"sherwindu" wrote in message
...






Why would you be unable to get yourself out of trouble if you're fairly
secure in a hull?

Picture a multihull in the middle of the ocean, capsized, and the crew
huddled inside the hull. At best they have turned on an EPIRB, and at
worst, they would be difficult to spot being inverted and hopefully
found
before they succumb.

Then picture a monohull which has rolled over. At worst, they are
dismasted
and have to try an rig some kind of temporary sail, or call for help.
At
best,
they can recover enough to continue sailing.

I think I would go with the second option.



When a mono sinks however- dragged
down by that ballast that makes it self-righting- the only hope is a
liferaft.

The natural stability configuration is for the monohull to self-right,
which
it should do fairly quickly. I would take my chances on this boat
righting
itself.



Any boat that fills with water is going to sink. The idea about mono
hulls
is that
they will right themselves before the boat fills with water.

Not completely true, as most modern cats will not sink. Of course, never
is
an absolute, so I suppose it's possible though remotely so.

It depends on what you think is the most basic safety feature-
nonsinkability or self righting.

I prefer the self righting. At least I have a chance to recover and
continue

sailing, in that case. If it sinks, then the life raft is your
backup.

Many who sail cats don't carry a liferaft, because the cat or tri is the
liferaft.

For far offshore cruising, this is crazy.



Now I'm not claiming that a multi is the end all and be all of safety at
sea, but most of the time, the prime consideration is crew durability,
not
boat durability. Crews get tired on a boat that's heeled all the time for
long distances. Tired crew make more mistakes.

If the crew is not up to it, they should stick with close shore sailing
or
buy a houseboat.



Well, you're certainly not a licensed captain.

Nothing I have said so far would indicate that is the case. Are you
a licensed captain, and are you using that to prove your case?

I suppose you can call
yourself whatever you want, but the typical definition is licensed by the
USCG or other authority.

I'm not an licensed captain, but I have made several cruises in the
Atlantic
and the Mediterranean in some pretty difficult conditions. Some of
these
so called licensed captains never get much past the harbor entrance.
Since
I do not take passengers on my boat, there is no need to have a license.
I
am also a graduate engineer in Mechanics, so I know something about
stability.


You do have a valid point. However, I believe this thing actually did happen
on a multi... can't seem to find the reference... somewhere off Venesuela.
If I do, I'll post it. The crew was in an inverted multi for weeks, no epirb
apparently, until they finally washed up on the beach. The local authorities
didn't believe them at first because they were in such good shape.

Have you ever been inside a mono that has dismasted? (Neither have I) But, I
have read reports that described it as being inside a washing machine with
sharp objects and heavy blunt instrumets flying around. Totally
uninhabitable. Don't think that you can just carry on after a dismasting.

For example, we had a dismasting (rig failure) on a Catalina 27 in the SF
bay. The rig had to be cut away. The boat then motored under supervision by
the CG to its home port. It was very, very rolly and difficult to control
the boat.

It can take minutes to right a capsized mono, especially if there's a lot of
water in it.

Not carrying a liferaft on a multi is actually pretty common. I wouldn't
carry one. I would take a dinghy, but that's a different animal.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com