Self-Relieving

[Beth Helms]

Someone asked me long ago, as we were sailing, if the Cape Dory 25' is "Self-Relieving"? Now, I figure they were asking if the Cape Dory 25' will "pop back up" no matter how far it heels? Am I correct in the meaning of this term? I guess I took it for granted, that with the full keel, and all that I have seen about it being a "great boat that can withstand anything", that was a given. Now, I'm not sure. Please, help. Thanks!



pookpook@crosslink.net

[Dana]

Someone asked me long ago, as we were sailing, if the Cape Dory 25' is "Self-Relieving"? Now, I figure they were asking if the Cape Dory 25' will "pop back up" no matter how far it heels? Am I correct in the meaning of this term? I guess I took it for granted, that with the full keel, and all that I have seen about it being a "great boat that can withstand anything", that was a given. Now, I'm not sure. Please, help. Thanks!

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I believe they meant "self righting" and yes.....it is the ability to recover to the normal vertical position after, for instance, a knockdown. And no, not all boats are self righting. With a narrow beam and low center of gravity (full keel,like Cape Dory) self righting is more natural. But as the beam increases or the center of gravity of the boat is higher, there is less tendancy for it to recover after a "roll". Such boats will want to stay "flipped over".



darenius@aol.com

[Jim Stull]

Someone asked me long ago, as we were sailing, if the Cape Dory 25' is "Self-Relieving"? Now, I figure they were asking if the Cape Dory 25' will "pop back up" no matter how far it heels? Am I correct in the meaning of this term? I guess I took it for granted, that with the full keel, and all that I have seen about it being a "great boat that can withstand anything", that was a given. Now, I'm not sure. Please, help. Thanks!

As Dana mentioned, the design of the CD25 compares very favorably with almost any boat of its size and also, in most respects, with many larger boats. In the aftermath of the Fastnet Race disaster, much work was done to identify the factors which led to the many capsizes. As a result an arbitrary capsize ratio of 2.0 was set as the accepted safe limit. (The smaller the ratio the better.) The CD25 has a capsize ratio of 1.83 so you can see it more than meets this limit.
This site
http://www.image-ination.com/sailcalc.html
give you an easy way to compare the CD25 with many other popular boats.
Jim



jtstull@icubed.com