I'd say that either displacement or cubic capacity equals comfort.


Maxprop wrote:
As a rule, yes, but a hull of a given volume can reach a point beyond which
increasing displacement has a negative effect on comfort, not to mention
safety.

Agreed.

... An example of this was a Norsea 27 in which a middle age man set
out to circumnavigate some years ago. The boat has an unladen disp/length
ratio of nearly 450, and with stores, extra fuel, water, equipment, etc. the
boat was simply too heavy and performed horribly in beam seas, which rolled
her over several times before he turned tail and headed home.

THe problem is that he was at the margin... if you graphed motion &
stability against increasing displacement on a given hull volume, you'd
go from extremely bouncy (too bouyant) at the light extreme, to
increasingly comfortable, then back downhill again as the boat lost
responsiveness & stability (which is at least half due to bouyancy,
let's not forget), then back up again as the boat becomes a submarine...
the smoothest ride is 40+ fathoms down!


... Displacement
seems to offset cubic capacity somewhat, making really voluminous but light
boats uncomfortable and making voluminous and heavy boats more comfortable.


Yep. Everything is a trade-off. That's why life is such a good metaphor
for sailing....

Fresh Breezes-
Doug King