"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