Just finished reading about the '79 Fastnet incident and wonder about opinion of how a cruising (not a racer) Cape Dory might have fared.any takers?
bcarm@west.net
'79 Fastnet and "what if a Cape Dory?"
Moderator: Jim Walsh
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Mike Everett
Re: '79 Fastnet and "what if a Cape Dory?"
Thanks for raising this fascinating issue.
I recently re-read a book called Seaworthiness: The Forgotten Factor, written by British scientist-sailor C. A. Marchaj shortly after the '79 Fastnet, which he uses as a starting point of his discussion. Marchaj's theme is that sail racing rules have served to make sailing craft less seaworthy and seakindly, and therefore less safe and less comfortable. Although much of the book is technical, it makes a good read for anyone who's interested in yacht design.
As I followed Marchaj's discussion of the characteristics that make a seaworthy craft, I was pleasantly surprised to find that according to his conclusions, the Cape Dory exemplifies a craft very close to Marchaj's ideally seaworthy sailboat. I think any reader who follows the logic of the book and who plugs the Cape Dory specifications into Marchaj's formulas will conclude that a Cape Dory would have survived the Fastnet disaster. I also suspect that any Cape Dory owner will be pleased to see objective evidence that the Cape Dory is an exemplary seaworthy boat.
In the biography of Carl Alberg (linked to the CCDO site) there's an anecdote about an Alberg 25 (if I recall correctly) that during an Atlantic passage survived the '79 Fastnet storm and only later learned of the fatal race.
By the way, a second edition of Seaworthiness has recently been published.
everett@megalink.net
I recently re-read a book called Seaworthiness: The Forgotten Factor, written by British scientist-sailor C. A. Marchaj shortly after the '79 Fastnet, which he uses as a starting point of his discussion. Marchaj's theme is that sail racing rules have served to make sailing craft less seaworthy and seakindly, and therefore less safe and less comfortable. Although much of the book is technical, it makes a good read for anyone who's interested in yacht design.
As I followed Marchaj's discussion of the characteristics that make a seaworthy craft, I was pleasantly surprised to find that according to his conclusions, the Cape Dory exemplifies a craft very close to Marchaj's ideally seaworthy sailboat. I think any reader who follows the logic of the book and who plugs the Cape Dory specifications into Marchaj's formulas will conclude that a Cape Dory would have survived the Fastnet disaster. I also suspect that any Cape Dory owner will be pleased to see objective evidence that the Cape Dory is an exemplary seaworthy boat.
In the biography of Carl Alberg (linked to the CCDO site) there's an anecdote about an Alberg 25 (if I recall correctly) that during an Atlantic passage survived the '79 Fastnet storm and only later learned of the fatal race.
By the way, a second edition of Seaworthiness has recently been published.
everett@megalink.net
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chuck yahrling
Re: '79 Fastnet and "what if a Cape Dory?"
I recently read "Heavy Weather Sailing" by K. Adlard Coles (http://www.sailnet.com/books/heavy.htm) and found it very informative regarding tactics, hull types and equipment used by those who have survived Fastnet and other bad blows.bob carmody wrote: Just finished reading about the '79 Fastnet incident and wonder about opinion of how a cruising (not a racer) Cape Dory might have fared.any takers?
As a result, I think that full-keel boats like our CDs would be better choices than fin keel or centerboarders. However, Coles cites tank tests that prove regardless of hull configuration, it only takes a breaking wave height of about 55% of hull length to capsize or pitch-pole you! The message I got from this book is that you'd better know how to steer, have a lot of crew, a lot of saftey equipment (storm sails, warps, drogues, etc.) a lot of emergency repair materials, and a fair bit of open water (and luck) to survive a severe storm.
Have your read this book? I'm hardly an expert after reading one book, but it convinced me to put in extra drains when I redo my cockpit sole this spring; to allways wear a harness, carry extra tackle, and to stay in deep water (as opposed to running for shelter in shallow water) if I ever do get caught.
Another interesting if less factual book to be read after the above is "The Perfect Storm", especially if you plan to cruise in New England.
yahrling@cybertours.com
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Jon Larson
Re: '79 Fastnet and "what if a Cape Dory?"
I have always been impressed with Adlard Coles "Heavy Weather Sailing" and the advice and experience encountered in that book. There's a pile of others to be read, as well, including the works of Eric and Susan Hiscock, Webb Chiles, Tristan Jones, etc, etc. There's a number of common threads that run through them.
