wrote in message
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On Fri, 11 Jun 2010 17:48:19 -0400, "mmc" wrote:



I just checked out what boat her brother had sailed on his
circumnavigation
and it was an Islander 36 with a 13,600 lb displacement and Abby's
"Wildeyes" displace 7,407 lbs.
Even though it's 4 feet longer than Zac's, it is literally half the
boat.
I used to work with a guy that said he "planned for success". It took me
a
while to figure out that his planning was based on nothing ever going
wrong.
Poor, poor strategy.


The hull did not fail. People have circumnavigated sucessfully in
properly prepared and equipped Catalina 27's and Cal 33's, both of
which were obviously intended as coastal cruisers.

Not me brother. I've had my ass kicked thoroughly by mother ocean and it
wasn't fun.


The point is, just about any boat can be set up to complete a
circumnavigation, and relatively safely. You can get your ass kicked
out there no matter how big or heavy your boat is. Have you taken a
good look at a mini-transat? Sunderland's boat was NOT the issue that
caused her to fail. If she did everything exactly the same but in a
Valiant 40, the results probably wouldn't have been much different.
Lots of very bad decisions were made.

Sure, going to add glass to the hull and build in some stringers and ribs?
Replace the rigging with over sized wire and fittings? Beef up the rudder
and maybe the steering system? Add some ballast to make the boat stiffer?
Hell, while we're at it why don't we stretch it a little to give it more
waterline?
You "can" make a parachute out of bedsheets too but anyone with an IQ over
40 probably wouldn't want to.
Why not just get a boat that's already fit for this duty?

The boat was not
the weakest link in this adventure, and was not what failed.

She deserves a lot of credit. She had the nads to get out there and give
it
her best. Not many 16 yos have sailed that far by themselves (I'm half a
friggin century and haven't!) and it's not like she just quit.
Guess we'll find out what happened when she gets home.


That's like saying someone deserves a lot of credit for having nads
because they walked across an 8 lane highway at night while
blindfolded.


I was being nice. Just like I'm being nice now.
My true and honest opinion is that anyone that would take a coastal cruiser
on an open ocean voyage must be counting on sunshine flowing out his/her ass
throughout the entire trip. The idea that if a person gets in trouble, no
probs, I've got a lifeboat and epirb and someone will come bail my stupid
ass out of this crack doesn't always pan out.
The kids parents put her in this predicament with poor planning and
unsuitable equipment. From the beginning this sounded more like reality tv
than a real no-**** serious trip. The parents should be coughing up the cost
of the rescue. I'm a big believer in being responsible for your actions.