"Jeff" wrote in message
. ..
sherwindu wrote:




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.

Its hard to picture because its happened so infrequently. There have been
several such inversions, but I don't recall ever hearing of one where the
occupants succumbed while waiting. There have been a few cases of people
living for extended periods waiting to be rescued.

There was one case of a man who died of diabetic shock, but the rest of
his crew was rescued, and several monohulls were lost without a trace in
the same storm.



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.


I think you have a typo. At _best_ they are only dismasted and suffered no
other damage. At worst, they have structural damage caused by the
dismasting, or the loose mast whacking they hull. If the hatch was not
watertight, they probably took in a lot a water, so the buoyancy is
reduced, and its hard to find any leaks, and the pumps may not be working.
Even a small leak would doom the monohull; a 2 inch hole floods about 100
gals a minute! The crew will be demanding to get into the liferaft, which
is probably the most dangerous thing of all.

And this is assuming that the boat doesn't stay inverted for a while, not
out of the question with some boats.




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.

The natural stability configuration is upright, on the bottom. Does the
phrase "lost without a trace" have a familiar ring to it?

When we had the dismasting on the bay, the CG would not even approach until
the skipper cut the mast/rigging away. I'm wondering what they would have
done if the boat had not had bolt cutters.

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