Here on any summer day on San Francisco Bay we dependably have winds in the 25 to 30 mph range which creates a very nasty and messy chop. On a trip out to Bermuda we had a day with sustained 30 knot winds and while that was a bigger, heavier boat (Contest 38 ketch) than my CD30, the motion was ever so much more comfortable with less whipping around than what we experience on the bay. The consistant recommendation is to run for big and deep water if a major blow is coming if one is not certain of making it to a true refuge.
Would my CD30 surive the Fastnet storm? Probably so, first because I am a cruiser and a conservative cruiser and would probably not push the boat as racers do to an edge of performance and structural strength of the boat. Several boats in the Fastnet that were abandoned were later found still afloat after the storm, as I remember. Secondly, our Cape Dorys are well built boats for our medium displacement class. That doesn't mean one can just take off and go, though. Were I to sail in waters exposing me to the possibility of Fastnet conditions then there are some modifications I would make to PERI, some simple like gasketing the cockpit locker covers. Some a bit more drastic like increasing the cockpit drain sizes. I'm not sure I'd add running backstays, but I sure wouldn't use the staysail in really bad stuff with heavy water washing over the boat with my present configuration. But, with conservative good sense, I think PERI would survive a FAstnet.
Another couple, the Smeeton's, who've twice pitch poled in the roaring 40's of the Southern Ocean, experienced conditions that would truly test the merits and structural integrity of any boat. There, I think, luck counts!
Interesting thought provoking subject! I do hope you get responses from some who actually have done long blue water passages in Cape Dorys.
Jon Larson
Cape Dory 30 PERI
San Francisco Bay
jon9@ix.netcom.com
Here on any summer day on San Francisco Bay we dependably have winds in the 25 to 30 mph range which creates a very nasty and messy chop. On a trip out to Bermuda we had a day with sustained 30 knot winds and while that was a bigger, heavier boat (Contest 38 ketch) than my CD30, the motion was ever so much more comfortable with less whipping around than what we experience on the bay. The consistant recommendation is to run for big and deep water if a major blow is coming if one is not certain of making it to a true refuge.
Would my CD30 surive the Fastnet storm? Probably so, first because I am a cruiser and a conservative cruiser and would probably not push the boat as racers do to an edge of performance and structural strength of the boat. Several boats in the Fastnet that were abandoned were later found still afloat after the storm, as I remember. Secondly, our Cape Dorys are well built boats for our medium displacement class. That doesn't mean one can just take off and go, though. Were I to sail in waters exposing me to the possibility of Fastnet conditions then there are some modifications I would make to PERI, some simple like gasketing the cockpit locker covers. Some a bit more drastic like increasing the cockpit drain sizes. I'm not sure I'd add running backstays, but I sure wouldn't use the staysail in really bad stuff with heavy water washing over the boat with my present configuration. But, with conservative good sense, I think PERI would survive a FAstnet.
Another couple, the Smeeton's, who've twice pitch poled in the roaring 40's of the Southern Ocean, experienced conditions that would truly test the merits and structural integrity of any boat. There, I think, luck counts!
Interesting thought provoking subject! I do hope you get responses from some who actually have done long blue water passages in Cape Dorys.
Jon Larson
Cape Dory 30 PERI
San Francisco Bay
chuck yahrling wrote:I recently read "Heavy Weather Sailing" by K. Adlard Coles (http://www.sailnet.com/books/heavy.htm) and found it very informative regarding tactics, hull types and equipment used by those who have survived Fastnet and other bad blows.bob carmody wrote: Just finished reading about the '79 Fastnet incident and wonder about opinion of how a cruising (not a racer) Cape Dory might have fared.any takers?
As a result, I think that full-keel boats like our CDs would be better choices than fin keel or centerboarders. However, Coles cites tank tests that prove regardless of hull configuration, it only takes a breaking wave height of about 55% of hull length to capsize or pitch-pole you! The message I got from this book is that you'd better know how to steer, have a lot of crew, a lot of saftey equipment (storm sails, warps, drogues, etc.) a lot of emergency repair materials, and a fair bit of open water (and luck) to survive a severe storm.
Have your read this book? I'm hardly an expert after reading one book, but it convinced me to put in extra drains when I redo my cockpit sole this spring; to allways wear a harness, carry extra tackle, and to stay in deep water (as opposed to running for shelter in shallow water) if I ever do get caught.
Another interesting if less factual book to be read after the above is "The Perfect Storm", especially if you plan to cruise in New England.
jon9@ix.netcom.com