Tartan 3700 Hull Split - I have seen the photos!

I have now seen the photos of the split and delamination of the Tartan 3700 hull I mentioned in my last post. It is truly shocking and as a result I urge every Tartan 3700 owner to have their hull checked forward of the through-hulls below the forward water tank.

In the case of the very young 3700 that failed, it is clear that there was no impact damage. The owner assures me that the boat has never been grounded. There are no signs of the hull, or keel hitting any objects. It looks like the 'two halves' of the hull just started separating along the centerline. The crack went straight through the hull. In addition, the separated hull started to delaminate. The surveyor says its material defect, the insurance company says it's a manufacturing process issue and of course the only one left in the middle is the owner!

I asked the owner about the conditions at sea when it happened and he told me the boat was in 5'-6' seas down the NJ coast. The captain (delivering the boat for the owner) and had just started bearing away after being close hauled. By the time the USCG appeared the crew had over 3' of water inside the boat.

What is interesting is that Fairport have told the owner that the hull splitting was not material failure, but was the direct result of the owner having the rig installed 'too tight'. So does this mean that with a Novis epoxy mast Tim Jackett's design has now placed the hull as the weakest point of the Novis/Fairport design?

So how many of the other boats in the 3700 fleet are too tight? Is your Tartan 3700 hull in danger while making way at sea? How many of us are sitting on a passage time-bomb waiting for the hull to split along the centerline?

Why haven't we heard a thing from Fairport Yachts about this? I sure would have been on my boat with my rigger to check tensions if Bill Ross would have sent me an advisory letter stating that if I didn't tension the rig correctly that my hull would split in just 5'-6' seas! What happened to the concept of a 'duty to inform' over such a potentially life threatening issue as hull failure and rig tensions?

Finally, take a look at this article from Sail Magazine and see why I mention above the 'two halves' of the hull. The hull us laid up in two swings of the female mold. This is standard practice across the industry, but is there a problem with the epoxy layup? Along with their "traditional building methods" did Fairport also throw out quality control on something as basic as hull layup?

Come on Fairport, what's the science behind the hull failure and if it happened to one of the new 3700's what's to stop it happening again - and next time resulting in loss of life at sea?