Marine Results’ transport vans picked up a formidable load of metal in late July, half a tonne in fact. It’s not scrap but high specification components belonging to the rig of the 43m/140ft ketch SY Hetairos. The consignment was loaded in Cherbourg, where the superyacht was lifted out of the water following a violent grounding in St Barts in the Caribbean. Despite no obvious damaged it was decided to take the precaution of giving the rig and all its components a complete inspection.
As a specialist testing company which has carried out service work on Hetairos in the past, Marine Results was called in. The company ran each component through the test facility at their headquarters in Hamble and were satisfied to see that only one part, a mizzen mast V1 deck toggle, failed. The component was consequently sent to composite rig manufacturers Future Fibres for repair.
To give an idea of the size of these components, one turnbuckle is just over a metre long.
“The failure of the toggle was almost certainly caused by the grounding,” commented Ed Danby of Marine Results. “So it’s important that after incidents like this, structures are carefully evaluated for any concealed damage.”
