This is very true. Although I have never experienced that extreme I was
raised sailing in the caribean. It is all a question of good pumping,
semi-sealed boat and a tough crew and you can withstand even a hurricane.
The biggest I think ive even been was on 35+knots of wind with seas around
10 feet(Take notice that this is actually from sealine up or down, therefore
the waves look over 20 feet tall at times, my father made the slight mistake
of not understanding this when reading the pilot charts, and we were a bit
shocked for our first 400 mile open sea trip). We were running only on a
fully reefed main breaking our maximum speed. Take notice though, this was
only on an old Catalina 30(number 112 I think, which is on sale now). But we
have raced her and sailed her enough that she could withstand anything we
throw at her.
"renewontime dot com" wrote in message
...
Questions like these have always given me a good chuckle ;-) Anyone that
has spent any amount of time at sea or on the waterfront will have plenty
of
stories that relate to this. I'll spare you from hearing all of my "sea
stories"...
Having driven one ship in an Atlantic hurricane, another in a Pacific
hurricane, a research ship off the coasts of Washington and Oregon during
the entire months of November and December (first time I "lost my cookies"
in over 30 years at sea), and numerous yachts and ships in gales, I have
two
bits of wisdom to pass on:
1. Nearly every ship (and most yachts for that matter) can withstand a
heck
of alot more lousey weather than the crew aboard her can. I know
personally
of numerous stories of people abandoning their yacht because the weather
was
just "too bad", only to have their yacht later found completely intact
without a bit of damage.
2. If you're on a 45 foot yacht and the weather is severe enough for 50
foot seas... you ain't gonna be sleeping much... ;-)
--
Paul
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