Inifiniti 52 Tulikettu övergiven
Fruktansvärt tråkigt att läsa denna nyhet från Helsingin Sanomat 😢
Vi känner med Arto och hela teamet.
Alla som driver offshore-projekt vet att det är en lång rad av besvikelser och saker som inte alls blir som man har tänkt sig. Men att tvingas överge en helt ny båt på detta sätt är något utöver det vanliga.
Det lär ha varit hårt väder då olyckan inträffade under en transport från Cascais i Portugal till Gosport i UK, men det finns inga officiella uppgifter om fårhållanden på platsen.
Artikeln översatt med Google Translate:
The most expensive Finnish sailors’ Tulikettu sailing ship collided with a mysterious target in the North Atlantic and disappeared.
Finnish skipper and boat team owner Arto Linnervuo assures that the sailing project aimed at the world’s largest offshore sailing will continue despite the loss of Tuliketu. “The more wet the rag on my face, the more strongly I want to achieve the set goals.”
The boat, christened a fire, was built at the Composite Builders shipyard in the United States. The speed of the boat rose to 30 knots, more than 55 kilometers per hour.
ARTO LINNERVUO’s expensive dream of sailing on the high seas suffered a huge setback when the carbon-fiber-fired Tulikettu ship disappeared in the North Atlantic last week.
A firefighter hit an unknown target under the boat on Monday, April 18th. The boat was sailing from Cascais, Portugal back to the team base in Gosport, England.
There were four members of the crew in the boat at the time of the accident, who survived unscathed and have already returned to their families in Britain.
The crew was evacuated from the ship to the tanker on April 20 after it fired an emergency transmitter. The firecracker had to be abandoned at sea.
“We realized that such activities have their own risks and dangers. Our safety system played and the crew was brought to safety. There are all kinds of roaring at sea. We don’t even guess what it could have been, ”says Linnervuo.
The search for a boat left at sea was stopped on Friday. Tuliketun was due to take part in its first competition on Saturday, April 30th. At the time of losing the boat, there was no Finnish race crew.
“The situation is the same as a Formula 1 stable would lose its car next season in the winter tests. The boat ended sadly. This was a crushing setback for the project, but I haven’t even considered it coming to an end. A new chapter begins, ”Linnervuo says broken to HS.
According to Linnervuo, one cannot talk about sinking a boat because it might as well drift somewhere in the Atlantic. In any case, it has not been found and may have sunk.
According to LINNERVUO, the team will continue to compete with other boats of the yacht club he founded in Finland, but the team plans to return to the legendary international offshore races with a new offshore sailing boat as soon as possible.
“Now there is a lot of paperwork and laundry left to be washed away. It was lucky in the accident that we had time to sail the boat for almost 5,000 nautical miles. We showed that the boat meets and even exceeds the requirements for achieving the goals, ”says Linnervuo.
The boat had insurance. Linnervuo does not disclose the price of a ship completed in the United States at the Composite Builders shipyard in Michigan.
The Infiniti 52 boat, known in Finnish as Tulikettu, was the yard’s first ship of its kind. Linnervuo’s all-Finnish fleet was a kind of mannequin team of Infiniti Yachts, which specializes in wing-assisted boats.
The crew also included Stu Bannatyne from New Zealand, one of the most experienced offshore sailors in the world.
Bannatyne says she is shocked to hear about the sinking of Tuliketu.
“I was in complete shock and sorrow. The boat was extremely comfortable to drive and trim. The Fireworks were a real step forward in the technology and performance of the 52-foot offshore racing boats. I look forward to rejoining Arto again, ”says Bannatyne.
The goal of the FINNISH PROJECT was to win one of the largest offshore races in the world, such as the Sydney – Hobart race, Fastnet in England, the Caribbean 600 race or the original Transatlantic race from Newport to the United States to England.
In addition, Linnervuo’s goal was to conquer the entire Royal Ocean Racing Club offshore sailing series (RORC) in either 2022 or 2023.
In July 2022, the RORC series will compete for the first time in 600 nautical miles, or about 1,100 kilometers, of continuous offshore sailing in the Baltic Sea, where the start and finish are in Helsinki.
Now it is sailed without the Tulikettu boat.
“Losing such a revolutionary boat is one of the hardest situations in my life after years of hard work. Giving up our goals to win something big with the Finnish team in the world’s most legendary offshore races would be something even worse. The more wet the rag on my face, the more strongly I want to achieve the set goals, ”says Linnervuo.
Apr 29, 2022 @ 19:30
Men vad hände? Börja den brinna? Ta in vatten? Hål? Kölen ramla av? Masten ramla ner? Motorn funka inte? Hur agera dom?
Mycket text men väldigt lite om olyckan?
