YM April - Question of Seamanship

Triassic said:
What about if they were actually built into bunk cushions? Forepeak, aft cabin if you have one, and pilot berths would provide quite a volume of potential floatation space and generally these are located under decks rather than cabin tops so the inflated bag would be trapped between bunks and ceiling. Obviously if as lpdsn suggests the boat is going to be capsized then I'm assuming that great big bit of metal you guys suspend beneath the boat will have gone, in which case even less buoyancy will be needed.

I just remember watching a video on Youtube a while back featuring a couple abandoning their sinking yacht in perfectly calm seas simply because a rudder failure had left a hole under the stern. It just seemed so tragic that so much was lost due to a reasonably predictable failure, i.e. there's lots of rubbish in the oceans these days and rudders seem particularly vulnerable. Oh well, not sorry I asked.
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So the cabins are full of inflated bunk cushions, leaving the crew to suffer exposure on deck.
 
lpdsn said:
Once they manage to squeeze out from between the bunk cushions and the deckhead.
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I'm not hugely familiar with the layout on monohulls but most of the ones I've seen have something called a companionway which gives access to the cockpit from the saloon area. You apparently don't have to go out through the fore hatch or crawl through a hole you must have cut at the foot of the pilot berths.......

I readily accepted my suggestion might have seemed a bit uninformed and was quite prepared to listen to reasons as to why it wasn't practical but comments such as that show you either didn't read my post properly, or you didn't think your answer through.

I don't know if it's just a multihull thing but some boats are designed to survive their vulnerabilities. When Ian Farrier designed the F27 one of the first things he did with the prototype was turn it over, because everybody thinks that's the biggest danger around multihulls (not completely wrong) and apart from showing how hard it actually was to invert it demonstrated what a safe and secure environment it can provide afterwards. He also deliberately flooded all nine compartments and demonstrated that not only could it not sink (to much structural buoyancy) but it could actually be sailed in that condition, albeit quite slowly...... As a result I'm confident enough in her integrity not to carry a liferaft.

Keeping your vessel afloat in an emergency should in my view be your overriding priority (to get back on topic) and if you can achieve that not only do you buy yourself time for help to arrive if necessary but you retain access to all your communication and life support assets. I would have thought a yacht afloat even with the decks practically awash would remain relatively stable in a seaway (I think a force six was suggested earlier) which makes you a whole lot easier to find, and if the hull breach can be identified and plugged there always remains the possibility of pumping her out later.
 
Triassic said:
I'm not hugely familiar with the layout on monohulls but most of the ones I've seen have something called a companionway which gives access to the cockpit from the saloon area. You apparently don't have to go out through the fore hatch or crawl through a hole you must have cut at the foot of the pilot berths.......

I readily accepted my suggestion might have seemed a bit uninformed and was quite prepared to listen to reasons as to why it wasn't practical but comments such as that show you either didn't read my post properly, or you didn't think your answer through.

I don't know if it's just a multihull thing but some boats are designed to survive their vulnerabilities. When Ian Farrier designed the F27 one of the first things he did with the prototype was turn it over, because everybody thinks that's the biggest danger around multihulls (not completely wrong) and apart from showing how hard it actually was to invert it demonstrated what a safe and secure environment it can provide afterwards. He also deliberately flooded all nine compartments and demonstrated that not only could it not sink (to much structural buoyancy) but it could actually be sailed in that condition, albeit quite slowly...... As a result I'm confident enough in her integrity not to carry a liferaft.

Keeping your vessel afloat in an emergency should in my view be your overriding priority (to get back on topic) and if you can achieve that not only do you buy yourself time for help to arrive if necessary but you retain access to all your communication and life support assets. I would have thought a yacht afloat even with the decks practically awash would remain relatively stable in a seaway (I think a force six was suggested earlier) which makes you a whole lot easier to find, and if the hull breach can be identified and plugged there always remains the possibility of pumping her out later.
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You took that comment seriously then. :)
 
Some years ago, was delivering a Warrior 40 from Antigua to Canaries. Couple of days out, reaching at around 7 knots, got a loada water into bilge.

About turn.

Up forward under bunk furniture was, unknown to us exactly, a crack in the forefoot. I crammed anything plastic up and under which stemmed the leak a lot. Reached back with a sense of pressing interest at 7 knots. saw Barbuda twice but didnt stop...

I had Iridium phone and liasing with owner we arranged to go straight into travel hoist at Jolly Harbour. Phew.

Took 4 days to repair.... took my crew off to an all inclusive (courtesy of owner) nearby. Their profits took a bit of a hit. Looong story!

Good fix, off again. About a week later, the spi pole got snapped in a middle of the night honking rain squall, oops.

Next week, exhaust elbow blew out on ageing volvo. Juried it enough to get to Horta, bit out of way but you kinda need an engine to charge batteries to use phone to tell owner that his boat is a teeny bit poorly again....

Tip. When you finally arrive at Puerto Calero in Lanza with Antigua departure mentioned, do not give the sniffer Alsatian Dog a bowl of water and scratch behind its ears coz making friends with it is not allowed.

Apart from that, it was mostly a quiet trip.
 
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