It isn't quite as low as it looks - the bottom paint goes about two inches over the
waterline. Also, it tapers down aft, so up forward the clearance is about 24 inches, and
aft it tapers to 14. This is one of the problems with smaller cats - very few under 35
feet have even a foot of clearance. The ones with high clearance (like the Victory) have
huge freeboard and windage.

Most of the time we don't notice any pounding, but in large, steep waves it can slap
really hard. And since the bottom is flat it can sound like being inside a bass drum.
The first time it happened I ran below and checked the bilges! After a while, you learn
that there are certain angles to the waves that make the problem worse, other angles make
the pounding go away totally. Frankly, our worst day of pounding was our first passage -
6 to 8 (with a few 10s) foot steep chop and a 25 knot following wind crossing Lake
Ontario. I thought we would never get used to the pounding. Now I hardly notice it,
because it doesn't affect performance that much. The snap rolling from beam seas is more
annoying, because most of the time the boat stays level, but if it catches a wave square
on the beam it suddenly lurches 15 degrees. The net affect of all this is that we usually
hand steer in rough going, because once you're used to it you can minimize the nasties
pretty well.


"The_navigator©" wrote in message
...
Wow that's a low flat bridge structure! What happens in waves!

Cheers MC

Jeff Morris wrote:

And the answer is:

It varies a lot with the cat. Some have long keels, others have daggerboards. Some
have
steerable drives, some have a single outboard, some have a widely spaced diesels.
Some
have little windage, others a lot.

My boat has long keels, low windage on the bow (more aft), and widely space diesels.
She
can pivot in place very nicely but has little prop walk. People have told me they
could
make it go sideways, but when I've challenged them to try, they've always failed. I
often
have to dock on a face, which is actually often tough - I usually rely on getting
close
enough to snag a cleat, then springing in the rest of the way. If I have a few hands
around to help I can usually get the boat anywhere I want. The hands don't have to do
much of anything, but I find it difficult to singlehand because the visibility around
the
edges is limited.

This morning I had a special challenge - I had to back into a TravelLift the is about
6
inches wider than my beam. The wind started light, but picked up to about 15 knots
cross
as I was coming in. The real problem was that one prop had trouble staying open in
foreword - I had to do most of the work with just one engine. This made it difficult
to
stay lined up. I felt that I totally turkeyed it, but I was complimented by the Lift-
Meister and dockhand, and no damage was done. I found that the gearing that forces to
two
blades to open together had totally sheared off.

Here's a pic taken slightly later:
http://www.sv-loki.com/Img_1616a.jpg