Re: Turtling P-185- everyone should email this fellow

Posted By: Tim Marks-Seaward Fox-Mystic, CT
Date: 2/25/05 7:01a.m.

Report: outside forum guidelines

In Response To: Re: Turtling P-185 (Rob Myran P-21 #144, Windance, Viroqua, WI)

Everybody should email him. Maybe if he gets enough informed comments, he will wise up and back off from his ill-advised campaign against Precision. My letter: "I have taught sailing for years, sailed competitively in dinghies on the college circuit, and cruised thousands of miles in small keel boats. The first thing I always taught my students was how to upright their boat WHEN it flipped. It is expected that a centerboard boat will go over on occasion, especially when sailed in strong winds. I find it surprising that you didn't expect a boat with a weighted centerboard to be unstable when sailing with the centerboard raised, especially in 10-12 knots of wind (you said no white caps). In my judgement, your actions directly contributed to the capsizing. It is reprehensible to blame this on a "design flaw" when any even slightly proficienct sailor would expect an event such as you described under those circumstances." Of interest, quotes from his website: "If and when a boat does get suddenly overpowered by an unexpected blast, it should automatically turn itself into the wind so it will straighten up even if the skipper is asleep at the tiller." The funny thing about this is that in his capsizing, he said he was sailing on a broad reach. Most boats do not tend to "round up" when on a broad reach, they tend to capsize if hit by a strong enough gust. Broad reach+ high winds+ centerboard raised+inexperienced skipper=capsize=vendetta against boat manufacturer? "The cutout on the transom, which makes for easy access from the water, is a negative once the vessel has turtled, because a safety air pocket fails to form." Anybody here ever chose to use the "safety air pocket"? That concept gives me the heeby-jebbies(sp)... if a boat goes over I am either climbing over the side as it rolls, or jumping away to avoid entanglement in the lines. My other hobby is woodworking, where the jokes start with "10 fingers in, 10 fingers out, must have been a good day". Nobody talks about attacking manufactuerers because their "unsafely designed" router took a big chunk out of their hand. Geez, have some personal responsibility already.