Christofer
May 1, 2022 @ 11:53
S/Y TULIKETTU HAS BEEN LOST IN NORTH ATLANTIC AFTER COLLIDING WITH AN UNIDENTIFIED FLOATING OBJECT
It is with great sadness, that we must report an incident that occurred in the North Atlantic last week while Tulikettu was sailing from Cascais, Portugal back to the Team Base in Gosport, United Kingdom. All four delivery crew members survived the situation unharmed, and have returned to the United Kingdom with their loved ones.
The yacht collided with an unidentified floating object (UFO) on Monday 18 April. The EPIRB was launched in the early hours Wednesday 20 April at 00.54 am UTC. Will Jackson, Tulikettu shore team manager, supported the Person-In-Charge via a continuous satellite connection. On Wednesday, April 20, at 10:45 am UTC, the entire crew was evacuated to an oil tanker that had been diverted to assist, and Tulikettu had to be abandoned at sea.
A salvage operation commenced on Thursday 21 April. A high-powered tug was sent to search the area with direct assistance from a spotter plane. The search efforts have continued 24/7 for the last seven days. The shore team has been working day and night, with support from MRCC Turku and MRCC Delgado. The multinational team has worked together producing daily drift calculations to assist the sea and air recovery specialists. After a week of intensive searching, hope of recovery has faded, and the Tulikettu Team stopped the search on Friday evening 29 April.
” We managed to sail almost 5000 nautical miles aboard our magnificent yacht, which was long enough time to conclude that the new Infiniti 52 exceeded all our expectations for the performance of the boat. I will never forget the feeling when Tulikettu leaned on its foil and lifted herself above the waves for the first time reaching effortlessly boat speeds of 28 knots without help from surf waves, and the wind speed didn’t come even close to our boat speed back then.
I have been through many sleepless nights as I have wondered what else we could have done to find our beautiful new beast. Very slowly my thoughts are beginning to look at the future, which gives me strength in this devastating situation. Loosing such a revolutionary vessel that had attracted so much attention and interest across the global sailing community is, after many years’ work, one of the most difficult moments in my life, but giving up on our goals and my dream to win something big together with my all-Finnish offshore racing team on the international grand prix offshore racing scene would be much worse. The more wet rags on the face, the harder I want to achieve our goals.
A Formula One team would not stop racing after crashing its new car in the winter tests. Therefore, I have made the decision to continue our Team efforts as soon as possible in collaboration with Infiniti Yachts. In the meantime, the Team will continue to train and compete together with the other offshore racing yachts of our sailing club, Xtra Stærk Ocean Racing Society, including our Xp44 and JPK 10.30 yachts proven to be successful. We will explore the possibility of chartering other competitive boats. God damnit, we will be back!”, said Arto Linnervuo, Tulikettu Racing Team owner.
“The Infiniti 52 showed every sign of being the best yacht to have been fitted with DSS ever. Her behavior and balance were impeccable and speed easy to find. Having spent so long developing and building the Tulikettu her loss is a significant disappointment, notwithstanding hull 2 is well underway and hull 3 is expected to start in a few weeks.”says Gordon Kay, founder of Infiniti Yachts.
“I speak for the whole team at Composite Builders and all of the people involved in getting Tulikettu on the water, how heartbroken we are to hear of the unfortunate accident with this beautiful yacht. In its short life the boat’s performance had exceeded expectations! Unfortunately, we are seeing more instances of collisions with foreign objects at sea, and the effects this is having on the health of our oceans and the sailing community. We are happy that the crew are safe and hope to see Arto and his team back on the water very soon.” – commented Brian McInnes from boat builder Composite Builders.
“I was in total shock and saddened to hear about the loss of Tulikettu. The few times I sailed on the boat during early sea trials were truly exciting and she gave more than a few glimpses of her very impressive performance through a range of conditions. An absolute pleasure to drive and trim, Tulikettu was I think a genuine step forward in technology and performance for an offshore 52 foot race boat. I understand that Arto is very keen to be able to get back into a new Infiniti 52 as soon as possible. This is great news and completely understandable! I look forward to the opportunity to join him once again.” Said Sty Bannatyne, Tulikettu Racing team’s coach and Doyle Sails representative.
https://xtrastaerk.com/tulikettu-racing-suffers-a-devastating-set-back
May 2, 2022 @ 15:37
Det låter som mer än en hund begraven här. Shit comes to surface sooner or later
May 10, 2022 @ 22:50
“Now, whether it was that it just fell out, it hit something or the fact they had been slamming into waves for a few days loosened something is still not quite clear but the chatter is that is the latter that happened. The crew are very tight-lipped, (voluntarily or NDA is uncertain at this stage), lawyers are likely to be involved, not least those of the insurers and sadly this could end up very messy indeed.”
https://sailinganarchy.com/2022/05/10/the-front-fell-off-2/
Jun 6, 2022 @ 11:30
Och nu är båten hittad. Flytande.
