capnsensible
Well-Known Member
I'm warming to the idea of being smugly superior.
Anyone want to know about customs arrival procedures in Tahiti?
Anyone want to know about customs arrival procedures in Tahiti?
Trimarans tipping over like skittles.
- Thread starter potentillaCO32
- Start date
flaming
Well-Known Member
Sure. And I'll raise you finding safe anchorages in the Maldives with essentially no landmarks, charts that bore no relationship to the GPS position and unmarked coral heads everywhere.
Hey you're right. This is fun....
Snowgoose-1
Well-Known Member
I remember boats like this had cotton reels at the top of the mast.
Perhaps self inflating one's could be re
introduced.
Perhaps self inflating one's could be re
introduced.
Blue Seas
Well-Known Member
Mark-1
Well-Known Member
There was an anchorage in Scotland where the path through a narrow rocky entrance was a bearing on a patch of sand that was a slightly different shade to the rest of the sand. It all looked the same to me.
I didn't hit anything so I guess I picked the right patch of sand but I'll never really know. 
dunedin
Well-Known Member
A rally car can crash at 50mph - going round a slippery, bumpy corner that would be easy at a slower speed, and perhaps even at 49.99mph.
But in a very competitive race with fellow full time professional racers, it is essential to be pushing the limits if want to see the podium.
Sometimes at sea can get unlucky, and a combination of a strong gust and a bad set of waves and suddenly not .001% below the limits but 0.001% over the limit. Then it gets messy.
Very different from us cruising, when sensibly we apply the “if in doubt reef” rule and pootle along at 50-70% of the limits. Or even an amateur race where may be 90% of the pros limits.
flaming
Well-Known Member
What is interesting is that both of the skippers who have commented both said they were in a very safe mode.
Neither of which statements have me rushing to volunteer to sail a multi 50 offshore.
capnsensible
Well-Known Member
How about trying to find some items to fix boats in Colon, Panama, in a mall where every store has an armed guard, having ridden in on the twice daily free bus from Shelter Bay Marina whilst waiting 11 days for a canal transit.
Again.
capnsensible
Well-Known Member
Should we start a new thread, do you think?
chriss999
Well-Known Member
Or get a room
Blue Seas
Well-Known Member
Like Flaming, I am not getting into a pissing contest on here - mainly because I last stepped off a competitive race boat over 30 years ago (Yamaha when she had just won the Whitbread 60 Round the World). I was also heavily involved in refit work to Fortuna, Dolphin Youth, and Brooksfield amongst others. I have virtually no multi-hull race experience and no recent race experiences so I readily bow to those who have.
That does not mean I need to be lectured by the likes of you as if I were a four year old.
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Frogmogman
Well-Known Member
No. I’m Brian, and so is my wife.
capnsensible
Well-Known Member
Welcome to the Smug Cub!
Supertramp
Well-Known Member
Very safe is clearly a relative and personal term!
Any risk assessment would conclude serious consequences if the wind and sailplan or seastate and boat speed get mismatched. The comment in #36 about the Golden Globe Race is relevant - even so called rock solid boats can fail when pushed to the limit.
I wonder if the technology of weather and seastate patterns and the ultimate strength of materials is taking over from human skill, experience and judgement in such races. Perhaps a bit like Formula 1.
zoidberg
Well-Known Member
Safe? You want safe?
Stay at home in bed, with the blankets pulled over your head.
'Shall I tell you about the time.....'
Stay at home in bed, with the blankets pulled over your head.
'Shall I tell you about the time.....'
potentillaCO32
Well-Known Member
It's all relative and what is acceptable to an individual. Although relying on someone not contracted to your event to dangle from a helicopter from a rope to rescue you is involving a 3rd party in your risk assessment. If they signed a "do not endanger yourselves to rescue me" waiver would they still race a trimaran?Safe? You want safe?
Stay at home in bed, with the blankets pulled over your head.
'Shall I tell you about the time.....'
3 out of 10 sounds bad and does sound more like skittles.
As to those who say, but when cruising it is ok as a design as we are pootling, I am reminded of reading John Passmore's book where he cruised off to the scottish islands and a bigger than forecast blow pitched his multi hull cruising boat onto it's wonderfully stable backside. He was incredibly lucky to be rescued.
Not surprisingly he joined those of us who think having a single hull with a weight at the bottom of it us inherently safer when going out of sight of land.
Boathook
Well-Known Member
It was in bed that I had my heart attack many years ago, so beds aren't safe imho ....Safe? You want safe?
Stay at home in bed, with the blankets pulled over your head.
'Shall I tell you about the time.....'
Fr J Hackett
Well-Known Member
Depends on who is in them.
Mark-1
Well-Known Member
That's my take on it. I've had a lifetime of leaving Marinas with grey haired old farts (of which I am now one) shouting at me from pontoons that I shouldn't be going out. So I'm not going to criticize someone for "putting themselves at risk". "You might endanger the emergency services" is the desperate argument of the kill joy. So good luck to them, they know what they're doing, and this sport clearly far safer than many other sports, including the IOM TT.
My issue is that when 10% of your fleet require outside assistance you're running a very different type of event to a normal yacht race. If permanently turning turtle is all part of the fun then the teams should be providing their own rescue cover, not using the emergency services as their first line of defence.
If they phoned the emergency services and were told "Yeah, go for it we need the practice" then fine by me. (And maybe they did - the RNLI/Independent lifeboats clearly love the RTIR for the amount of welcome trade they get, so maybe this is the same.)
flaming
Well-Known Member
Thinking about this some more. I do wonder about the viability of offshore multihull racing in this way. It's simply human nature that when racing, and when racing in a competitive and high profile class in particular, that the envelope gets pushed just that little bit more.
As said, this happened with the ORMA 60 foot tris... Both in design and then sailing in "a bit of breeze" in Biscay terms. And the issue is the one of finality of making a mistake... And then bye bye class.
Paradoxically this is a big difference to the Ultimes... Which on the face of it are far more extreme, far riskier, machines. But the very fact that the level of competition is quite as intense as the Multi 50s, and that they have much more speed, means that they aren't getting into trouble in the same way.
As said, this happened with the ORMA 60 foot tris... Both in design and then sailing in "a bit of breeze" in Biscay terms. And the issue is the one of finality of making a mistake... And then bye bye class.
Paradoxically this is a big difference to the Ultimes... Which on the face of it are far more extreme, far riskier, machines. But the very fact that the level of competition is quite as intense as the Multi 50s, and that they have much more speed, means that they aren't getting into trouble in the same way.