S/V Concordia and the Nautical Goat bob.couttie Total Views: 150 March 5, 2010 It was not so much Transport Canada’s decision to investigate the capsize and sinking of the Barbados-flagged  sailing vessel Concordia that raised questioning eyebrows as the apparent implication that TSB did not trust the Barbadian maritime authority to do the job properly. The issues surrounding the investigation of what happened to the 58 metre tallship Concordia and the subsequent search and rescue operations, SAR, may go somewhat deeper. Concordia, built in Poland and completed in 1992, apparently capsized swiftly and without warning on 17 February off the coast of Brazil. Its 64 passengers and crew were rescued 40 hours later by a merchant ship and subsequently transferred to Brazilian Navy rescue helicopters. Concordia was registered as a sail-training yacht and operated as a “floating classroom” by Class Afloat , for which it was built. It is Canadian-owned and operated out of the port of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. What caused the capsize is yet to be determined. Some accounts suggest that she was knocked down by a microburst , a brief strong downblast of air that has been blamed for aircraft crashes and ship losses. Descriptions of what happened to Concordia are very similar to accounts of the losses of the Albatross , also a floating classroom, in 1961 and Pride of Baltimore in May 1986. Another potential culprit may be keel failure. There has been rising concern regarding keel failures from yachts for some years.  In 2006 the yacht Moquini  was lost with all hands during the Mauritius to Durban Yacht Race apparently due to keel failure. In April 2006 ten Dubois 68 vessels participating in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race were diverted to Subic Bay Freeport for seven weeks after problems appeared with keel bolts loosening. The discovery was largely accidental and examination showed the problem existed throughout the fleet. For the moment, however, the cause of