Sinking catamaran due to dinghy painter

29th March. Just down the road from us. A friend of mine hadn't long fitted the solar panels. New owners never actually sailed it. Broke free from a swinging mooring, the rocks stopped it sinking.....
 
The buoyancy in the other hull stopped it sinking. Thats how it got as far as the rocks. I assume the stbd hull is smashed to bits. If its foam sandwich, those bits will have floated off to pollute a beach nearby.
 
Chiara’s slave said:
When the actual stuff your boat is made from is buoyant it id harder to sink. There might be a ton of flotation in the hull skin and deck, plus 3 unbreached crash boxes and a whole hull. This particular baby isn’t sinking from one hole in 1 hull, murphy or not.
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I don't recognise the catamaran but it's relatively modern.
We have seen a few sunken cats here in the Caribbean that have hits reefs and ripped their mini keels off. They are the typical charter condo cats that don't float. Total right offs. Most charter cats are not built light. Lagoon 52 is 26t empty. Leopard 45 is 16.5t empty. They actually make my 44 ft monohull with its 6t lead keel feel quite light at 18.5t😁
 
Just as a by the way. I have used staple spun polypropylene rope for years, as mooring lines, on a previous boat and it did not degrade like other styles of polypropylene rope. This was in Scotland, boat on a swinging mooring, so the mooring lines were occasional use only, which no doubt helped.

This article states the UV degradation strength of untreated polypropylene occurs in months rather than years, and also states the compounds added to polypropylene to make it more stable when exposed to UV light.

The UV Resistance of Polypropylene and Polyester Explained.
 
Some years ago there was a big storm in the Canaries, Sorm Delta. A friend of ours was on his nearly brand new Jenneau 40 something in Santa Cruz, Tenerife. The yacht next to him snapped its mast as it sank in big rollers in the harbour. The swell surged the yacht up underneath my friends boat and the stump of the mast pierced his hull. It sank. Had to be craned out and it took around 2 years for the insurance to pay out and repairs completed.

I've seen a motorboat...quite old...sunk in Marina Bay Gibraltar. My wife worked in the office of a dive school. They got the contract to reflect it and tow away. I won't bore you with more tales of boats foundering, but as I mentioned, seen a fair few.

I also get that some foamy things will get smashed up and the remains will float. Doesn't help the owner though....
 
If a single hull of a cat is comprised and is still in the port..it won’t sink…out at sea is different, it can be swamped by waves or driven on rocks
 
Bouba said:
If a single hull of a cat is comprised and is still in the port..it won’t sink…out at sea is different, it can be swamped by waves or driven on rocks
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How do have any idea if that is true, Mr B?

The weight of tons of water in one hull may be enough. Or not......
 
capnsensible said:
How do have any idea if that is true, Mr B?

The weight of tons of water in one hull may be enough. Or not......
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I’ve seen it….the boat listed although no as much as you might think (obviously if the bottom is completely ripped out it’s different…but how could that happen in port)…they were able to jerryrig a patch and pump out a lot of water and tow it to the take out crane.
My memory is a little hazy but I think it was hit by another cat (there are too many lots in my port)
 
Bouba said:
I’ve seen it….the boat listed although no as much as you might think (obviously if the bottom is completely ripped out it’s different…but how could that happen in port)…they were able to jerryrig a patch and pump out a lot of water and tow it to the take out crane.
My memory is a little hazy but I think it was hit by another cat (there are too many lots in my port)
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So it was attended to to stop water ingress....
 
RunAgroundHard said:
This article states the UV degradation strength of untreated polypropylene occurs in months rather than years
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Other sources suggest it loses significant strength in under a week when in direct sunlight though. We're all free to decide for our own boats but I don't have polyprop on board unless it's a net bag holding vegetables, and even then I don't trust it!
 
The Marlow Polypropylene I use is excellent and does not degrade noticeably in the UK East Coast. Unlike the common sof blue type & stiff & hairy type which is terrible. IMHO...
I only renewed it - after about 10 yrs - as it was looking grotty. I bought a load years ago cheap, still labelled Marlow. I'm more than happy using it. I also have an Ambassador rope stripper which also works well, soon after fitting it I was approaching a buoy at Queenborough at idling speed when the engine stopped.The genoa sheet had dropped overboard and was 6' shorter. 2nd occurance was whilst motoring to Holland - engine suddenly stopped and we had caught a large black plastic sheet. Engine started ok but immediately stopped when put in gear. We were deciding who was going overboard to free it(we were in the middle of a traffic lane with no wind) but I tried going backwards and forwards with the gear lever and eventually we freed ourselves. Inspected when we reached Holland but no damage.
 
capnsensible said:
So it was attended to to stop water ingress...
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There were people on hand to attend to it quickly, yes. But apart from being cut in two by a large steel ferry or tug, it’s probably as bad as you will get in port (apart from hurricanes)
 
Bouba said:
There were people on hand to attend to it quickly, yes. But apart from being cut in two by a large steel ferry or tug, it’s probably as bad as you will get in port (apart from hurricanes)
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Poor maintenence. I've mentioned two examples I know of. I'm sure there are stacks more....
 
Bouba said:
Ok....another vessel slices a cat in half....longitudinally.....but both hulls are undamaged....will it sink ?
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I've as much idea as you. :)

Best guess.....yup.

Thankfully, all the catamarans I've ever sailed didn't sink. But biiig waves in mid Atlantic does give you something to ponder whist on watch on your jack Jones.
 
Re polypropelene rope. I got some old poly rope from somewhere and used it as an anchor line on my tiny 21ft boat. It looked good near white and soft. It actually parted surprisingly easily. I tested it in a few places. You might imagine UV damage woulds start from outside and be obvious but in this case failure right through.
Re P bracket failing taking out a chunk of hull. This could happen on any boat. I guess the hull must be made stronger than the P bracket or water tight bulkheads fitted. My concern is similar with transom mounted rudder where pintles/ gudgeons over loaded might take out a hole in hull. ol'will
 
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