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In article ,
says...

On Tue, 08 Mar 2005 18:59:45 -0500, Larry W4CSC
wrote:

Nope....wrong thinking. When you're "out there", even only 397 miles "out
there"....YOUR STRANDED OUT THERE!! It's FOREVER to "shelter"....in 25'
waves crashing over the broken mast stub, the mast and its sails long
gone....Not fun.

Larry, I admire your forthrightness, but now you're starting to scare
me. If sailing were like that for anything other than the odd very bad
experience, surely *no one* would go near a boat!

Now, now. Let's not get carried away here. When the mast and rig are gone but
the keel is still there and she's buttoned up tight you will be just fine.
Knocked about a bit, but fine.

Sometimes inshore can be a lot worse than offshore. Those twelve foot or
thirty foot waves at sea usually have long periods and it's just up and down,
unless they are really bad breaking wind-driven waves. But inshore, your
twelve foot wave may well be a square wave -- 12 X 12. Not fun.

Buy or borrow a bunch of books. My wife favors those that deal with disasters.
One of them, I think the name was "Lost," dealt with yacht disasters. A fair
number could be traced to the lack of a knife at the appropriate time.

Friend of ours sailed a Triton (28 feet, I believe) from New York to the
Azores and thence the Canaries. Daughter was crew first leg. Friend was crew
second leg, which scared the bejeezus out of them. Delivery captain brought
the boat back to the States, at no small expense.