In article ,
News f2s wrote:

"purple_stars" wrote in message
roups.com...
hi folks,

why do people abandon ship ?

Injury, fatigue, hunger, thirst, hypothermia,

JimB

Jim, I'm sure those are reasons, but they're not particularly good
reasons. You're not going to be doing better in a smaller and much
more uncomfortable liferaft.

Perhaps psychosis or delusion would be a better excuse. :-)


--
Capt. JG @@
www.sailnow.com

"Jonathan Ganz" wrote in message
...

why do people abandon ship ?

Injury, fatigue, hunger, thirst, hypothermia,

JimB

Jim, I'm sure those are reasons, but they're not particularly
good
reasons. You're not going to be doing better in a smaller and
much
more uncomfortable liferaft.

Perhaps psychosis or delusion would be a better excuse. :-)

You're quite right of course. Proper reasons for abandoning ship
(for a life raft) are fire and uncontrollable leakage such that
the vessel is about to sink.

The reasons I gave above are reasons for transferring to a larger
vessel, which wasn't the point of the previous poster, but is the
most common type of abandonment, the one being discussed earlier
in the thread.

JimB

In article ,
News f2s wrote:
You're quite right of course. Proper reasons for abandoning ship
(for a life raft) are fire and uncontrollable leakage such that
the vessel is about to sink.

The reasons I gave above are reasons for transferring to a larger
vessel, which wasn't the point of the previous poster, but is the
most common type of abandonment, the one being discussed earlier
in the thread.

I would think that some boat interiors would become uninhabitable if
the boat were dismasted. This happened in the Fastnet Race, and I'm
sure it's happened other times.



--
Capt. JG @@
www.sailnow.com

"Jonathan Ganz" wrote in message
...

I would think that some boat interiors would become
uninhabitable if
the boat were dismasted. This happened in the Fastnet Race, and
I'm
sure it's happened other times.

The boat becomes very much more stable, giving it an extremely
rapid natural rocking motion. If this is sparked off by waves, the
boat is all but untenable.

The problem is that in those conditions a liferaft also rolls
viciously, and is likely to be overturned from time to time. Three
of us experienced that liferaft motion in a wind over tide, 2
metre breaking waves, just off Appledore in the Bristol Channel.

It was a training exercise that went wrong. The lifeboat call-out
was delayed. We were blown downwind into the race. Like being in a
washing machine. Lots of minor injuries, one broken arm. Never
again. We were stuck in this rotating hell for about 15 minutes,
then when the lifeboat arrived it took a further 20 minutes to get
us all aboard. By that time all of us were cripplingly seasick -
and we were experienced sailors, used to offshore racing, who
prided ourselves on our strong stomachs. Yuck.

JimB

"News f2s" wrote in message
...

"Jonathan Ganz" wrote in message
...

I would think that some boat interiors would become uninhabitable if
the boat were dismasted. This happened in the Fastnet Race, and I'm
sure it's happened other times.

The boat becomes very much more stable, giving it an extremely rapid
natural rocking motion. If this is sparked off by waves, the boat is all
but untenable.

The problem is that in those conditions a liferaft also rolls viciously,
and is likely to be overturned from time to time. Three of us experienced
that liferaft motion in a wind over tide, 2 metre breaking waves, just off
Appledore in the Bristol Channel.

It was a training exercise that went wrong. The lifeboat call-out was
delayed. We were blown downwind into the race. Like being in a washing
machine. Lots of minor injuries, one broken arm. Never again. We were
stuck in this rotating hell for about 15 minutes, then when the lifeboat
arrived it took a further 20 minutes to get us all aboard. By that time
all of us were cripplingly seasick - and we were experienced sailors, used
to offshore racing, who prided ourselves on our strong stomachs. Yuck.

JimB

I think you mean "because more *unstable*" right? I'm not sure what would
have been worse... a washing machine with sharp objects or just an empty
washing machine with soft sides. I think I'd like to avoid both!

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"Capt. JG" wrote in message
...

The boat becomes very much more stable, giving it an extremely
rapid natural rocking motion. If this is sparked off by waves,
the boat is all but untenable.

I think you mean "because more *unstable*" right? I'm not sure
what would have been worse... a washing machine with sharp
objects or just an empty washing machine with soft sides. I
think I'd like to avoid both!

No, I meant stable! Take the top weight of the mast off, and the
centre of gravity of the boat drops down, so the righting moment
goes up.

Add to that the fact that the mast's inertia has gone, and the
boat now reacts very much more quickly to any disturbance - then
rolls back and forth, one cycle every couple of seconds.

JimB

Nope. It doesn't work like that. You would think it would, but it doesn't.
We had a dismasting on the bay (one of my students). It was caused by a
hairline crack. They were pounding up to the Golden Gate area from Alcatraz
on a typical 20-25 knot day in 3-4 foot chop. After the mast came down, the
boat was almost uncontrollable as it drifted back down hill. Finally, after
they cut away the mast, they were able to motor back to the slip, and
according to the crew who we interviewed, it was the worst part of the trip.
The boat was so unstable a couple of people got sea sick.

You said it yourself in your final paragraph... that is the definition of
instability.

In addition, if the conditions are bad enough to roll a boat, the mast would
act as a break when it goes into the water. This would actually slow the
roll effect.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"News f2s" wrote in message
...

"Capt. JG" wrote in message
...

The boat becomes very much more stable, giving it an extremely rapid
natural rocking motion. If this is sparked off by waves, the boat is all
but untenable.

I think you mean "because more *unstable*" right? I'm not sure what would
have been worse... a washing machine with sharp objects or just an empty
washing machine with soft sides. I think I'd like to avoid both!

No, I meant stable! Take the top weight of the mast off, and the centre of
gravity of the boat drops down, so the righting moment goes up.

Add to that the fact that the mast's inertia has gone, and the boat now
reacts very much more quickly to any disturbance - then rolls back and
forth, one cycle every couple of seconds.

JimB

On Sun, 29 Jan 2006 11:18:35 -0000, "News f2s"
wrote:

Add to that the fact that the mast's inertia has gone, and the
boat now reacts very much more quickly to any disturbance - then
rolls back and forth, one cycle every couple of seconds.

That was my experience, quicker motion and greater amplitude of
rolling. Very unpleasant.