On Sun, 1 Jan 2006 11:30:55 -0800, "Capt. JG"
wrote:

Not that I would regularly quote Ted Turner, but didn't he say that the Mac
was one of the worst races (in terms of conditions) that he ever
participated in?

If you mean the northern Lake Michigan race, and if he was sailing a
ULDB, then sure. The Great Lakes in a mood can throw very severe
conditions at a smaller boat, and even for Lakemax (740-odd feet)
tankers and freighter, certain spots and certain conditions can snap
'em in half. Even "small" Lake Ontario kills people in "seaworthy"
boats every year.

But the Great Lakes are rarely stormy for long, and the worst of the
storms are not sustained. An Atlantic gale can surround a boat for
four or five days if it's slow moving or part of a train of
depressions. At least on the Great Lakes, you have a reasonable
expectation of seeing a heavy squall pass through quickly. Even stuff
spun off hurricanes will move off in a day.

That's why sailing on the Great Lakes in crap weather is good
training, or so the sal****er boys tell me. Three hours of 40 knots
and "square" 10 foot lake waves is like a day of 40 knot, 15 foot
Atlantic rollers, because the period is a lot longer and the boat gets
bashed in many situations with fewer wrenching motions.

I was out in six to eight foot waves and 30-35 knots out of the east
(long fetch for here) in mid-October and we had a hell of ride down to
Toronto. That's why my caution isn't so much about the *hull* of the
C&C as about other stuff. We took a wave aft that put about six inches
in the cockpit, and it didn't drain as fast as I would have liked,
despite the scuppers being open and clear. Had it been three times as
much, the engine panel would've likely shorted and the stern would
have squatted and the lockers would've let water below.

Such were the compromises in making a lake/inshore racer in the '70s.
Such would be the concerns of taking such a boat across the pond
today.

R.