Some Thoughts on Capsize in the Atlantic

I am back home in Virginia Beach and working my way through the mountain of email, progressing toward normalising my work again. I have swapped the Southern Hemisphere for the Northern one, summer for winter and cruising the Brazilian Bay of Islands for a blizzard that is coming later today. What else is there to do than to dig right into the pile of work that awaited me?

A relaxed holiday on the sunny beaches, mountains and waters of Cape Town gave me time to absorb and reflect on the whole experience of turning a big boat upside down on the ocean.

Many people have said to me that it must have been a frightening experience but I didnt find it frightening at all. I remember thinking "Oh, we are upside down, was that a wave or have we lost the keel?". My next thoughts were about the safety of Sean, who was alone in the cockpit. I saw through the companionway that he was hanging on tight then my eyes and mind went back to what was happening inside the boat.

Sean says that he wasnt frightened either. The wave broke over the top of him and he was entranced by the mast spearing the water as "Black Cat" rolled over. He wondered if the mast would still be standing after she righted herself. He says "Rather a surreal experience more than frightening. BC ("Black Cat") felt safe somehow."

In contrast, Gavin had what might be considered a more normal reaction to what had happened. He got a big fright and his reaction was to move into the cockpit and stay there, where he felt safer (in the event of another capsize) and from where he was able to pump water from the bilge with the pump that is mounted in the cockpit seat. Gavin is the youngest member of the crew but has almost as many seas miles in tough conditions as the rest of us and can cope with anything that is thrown at him at sea.

I think that the big difference between Gavins reaction and that of Sean and myself is possibly due to our different experiences in waves. Gavin is not a surfer but both Sean and I are. We have spent countless hours in breaking waves that are sometimes big and frightening. As with all things in our lives, our minds get sensitised by our experiences and it takes progressively more intense experiences to break through that sensitising and make an impression. That sensitizing helps us to keep a clear train of thought in intense situations. This situation involved being thrown around by a big wave and was less out of the ordinary for us surfers than for the non-surfers in the crew.

It was also a lot more frightening for those on land than for us on the boat. We knew exactly what our situation was but loved ones on land could only speculate. They were hearing very sketchy reports from multiple sources. They knew that we had hassles and they knew that there was a very violent storm hammering us. Their minds were having a field day imagining all sorts of things happening to us on the ocean in wild conditions. Whether or not our actual experiences surpassed their imagined ones I dont know.

A few people have asked if I would rather not have been there or if I would have preferred it to have happened to someone else. Truthfully, a definite no. I am glad to have been there and to have experienced this. I am pleased that it happened to me and not to someone else. If I could exchange what happened for anything else, it would be that we did not break the rudder and were able to continue our Cape to Rio Race as planned. But that was not to be. We did break the rudder, we did get blown back into a very violent storm, we did get turned upside down by a big breaking wave and we did all survive with minimal damage to the boat or injury to the crew.

The result is that I went through that roller-coaster washing machine and I did it with my eyes open and my analytical brain switched on. I was able to observe for myself what happens in this situation, what happens to the boat itself and to everything that is inside this kaleidoscope tube as it turns through 3D space, jumbling up crew, stores and equipment and leaving them all relocated in whatever positions gravity and rotational forces happened to have thrown them.

I consider myself, crew and boat to be fortunate to have come through as lightly as we did. I also consider myself very fortunate to now be one of what must be a very small number of boat designers who have this experience in their backgrounds, an experience that is foreverafter there to influence how and why we do what we do in every future boat that we design.

I was told a few months ago by an interior design specialist that she wanted to work with me to design interiors for my boats. She said that on boat shows and in magazines she had seen some really bad interiors and the fact that she was talking to me on this subject seemed to infer that she thought that my interiors could do with improvement. I asked what ocean sailing experience she had, which proved to be none at all. I told her that my interiors were designed to be safe for a gyrating boat on the ocean, not for boat shows or drinking cocktails on a marina. My interiors and all other aspects of my designs come from my experience at sea, gained over many thousands of miles of cruising and racing in conditions from delightful to horrendous. From now on they will also be influenced by my experience of being tossed out of control inside a capsizing boat.

To see our range of boat designs, please go to http://dixdesign.com/.

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Rudders bows Bolger Culler Parker Chappelle Martin Kirby Monroe my thoughts

While sitting on land in the boat yard here in Jolly Harbour Antigua I took a few minutes to photograph some of the boats bows and rudders here. I have been disscussing for the past several years optimum rudder shapes and bow depths on the Boat Design net website. Lots of intresting people from around the world have weighed in with their thoughts, suggestions and other internet info on what would,

should work for a shallow draft vessel. The Hogfish Maximus has been one of the boats that has been of intrest to these gentlemen along with late Boat Designer Phillp Bolgers designs and many others.

