeared rocky and the seas were rough.
It appeared that the vessel was going to wash against rocks.
The telemetry signal was lost at about the time when the vessel reached the shoreline, and so it was assumed that it had been damaged against the rocks. Access to the area was difficult and dangerous in the dark.
However, another position signal was received via satellite, and so there was evidence that it may have been intact.
It was eventually tracked down an hour later.
It was relatively intact.
The mast and sail had been lost.
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| Voyager 2.6 as found on the beach an hour after washing ashore, with the tide receding. |
It was found that the electronics were in good order. They had been switched off when the vessel came ashore, and tiller was dislodged, flicking the power switch off.
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| The main electronics had been switched off when the vessel came ashore |
The rudder post was found to be bent, as shown in the image below. This probably occurred as vessel was washed ashore. The rudder post was bent, but there was no damage to the plastic rudder bearings, which is good, given the load they must have endured.
It is likely that the magnetic coupling disk popped off its bolt and knocked the power switch off.
A retaining nut had not been fitted, because the disk appears difficult to remove due to the magnetic coupling with its counter-part.
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| View of Hull showing bent rudder, probably from being washed ashore |
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| Remaining Mast stub covered in sand, extracted from hull. |
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| General appearance of Mast and Bearings prior to mission. |
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| Partially disassembled remnants of Mast showing overlap of inner tube |
The mast was made from a length of 12mm pultruded carbon fibre tube.
A 10mm tube was inserted into to it, and projected down pas the top bearing to increase the strength at that point,
Examination of the mast stub showed that it had failed primarily around the point where the 10mm tube ended.
