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LETTER OF THE MONTH
Mistaken identity?
In the January 2023 issue you covered the sinking of a yacht by orcas, the second to be sunk in 2022. I’d love to know the science behind the official guidelines, because my guess is, there isn’t any. All you have to do is watch a few videos about natural orca behaviour to see what is going on. Orcas kill whales by repeatedly bumping them for several hours until they are exhausted. They then swim over the top of them to suffocate them. They do this with calves as well as adults. Having killed the whale they then bite off the tongue or lower jaw bone before leaving the carcass.
I suggest that, to an orca, the black antifouled hull of a yacht looks like a whale, a fin keel is like a pectoral fin and the rudder looks like a tongue or jaw bone. When the yacht stops, they think they have killed it. Then they bite the rudder off. Whether they are doing this as a game or for real, who knows. The fact that we humans have hoovered up most if not all the fish in the sea might explain why they have turned on this singularly unappetising kind of ‘whale’.
The simple way to prevent an attack is to make sure your hull is wrapped or antifouled in a bright colour, or at least your rudder is. It’s up to you as the skipper whether you choose to stop.
See yachtingworld.com for updates on the latest research into the orca incidents off Spain.
Scow power
Your Ace 30 test [was] very interesting! (see our YouTube channel for video of this modern scow design). I started building my double bow scow 20-footer in Sydney in 1987, after showing Ben Lexcen videos of my model tests. He said she was a bit tippy but I should build a big one. I thought 20ft was big enough (and we had a tiny budget). After the initial launch in 1992 in Perth and thereafter much hull sculpting (ply under epoxy glass is great for that), Atalanta was 22ft and raceworthy in 2005. We’ve won the season’s fastest times in Division 3 for five of the past 12 years at East Fremantle YC.
Back to basics
In 2007 the renowned yachtsman Jean-Marie Vidal launched the idea of the Classe 9.50 in response to the Open 60, Open 50, Open 40 and Mini