The thread of this on going discussion has gone from large sailboats to small ones. As I sail mostly in the ocean getting to places that have shallow waters to explore my designs have to be ocean capable first and then be able to handle shallows later. I want to do both well. Thats why I have been pushing the subject of why all flat bottom cruising bows must be submerged at least 4-6" to stop them from pounding when at rest. Its just plain logical. But if you have never spent a night at anchor in a 10 knot breeze then you will never know what it will be like in a boat that pounds incessantly. Also Iam amazed at the reluctance of so many amature designers that are looking to past antiquated designs for rudders and bow depth. They will not grasp that past ideas have evolved as have boats. I believe that this is happening from a lack of actual sailing exsperience in many different sailing conditions and sailing time on these old designs.

Its very hard to get sea time in when you are back home dreaming of building your own sailboat in a land locked environment. Thus you look to others for help and inspiration. Beware !! Lots of designers lack boatbuilding exsperience and real sea time. This has led people down paths that may not really work out for them. 

In todays world materials are expensive. Your time is now taken up by so many more distractions ( like ready this blog !) that building the wrong boat could waste time enjoying life. The warning signs to me of inexperienced designers are when they always refer to their "Cad Program". When they go on about all these tank test optimal theorys on pressure waves a such jargon.

Computers dont think up boats humans do. With computers its garbage in garbage out. I dont trust anyone that cant draw a boat on paper first. I feel that Cad programs have made amature designers lazy in that they will never learn by feel the process of delineating an idea by hand and simple math.

Yes I cheat today by using a calculator to speed up my math. I also have used Cad programs to check my calculations against. Its fun. I also do not use a sextant anymore. GPS has changed my life at sea for the better. But I have put my time in at sea and know how to navigate the tried and true way. 

What I want to attempt to get across here with these photos is to show how rudders have changed in  performance. Lots better performance but at a huge compromise in its liability to damage and use. Yes boats with all the details put together in the proper manner can be a joy to sail. Lots of the boats in this yard today sail ok but have huge sail and steering issues when over canvassed and in heavy weather. But with the right crew aboard they will get you there either way.

Lets look at what I see

Well start with the HFM rudder. The main rudder itself is supported by three large gudgeons with the bottom one at the heel of the shallow skeg. The folding rudder blade has very good support in the main rudders case. When sailing over a fish pot, weeds, a whale or such the rudder will kick up and all will slide by. You then have to pull a block and tackle line to pull it back down again. The pintal pin that goes through the gudgeons is a 1" SS shaft that be be removed from above or below in about a minute. This enables the intire rudder to be removed for maintence. This can be done in the water. The rudder blade can be removed by taking out the pin. When in its full down postion as shown the steering is finger tip easy until the boat is over pressed with canvas at which time if racing you just keep on steering or if cruising you reduce sail area. 

The fiberglass rudder gudgeon.

 

The bottom of the rudder with a plastic spacing ring which the shaft goes through to the bottom of the skeg . No line can catch here ever.

The top of the rudder with its Edson Rack and pinion steering system. A seat goes over this. If this were to fail I would remove the two bolts at the rudder head and remove it and then attach the large tiller that I have made that bolts in place with the same bolts. I have a block and tackle system that also goes in place to steady the rudder. This takes a few minutes to do.

This is Wild Birds rudder. This boat is 44 long and is a Van de Stadt design. She weighs 40,000 lbs.

Lots of control here with a nice good heel fitting. The rudder stock is 3" stainless and goes all the way up to the deck. The emergency tiller to steer from the deck would be a nightmare. She did not seem to catch many seaweeds this winter. I believe its because the rudder is so deep. She draws74" ! Sheesh not for me. This ketch was not any stiffer when sailing against the Hogfish in all winds this winter. But she is faster. 

Heres a Bermuda 40 rudder a design by Bill Tripp. Typical Hinkley complicated boat as you have to move the engine to remove the shaft to get the propeller off. This boat draws about 4 with its board up. They are lovely to sail and look at. The Hogfish cannot out sail them. Ive tried.

An oyster 46 with its contemporary rudder. Nice heel fitting. Remove this and lift the boat up about 3 more and the rudder will slide out. Or dig a hole.

Here is a Niad 46 with to me a terrible rudder design. Just think of diving down up in Maine waters when you get a lobster pot line in between the rudder and that skeg. At night !

