The Perfect Storm was in the North Atlantic in October -- in winter, in
weather terms. It's no accident that "Winter North Atlantic" has its own
loadline, and that it's the one that requires the most freeboard of all.
And, although both the book and the movie have obscured reality somewhat
(the movie much more than the book), it appears the Andrea Gail had a number
of seaworthiness problems.

If you choose your times and places with some intelligence -- stay out of
hurricane areas, the Winter North Atlantic, the Southern Ocean, then you're
very unlikely to face survival weather. Many circumnavigators will tell you
that they never saw serious weather on their entire trip -- our highest wind
speed was around 42 knots.

I, too, am a natural pessimist. People who go to sea should understand that
Mother Nature does not suffer fools lightly. But pessimism should not bring
paranoia. As I said earlier in this thread, designing and equipping a boat
for the worst possible weather is expensive and unnecessary unless you
really intend to go out at times and places where such weather is really an
issue. Your "ultimate-unsinkable craft, which will weather the worst that
the sea can inflict" is a wonderful thing to think about, but I wouldn't
want to sail it, as it would likely be slow, uncomfortable, and difficult
for its crew. I'd rather choose my times and places and stay away from
anything anywhere near "the worst the sea can inflict". I'm pretty sure
that's a realistic goal for all except masochists and thrill seekers.

As for the quality of production boats, there are production boats that I
wouldn't want to take out of sight of land and others that I would happy
with almost anywhere, although not at all times of year. You pay your money
and, by and large, you get what you've paid for. And, BTW, they're not hard
to tell apart at the boat shows -- if you see two boats about the same size
and weight and one has fittings -- turnbuckles, for example -- noticeably
heavier than the other, you can guess which one I'd rather be aboard.


--
Jim Woodward
www.mvFintry.com


..
"Peter Ward" wrote in message
m...
DSK wrote in message
...
&
"Jim Woodward" jameslwoodward at attbi dot com wrote in message
...

Thanks both for the excellent advice clearly based on extensive briny
experience.

I guess I was thinking of seaworthiness in the fairly narrow sense of
being able to survive something like 'The Perfect Storm'; &
particularly the ability to quickly self-right in the event of
capsize. According to Czeslaw A. Marchaj
in 'Seaworthiness : The Forgotten Factor' the "point of vanishing
stability" et.al. of most modern yacht designs is woefully inadequate
- deficiencies he attributes to the pervasive influence of
International Offshore Rules & the 'floating gin-palace' ethos of the
charter-boat industry, on modern yacht design & construction. This
observation appears to have been borne-out empirically by the 1988
Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race http://www.radford-yacht.com/stablty1.html

As a natural pessimist, I want to build the 'ultimate-unsinkable'
craft, which will weather the worst that the sea can inflict;
however, I get the distinct impression leafing through all the myriad
yachting magazines, that most boats out there are little more than
flimsy eye-candy. Just another prettified escapist consumer commodity
designed more to part you from your hard-earned lucre, than to be
truly "worthy of the sea".

Yet on the other hand I continually read accounts of wildly improbable
craft -http://www.famoussmallboats.com/ - criss-crossing the Atlantic
& Pacific with apparent ease. All quite confusing really.