Jun 6, 2022 @ 18:14
Från deras blogg:
Tulikettu, deemed lost at sea in April, has been found and safely returned to shore.
Tulikettu was sailing from Cascais, Portugal, back to the team base in Gosport, England across the Bay of Biscay. She was sailing with her foil fully retracted when the hull struck an unidentified floating object on Monday, April 18th. There was an uncontrolled leak in the boat, the cause of which was unknown. The crew triggered the EPIRB emergency transmitter on Wednesday, April 20, after midnight. The four-person crew worked diligently to stop the inflow of water. Two of the crew were also experienced boatbuilders. After 10 hours, and within arrival of the rescue ship they were able to make some temporary repairs to ensure the vessel would not sink. The team was approximately 300 nautical miles offshore, very likely beyond the range of helicopter rescue. When the rescue ship was on approach, there was a lot of water in the boat. Not knowing whether the last repairs would work, the person in charge had two choices; to wait and see if the repairs worked, or to abandon the boat. The weather conditions were worsening, with high waves. The difficult decision was made to evacuate onto the oil tanker, ensuring the safety of the crew onboard as the logistics company had ordered the tanker to leave the area as soon as possible due to worsening sea state. No one was injured in the accident. The search for Tulikettu was stopped on Saturday, April 30.
Tulikettu was abandoned off the coast of Portugal. The boat was to take part in the world’s largest offshore sailing competitions. It was unknown whether the crews’ efforts worked. A new sighting of the boat was obtained on Monday, May 23rd. The boat was spotted by passing yacht and the crew reached out to the Tulikettu Social Media Channel via private message. When the tip proved to be reliable, the rescue operation was immediately restarted.
“It was an incredible feeling when we found the boat six and a half weeks after it disappeared,” said Arto Linnervuo, skipper and owner of Tulikettu Racing Team on Sunday in Portimão, Portugal. “Here I am, standing on the deck of the boat.”
After dozens of flight hours, countless drift calculations, and hundreds of nautical miles of searching by salvage boats, Tulikettu was found on Saturday, June 4, approximately 100 nautical miles west of Cape Saint Vincent, the southern tip between Lisbon and Gibraltar. The yacht was towed to the port of Portimão on Sunday, June 5th where she will undergo a thorough inspection and assessment of damage sustained.
“The story had a happy ending after all. Saturday was one of the happiest days of my life. There was an incredible rescue operation supporting this effort, which involved more than a dozen top professionals from Finland, England, Portugal, Spain and the United States. I am especially proud that the rescue operation was led by my own Tulikettu Racing team flown in to assist on the spot,” says Linnervuo, who was on board the spotter plane.
Linnervuo made the final sighting that led to the ultimate rescue of the boat. He transmitted the position from the plane to the tugboat at sea using a VHF radio. Locating and rescuing a black boat without transmission signals, that had traveled east to within 100 nautical miles off the coast, was a very difficult task. The rescue vessel had to be close to the latest sighting to ensure a safe recovery, because Tulikettu was drifting very unpredictably while unattended.
“On Saturday, both of these things were successful,” Linnervuo says.
There were four key people in charge of the rescue project: Linnervuo led the rescue operation with Will Jackson, Tulikettu Racing Director of Operations. Kim Westman, Tulikettu Racing Chief Safety Officer, was responsible for rescue communications, such as naval rescue, air rescue and official assistance from the Portuguese Air Force. Martin Gahmberg, a meteorologist from the Finnish Sailing National Team, helped the Tulikettu Racing team assess the direction and pace of Tulikettu’s drift at sea.
“I felt like I was climbing a mountain I would definitely like to conquer, but whenever I thought I had reached the summit, I saw the mountain rise before me, and the path to the top became more challenging,” Linnervuo said.
After refurbishment and repair, Tulikettu is expected to resume her ambitious racing schedule.
“Externally, the boat showed no damage, and the mast was upright. It shows how well these boats are designed and built. The extent of the damage will become clear in time,” says Linnervuo.
Gordon Kay, Founder of Infiniti Yachts was onboard for the rescue tow. “We are delighted to have been instrumental in restoring Tulikettu to the team. We look forward to seeing her on the racecourse before long. It’s a testament to her design and construction that she has come through this with such aplomb.”
The goal of the Finnish project is to win one of the largest offshore races in the world. In addition, Linnervuo’s goal is to win the overall Class Championship for the Royal Ocean Racing Club offshore sailing series (RORC) in 2022 or 2023.
“The feeling was incredibly wonderful when we first sailed Tulikettu with her foil. Fortunately, it was not the last time. We will be able to experience it again and conquer the world’s largest offshore races with our beloved original Tulikettu,” says Linnervuo.Building a new replacement boat would have taken at least one year. The successful recovery of Tulikettu will allow the team to resume racing operations faster. Tulikettu, is the first Infiniti 52 yacht, built by Composite Builders in Holland, Michigan.