On Aug 19, 7:13 pm, Gene Kearns
wrote:
On Tue, 19 Aug 2008 18:23:37 -0400, penned the following
well considered thoughts to the readers of rec.boats:



On Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:29:54 -0400, John H.
salmonremovebait@gmaildotcom wrote:

On Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:25:00 -0400, wrote:

On Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:00:58 -0400, John H.
salmonremovebait@gmaildotcom wrote:

On Tue, 19 Aug 2008 09:58:08 -0400, "Eisboch" wrote:

wrote in message
...
OK, lets try for some real info this time and no insults. Do so-
called offshore boats really have good scuppers? Can anybody provide
a link to a pic of such?
Next, areas below the deck, are they sealed on offshore boats or
accessible via a hatch? How much do said hatches leak? (my sealed
compartments have 6" screw in type access ports).

By that controversial Florida fellow:

http://www.yachtsurvey.com/sinking.htm

Eisboch

It's for sure this part is kind of scary:

"Open Transoms or boats with no transoms have been appearing on the market
with more frequency lately, and many of these are just accidents waiting to
happen. A boat without a transom cannot reasonably be called seaworthy
unless the internal compartments of the hull are made absolutely
watertight. This is almost never the case because the builders never put
absolutely watertight hatches in the decks.

They make a mistake by ignoring the probability that at some point in time
the vessel will encounter circumstances where waves are crashing over the
nonexistent transom, flooding the deck, and thereby endangering the vessel
and its passengers. Builders of such boats don't have the foresight (which
they should have) to consider what would happen if such a boat lost power
while navigating a dangerous inlet, or breaks down while at sea. Under
these circumstances, the lack of a transom becomes very dangerous. Even
large sport fishermen with large, open cockpit scuppers or non-sealing
transom doors have gotten into trouble under such conditions. If you are
the owner of such a boat, you had better think carefully how you use it."

Well, I mean, it's scary if that's what you've got!

Many modern sailboats have an open transom. It's quite safe. In fact,
in some regards, it's considerably safer. Heck, my antique wooden
Flying Dutchman didn't have a closed transom.

Well, that's true. I wonder, though, if the sailboat with the open transoms
are designed somewhat differently than your basic center console 21'er.

Your basic small center console is not really an offshore boat.

While I agree, in principle, this discussion will never *go* anywhere
because everybody has their own personal definition for "small center
console" (or small boat, for that matter) and for "offshore."

Locally, I think most people would consider anything short of about
21' "small" and "offshore" conjures up thoughts of distances in the
30+ mile range. Certainly, YMMV.....

The controlling factor is whether or not the designer took into
account the inevitability of the boat being pooped and carefully
designed out that factor as a cause of sinking.

--
Agent 5.00 Build 1159

Grady-White Gulfstream, out of Oak Island, NC.

Homepagehttp://pamandgene.idleplay.net/

Rec.boats at Lee Yeaton's Bayguidehttp://www.thebayguide.com/rec.boats

In reality, one does not want to take this boat offshore because she
would have to slow down to about 12 kts in any chop over 2.5'.
However, for a single trip where one can simply run away from a
thunderstorm, one does not need a surf rescue boat to go from Miami to
Bimini. One plans for reducing the risk of this trip to no more than
a few times that of driving down the Fl Turnpike, not for reducing it
to zero. All other times she is basically a near shore boat.
There have been several incredible trips in Tolman boats, mostly in
Alaskan offshore waters that are probably rougher than the average FL
thunderstorm. One trip circumnavigated the Aleutian Peninsula and
some of the islands. Another was from the mainland to Kodiak Island
(in a Jumbo Tolman). So, the basic design is solid and it is simply a
matter of getting the details right. I would not hesitate to do this
trip in my homebuilt MiniCup sailboat (12') if I had sufficient
escort. I read of someone doing this trip in a pontoon boat which I
think is insane. It has been done in Boston Whalers as small as 16'.
Remember, we are talking about a 4-5 hour trip. I know that weather
here in N. FL can change unexpectedly in that time but rarely so
dramatically as to be completely unexpected and cause loss of life.
In my 20+ yrs of sailing, I have rarely been caught in thunderstorms,
most of the time I was able to simply go around them, even at 4 kts.
Line Squalls are a different matter but I have always managed to avoid
being on the water when they were around.