Voyager 2.0 Last Voyage. What happened ?

Voyager 2.0 was at sea for 32 hours before the failures occurred, leaving the boat adrift for a further 44 hours.

The mast was broken off , and the electronic controller was lost.

Voyager 2.0 shortly after recovery

The mast suffered a brittle fracture at deck level.

The image below shows the fracture.

Remainder of Mast showing the brittle fracture at deck level

A test bend was performed on the remaining part of the aluminium mast.

It displayed the typical ductile bend expected of aluminium tubing.

The aluminium mast had been in use for around 3 years. 

The brittle fracture was probably due to work hardening or a fatigue failure.

This failure was avoidable.

Testing of the remainder of the mast showing ductile failure.

The Electronic Voyager Controller was lost when the lashing failed. The lashing was fixed to the hull using a simple 25mm screw through the fibre glass and into the foam. 

This was fine for trials on a lake, but clearly not suitable for ocean conditions.

Failed Lashing intended to restrain the Equipment Compartment 

The Spot GPS and the controller are housed in a Sistema Brilliance 920ml container. After 76 hours at sea, about 5ml of water had entered the container.

This implies that additional sealing will be required if these containers are used at sea. The containers are watertight for short durations, such as lake trials.

Tests will need to be performed to establish the reason for the water ingress. This could include diurnal heating and cooling, improperly seated seal, possibly due to dirt particles, or simple leaking through the seal.

Brilliance 920ml Container with the 5ml water acquired during the 76 hours at sea.

 First and Last Ocean Voyage of Voyager 2.0

May Day 2021, a Saturday, at 6am, Voyager 2.0 commenced its first ocean voyage from a beach at Torquay in western Victoria. The course consisted of seven waypoints covering 55nm through to a beach in Western Port, in eastern Victoria.

The course from Torquay to Pt Leo.

Pre-Launch

Sunrise on May Day with Voyager a few kilometres into the voyage, still in range of the LoRa telemetry.

The winds were light to moderate from the north for the majority of the journey.

She sailed well for 32 hours to the waypoint south of Cape Schanck, a distance of approximately 30nm. Voyager successfully round the waypoint at about 1:40pm on Sunday May 2nd.

Voyager 2.0 sailed well for 32 hours in Bass Strait.

The boat successfully rounded the waypoint, and commenced the beat in the north easterly wind, but within about half an hour there was a catastrophic failure of some type which meant the boat was no longer sailing. 

With good fortune, the winds turned to the south east later that night, at around 20 to 25 knots.

The slow rate of drifting, in strong winds implied that wingsail was not present.

Eventually Voyager drifted with the tides and the south easterly winds into Western Port.

It ultimately drifted in to a beach at Shoreham, where I was able to retrieve it, 44 hours after the failure.

It was an extraordinary coincidence that the beach at Shoreham where the boat drifted ashore was just 3km from the intended destination at Pt Leo. 

Once Voyager was retrieved the nature of the failure became apparent.

The wingsail was missing as expected, but also the main controller was missing. 

This contained the electronics including the SD card recording the sailing data.

It was lucky that the GPS satellite tracking  was not lost, and allowed the remainder of the boat to be retrieved.

The remnants of Voyager on the beach at Shoreham.