Thom Stewart wrote:
Joe,

Neal has made that statement about waves before and as usual he's full
of S--t. His whole scenario is riddled with wrong stupid assumption. The
first and dumbest is comparing a displacement hull with a Surf board.
Can anyone that has ever been in a Sea way ever tried to control a
displacement hull in near free fall on the face of a wave with a rudder?
A wave that large creates a sucking action into the wave. Something he
is ignoring or is completely unaware of. He assumes his hull would be on
a level plane like a surf board when in reality it would be heeled
badly. Badly enough that you'd could only hang on. You wouldn't be able
to move.

No doubt Ol Thom, a displacement hull has no chance of steering on
plane.
Can you just imagine "Ellen" standing in the cockpit of her Tangerine
like a surfer kicking out of a 100 footer...hehehehe.

Even the planing boats getting hit from astern have little chance as
discovered by Hatfield from Canada.

The 7880 nm Leg 4 of Around Alone from Tauranga NZ to Salvador (Brazil)
round the notoriously rough Cape Horn has claimed two booms, two masts,
damaged two keels caused a pitch-poling (end-over-end capsize) and
forced Kiwi Graham Dalton on his Open 60 Hexagon to retire from the
race entirely. The ports of Mar del Plata and Ushuaia in southern
Argentina and Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands have been extremely
busy receiving the yachts, effecting emergency repairs before sending
the competitors on their way.

Winds of around 70 knots and 40 foot high waves have been recorded and
Canadian skipper Derek Hatfield (before dismasting his Open 40 Spirit
of Canada) joined a long line of mariners who have been fooled by Deigo
Ramirez, a small rocky archipelago 30 miles west of Cape Horn that have
scared the fillings out of many sailors who have come up on the group
in the middle of the night and suddenly seen the lights on the wrong
side of the boat.

Hatfield's pitch-poling story is pretty amazing: It was sometime
mid-afternoon when the wave that had his name on it came up from
behind. "I was so exhausted that I could hardly think, but when I heard
the wave I knew that I was in trouble. It was not as big as some of the
others, but was breaking and it made a huge roar as it approached the
boat. In seconds we were falling down the face of it until the bow dug
in and then we pitch-poled. The boat went straight up and then fell
over sideways. I was at the back of the boat and got flung forward, and
the next thing I knew I was in the water under the boat."

Derek continued his story. "I heard the water gurgling and knew that I
was under the boat, then all of a sudden I heard loud explosions that
reverberated through the water and I knew in a instant that the mast
was breaking. It was unreal. Gurgling water and huge bangs. Suddenly
without the mast the boat came back upright and I was dragged back on
deck." Derek is amazed and gratified by the outpouring of support he
has been receiving including Emma Richards sponsor Andrew Pindar offer
to fund a spare mast is starting to feel a bit confident that he might
just be able to get back into the race. Read further updates on this
remarkable story at: www.aroundalone.com



When he make statements like that, it is because he is speaking through
a "Sock-puppet" but I've read his mentality on waves before and it is
DAMN STUPID AND DANGEROUS!! His "Cut the Mustard" carries a broken
Boom, Which according to him, happened in a wave entering a channel.

DON"T LISTEN TO HIM! I don't think he has ever Battened Down and had
the let the Vessel take care of him and itself. He just doesn't know.


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