There's a lot of controversy about lying ahull. It's not recommended these
days.

"j" ganz


There's a lot of controversy about lying ahull. It's not recommended these
days.

"j" ganz



Back in 1987, the drogue report pretty well deep sixed Lyingahull with
wave height or = to your beam. The models in the wave tank kept
rolling over and sinking.

http://seriesdrogue.com/coastguardreport/

Humm, so you have 10-13' seas, Pretty common day in most places, now
what? Better have a boat over 40' if your going to do that lying
thing. As far as heavy weather tactics goes there is a bunch of them.
And everybody claims that some doodad or strategy will save your ass.
No one thing will work.

Think of it this way. If you're in law enforcement or corrections its
the same as your "use of force" model. Instead of using progressively
lethal force to control a subject, your using a progressive series of
sailing strategies to maintain control of your boat. But I've never
read anyplace that really described it that way; Too bad. I can see
why people get confused about how to manage a boat in ever increasing
Beaufort states. Do this, don't do that, get a doodad, no get a series
doodad. And then there is always that summarizing paragraph that says,
"but all boats react differently... bla...bla...bla... so you just have to
figure it out yourself." That is a bunch of bull **** from people who
don't know what they are doing. Keeping your boat afloat is as simple
as A-B-C-D.

$.02

And for the 3rd or 4th time I'll post the comments from a master on
one of the rescue boats who saved several in the Fastnet 1979. A quote
that rarely gets reprinted in those "Perfect Storm" books.


Fastnet Disaster
of
1979

Interview with Bill Burrows, Chief Engineer Royal Navy Lifeboat
Institution. Retrieved three disabled sailboats in a 21 hour rescue
during the fatal 1979 Fastnet Storm.

"... Look, you get 300 Yachats in poor weather and you're going to have
some trouble, almost certainly. But the majority of the trouble was
hysteria created by the situation and by inexperienced crews. And that
it was. They were blaming rudders and such, but none of those rudders
would have snapped if they had put drogues out and storm jibs and run
before the weather. They were under bare poles, most of them, and they
were getting up on the seas. And the seas were about 45 feet. Not what
we around here call big.

They got up on these seas and they were running. When the boats were
starting to broach, what the helmsmen were doing was hauling on the
rudders to stop them from broaching. They were putting too much bloody
strain on the rudders, and they had to go.

Yes, I know they were racing sailors, not cruising men, but that's no
excuse. We went out that night and we passed a little old hooker sort
of thing with a family of kids aboard and they were going away to
Ireland with no trouble at all...."