The PDQ story (actually a PDQ 36) is still unfolding. The owner has
posted a few hints about what happened, but hasn't told the whole
story. The boat was recently purchased, and had spent its first 12
years in South America with three owners. Apparently there was a
major structural failure caused by bad repairs in the past, not by any
recent events. Because the owner was new, he did not recognize the
signs that something was amiss, until a large section of the hull
broke. My guess is that the forward central bulkhead was removed, or
detached from the deck, allowing the forward section to flex.

Although the boat was described as "sinking" by the press, it was
actually floating high on its lines at the time of the rescue. All of
the systems were still working, and outwardly the boat looked fine.
The engines were working and they had enough fuel to make landfall in
24 hours. However, with the hull severely compromised, including
possibly half of the flotation chambers, and the hull flexing, I'm not
surprised they wanted off!

The owner said it was very strange cooking a meal on the microwave and
listening to Jimmy Buffet while waiting for the rescue. He also said
that he was impressed with the boat and will be looking for another
PDQ once things are settled. I think he'll also be looking for a
different surveyor! BTW, while one could point to this as a problem
of lightly built boats, I would guess the a monohull suffering this
degree of failure would have sunk within a minute or two.



Don W wrote:
Actually, the story at the top of the Lat 38 link is about the
same incident as the eboards link.

OTOH If you read a little further down the page you'll see another
blurb dated Jan 18, (2006) about a PDQ 38 Cat that suffered "cata
strophic structural failure" in the gulf of Mexico. The writer (Bob
Mandel)was rescued.

So far I've been reading this thread with interest since my wife
and I are planning on blue water cruising in the future. We currently
own a monohull and she doesn't particularly care for heeling.

BTW - a friend of a friend was a professional captain on a 65' cruising
cat which was owned by an individual. They were bringing the boat back
to Florida from Belize and got caught in a storm in the Gulf. They made
it back, but the Cat was seriously damaged, and the insurance company
ended up buying the owner a new boat. Heard the story but wasn't paying
that much attention at the time. I always thought it curious that the
insurance company would cough up for a new $1.5M+ boat instead repairing
the damaged one. Must have been _some_ damage.

Don W.

Capt. JG wrote:

This guy survived a pretty severe storm in a catamaran:
http://www.eboards4all.com/531993/messages/270.html
--
MarineYacht Yacht Charters
http://www.marineyacht.com



Here's another one... a 32-foot cat that didn't flip.

http://www.latitude38.com/LectronicL...#anchor1085433