Jeff Morris wrote:

"Jim Cate" wrote in message
...

My boat has enough foam in her construction to float the basic hull. In
addition, she has 6 watertight flotation chambers, four across the boat

forward,

forming a "collision bulkhead," and two aft. Also, I have two complete

hulls

(though I wouldn't call her "double-hulled") running the full length. I

have no

lead keel, but the fiberglass keels are designed to breakaway without

damaging

the hull.

I don't worry much about sinking, but I didn't worry that much with my

previous

boat which did not have these advantages. The vast majority of sinkings

happen

at the dock and are an insurance headache, not life threatening. The only
reason why this is an issue for a Mac is that they are so lightly built is

easy

to see how it might be compromised.


Your boat is an unusual design.


No, it a pretty standard design for a crusing catamaran.

As I said, your boat is an unusual design. Only a smallpercentge of
cruising sailboats are cats.



BTW, you once
mentioned the possibility for spending over $50K for this boat.

Its far less than that even fully equipped with 50 hp motor, roller
reefing, lines led aft, GPS chart plotter, auto steering, vhf, radar, etc.

For that money,
you could have bought a used Gemini 30 or maybe a F27. Shallow draft, speed
under power and sail, a LOT more fun.

Lots of used boats here at reasonable prices, but all of them had
problems. u


Not many on his ng would float after a
collision. - In most of them, the lead keel would quickly drag the boat
down to the bottom.


Most of the boats owned by this group would not be holed by a collision. In
fact, I've seen a variety of "booboos" but I can't remember one now that put a
boat at serious risk of sinking. (I'm sure one will come to mind.) However,
I've seen a few that if the target had been a Mac, it would have been chopped in
half.

In that unlikely event, the Mac would still float.

BTW, positive flotation isn't unique to the Mac. Its required on all
small boats, and pretty common on boats up to 25 feet. I'm sure the Hunter
water ballast boats have positive floatation. The problem is that while it
takes a lot of water to sink a large boat, a small one can be taken down pretty
easily.

So can a large boat.



I agree that sinking because of a failure or accident is a rare event.
But it's nice to know that you won't wake up in the middle of the night
with the boat filling with water, and having to make a frantic search
for the faulty through hull hose or connection. Or finding out that
your displacement boat can't quite sail (or motor) on through 15-30-ft
breaking waves.


You seem to be very concerned with 30 foot breaking waves.

Not really.

You need
professional help, not a boat.

Actually, I rather thing that anyone who DOESN'T take such weather
conditions seriously, and prepare for them, is the one who needs
professional help.

Jim