* Richard Casady wrote, On 8/20/2007 9:09 AM:
On Mon, 20 Aug 2007 07:56:50 -0400, Jeff wrote:

any storm that would capsize a cruising cat.

Perhaps you are underestimating to ability of a fool to do the wrong
thing at the wrong time. All the big ships will capsize, and not come
back.

Do you have a point? Are you claiming that in the history of the
world, no ship has ever survived a voyage? Of course not. The issue
is not one of possibilities, its one of probabilities.

I've never claimed its impossible to flip a cat; I've only claimed it
doesn't happen that often. And when it does, it usually turns out to
be human error, in the form of carrying way too much sail. Moreover,
the loss of life is generally low.

The self righting vessels are actually rare. During a wartime
crossing the Queen Mary came within a degree or so of going over. Wave
took out the wheelhouse windows, ninety feet above sea level. Nothing
except a submarine is immune to big waves. Of course, those things
routinely recover from sinking. I heard that ten thousand shipping
containers are lost, during storms, every year. Hit one of those with
many small craft, and you may not be concerned with capsizing.

This is another risk where cats have a large advantage - there are
numerous cases of cats surviving major damage that would sink a
monohull in minutes.