Howard wrote:
I too would not like to take sides on this debate

Agreed. it reminds me of an argument that I had with two friends years
ago. The debate: which would kill you faster a .44 or .357 or .45. We
were 16- or 17 at the time.

Maybe the comparison is not mono or multi but "sea hardened" (to coin a
phrase?) or not.

Sea hardened... sea capable....? I to have seen thoes sliding glass
doors. I wonder how many kids runn into them. Maybe the owners could
put black outlines of waves on the glasss so the waves dont get
confused and slam into the glass. Seem to work using falcons to scare
off song birds.

When is was 13 I put a message in a bottle and threw it over the side 5
miles off Oregon coast. Two years later I got a reply from a woman in
the Philipines. IN the 1980s I threw another bottle over the side about
20 miles off Oregon coast. It only took one year for it to reach
hawaii. Conclusion: If a glass bottle can float across the Pacific so
can I.

however, the boat I chose was a 39', double ended, cut away, full keel,
26,000 lbs slug with 1 1/2" glass at the water line and have upgraded
to mil spec on the refit. If Im going to sink I want to be comfortable
on the way down. There are many ways to get the same place.
However I will take one thought to the grave. Dont let charter
operators, marketing departments, and boat brokers tell you why their
boats are safe. Again I I feel compelled to post a quote from a person
who was sent to save the hapless soles caught in the Fastnet disaster
of 1979:

__________________________________________________ ____________________
Interview with Bill Burrows, Chief Engineer Royal Navy Lifeboat
Institution. Retrieved three disabled sailboats in a 21 hour rescue
during the fatal 1979 Fastnet Storm.

"... Look, you get 300 Yachats in poor weather and you're going to
have some trouble, almost certainly. But the majority of the trouble
was hysteria created by the situation and by inexperienced crews. And
that it was. They were blaming rudders and such, but none of those
rudders would have snapped if they had put drogues out and storm jibs
and run before the weather. They were under bare poles, most of them,
and they were getting up on the seas. And the seas were about 45 feet.
Not what we around here call big.

They got up on these seas and they were running. When the boats were
starting to broach, what the helmsmen were doing was hauling on the
rudders to stop them from broaching. They were putting too much bloody
strain on the rudders, and they had to go.

Yes, I know they were racing sailors, not cruising men, but that's no
excuse. We went out that night and we passed a little old hooker sort
of thing with a family of kids aboard and they were going away to
Ireland with no trouble at all...."
(The Yacht, April 1987)
__________________________________________________ ______________________

BOb

Just some thoughts.