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Better days as Brian Petersen’s Ran Tan II pops out at the start of a race in Auckland last winter. Petersen’s Elliott canting-keeler was on the way to the Transpac start when her keel fin folded and shortly afterwards snapped off – almost certainly due to metal fatigue. Ran Tan went afloat in 2005, nearly 10 years after canting keels began to appear in significant number on larger racing yachts (they had already monopolised the Mini 6.50 class – led by Michel Desjoyeaux, of course). This means a lot of big canting keelers out there which are no longer receiving the same regular inspections that they received before dropping off the competitive radar. Just saying
Meanwhile, on receiving the Mayday, the rescue network had
sprung quickly into action with Wellington notifying the US Coast Guard in Honolulu. Five minutes later the Coast Guard were on the phone to Brian. ‘They were going to send out an aircraft to drop a liferaft for the crew, but I told them the boat was fully equipped with all the safety gear, including a liferaft and inflatable dinghy. The priority was to start notifying ships in the area.’ And despite the isolated location, there were a number of ships fairly close by. At that stage the situation onboard Ran Tan II was fairly stable.
Even without the keel the boat remained upright. Conditions were calm. A message on Facebook (sic) described the three Kiwis onboard eating crackers and cheese and drinking cold beer. A Mexican tuna boat, equipped with a helicopter, was about
100 miles south of Ran Tan’s position. They began heading towards the stricken yacht and later that afternoon the New Zealanders heard the welcome sound of a helicopter approaching. The fishing vessel hove into view a couple of hours later. With the Ran Tan crew safely aboard, the tuna boat captain
declined enquiries from the crew about craning the yacht aboard, or taking her under tow – although the company has since said that if one of their vessels finds the yacht in a towable condition they will attempt a salvage. With the crew safely accounted for, Brian’s attention turned to
mounting a rescue for his yacht. His first problem was that once the boat crossed the Equator his existing insurance cover lapsed. He was well into the process of securing cover for the rest of the
22 SEAHORSE
passage when the Mayday went out. Ran Tan was north of the Equator and uninsured. For 24 hours after Ran Tan was abandoned the AIS system
continued broadcasting a position. Then it went silent. Presumably she had capsized. ‘I contacted the US Coast Guard and asked them to generate a drift model, which they did,’ said Brian. The model showed that in the space of a week the search area would expand to encompass a vast area of ocean. Realistically, all thoughts of a search had to be abandoned. ‘It would be a needle in a haystack.’ Apart from the financial implications, the loss is painful. ‘I did
a lot of miles on that boat,’ Brian recalled. ‘During the passage to Tahiti I mentioned to the guys that what I loved about Ran Tan was that she was such a willing worker. She only needed a sniff of breeze and she was off. She was a delight to sail, light on the helm and fast,’ he said, recalling that during their 2017 Sydney Hobart run she hit 32.8kt and ran hard for six to eight hours clocking 25-30kt. ‘It was unbelievable. Fantastic.’ Designer Greg Elliott is as gutted as anybody. The two friends
have raced thousands of miles together, including the double- handed Melbourne-Osaka race in 1995 on the twin-masted schooner Elliott Marine, and the 2002 Round North Island Race on Petersen’s previous yacht, Maverick, also an Elliott design. Commenting on the Ran Tan loss, Elliott said the engineering
and design of the keel was done to exceed recognised engineering criteria at that time. The steel plates that formed the backbone of the fin were continuous, with no welds. In his view, the failure pointed
IVOR WILKINS
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