Lifted from the Bitter End blog here credited to Captain Richard Rodriquez.
Chetzemoka, aka Eileen to WSF insiders
BitterEnd has learned:
The issue in this particular problem is the intermediate shaft was switched to stainless steel at the direction of WSF to save money. The original Island Home had a carbon fiber intermediate shaft for the purpose of vibration dampening (torsional vibration). The designers changed it either without saying anything or without WSF listening to why it was originally carbon fiber.
Now the situation is that the state basically has to accept the ship as it is because they directed that the shaft be changed to SS (Stainless Steel.) Todd can easily pin the vibration on WSF in court.
The current announcement about sea trials is to try and find a way to run the ship in it’s current form by determining what the operating envelope is before it starts to shake. The talk about changing software to avoid vibration is a little concerning in that when the new boat goes into Keystone under sub optimal conditions, you don’t want software protecting the drive train to such an extent that the master cannot get out of a jam. And remember, not all masters nor software engineers are of equal skill.
(Ed. note: Related stories via Google News are here.)