Its not worth that little bit of balance you will get. Any boat that has a rudder setup like this I feel the designer, and the builders salesmen should have to show you how easy it is to clear away stuff from this trap at night at sea. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Heres another one on a french design. Forget owning a boat with this set up. Did I forget to say STUPID!

Heres one where the owners have temporarily installed a plate in front to stop the madness.

This is the same thing but not down so deep. This is a Westerly bilge keel sloop. I see lots of rudders like this with a 3/8" bolt coming down from the hull right in front of the gap between the rudder and the hull. This stops a pot line from jamming in here so not so bad.

This is the worst rudder design in the yard. See the balanced part at the bottom about 4-1/2 down underwater. The entire bottom of this rudder is unsupported with this hockey puck for a rudder bottom waiting to snag water ever you sail over. This is a South African design that trys to look traditional on deck but is modern under water. A huge step back here.

 Now onto the standard charter boat rudder. This is a Bavarias rudder. These boats sail along alright but are tender and have to be reefed early. This is a wonderfull rudder design for the right boat. Unfortunately though when you run aground this type of rudder is very vulnerable to damage as its only a few inches shallower than the keel. It also has a very short rudder stock inside the boat so that set up has to be built very well  built with its long lever arm and strains imposed upon it.

These boats keels are always coming loose. I will be doing a blog post showing all the fin keels coming off of boats soon.

A deep one on a french 42er. I race a lot on this design as main sheet man. When hard on the wind and pressed this boat will spin out of control if the mainsail sheet is not eased in and out to maintain control. A pain in the ass. I get yelled at a lot." Let her the F&%#K out Chris!!!! More!!! In INNNNN come on ! OOOUUUTTTT!!!  Racing is lots of fun. Thats why I drink so much beer afterwards.

A C&C rudder from days of old.

A long one on an old aluminum racer from Europe. With this type of rudder you have to have the right cord shape or the rudder will stall out and you will loose control when pressed.

You have to have steering control at all times. When I sail through an anchorage I cannot spin out or loose control at any time with the millions of dollars of boats anchored about. I have sailed many boats by well known designers and builders that where a hand full to control and scary to be sailing in tight harbours.

A big wide sled sloop with twin rudders. Well if youre going to sail about with a bulb keel shaped like a torpedo that draws 10 why not have this set up. What could go wrong ?

Now onto more sane rudders. This is a 65 Swans rudder. Look at how nice that fairs in. A proper setup. The prop of course is folding so everything slips by.

A full skeg rudder on a Nicolson  34 sloop. The prop will do all the catching.

Classic rudder on an old fiberglass Ketch. I do not like the hole in the rudder. I agree with Herrshoff in that all props should be offset with the props blade trust facing the hull side. 

An Amel ketch. Faired in very nicely but the rudder stock has to go up out through the cabin top.

I believe he thought of everything but some of his stuff is very complicated and costly to maintain.

This rudder has a wire running from the bottom of the skeg to the aft trailing edge of the keel to stop lines and such from getting to the prop.

This is a Nicolson  ketches rudder. So nice and simple. The rake angle in front of the skeg will not hold any weeds or lines. Classic smarts. Except the prop will catch the fish pot line. You will need a folding prop to save yourself.

Here is a Charlie Morgan design. An Out Island 51 ketch. This rudder will be a bitch to steer.

I dont know what design this boat is but it has a very nice skeg setup with its angle being enough to shed weeds. Lots of rudder there. It was the biggest in area with all its contemporay designs next to it.

 Brewer 45 cutter. A brute of a big boat. Solid rudder set up but lots of drag by todays standards.

A Stevens 44 cutter. 

 Home made concrete sloop with a complicated rudder. Lots to hook onto here. The rudder un bolts in many places to remove.

Nothing like a classic rudder on a beautiful steel ketch. Would have to remove the prop shaft to get this rudder out.

Home built steel sloop that the builder made sure would not snag anything. The rudder unbolts at the top to remove. Lots of steel boats do it this way.

Kick up rudder on a light weight trimaran. 

Simple skeg rudders on a Prout Catamaran. I dont understand owning a multihull that is deep draft. Why have keels and deep rudders when you can have boards and kick up rudders.

The last rudder is the best for a deep boat. An Island Packet 38 cutter. With a long keel this set up is quite simple. Remove the bottom plate and the rudder shaft is about 20" up in the hull going to a rack and pinion steering system. The thing I have noticed on all these Island Packets is no one ever buys a folding prop. These boats do sail along so why not buy a good prop on EBay and go a bit faster?

Your average bowl hull shape of today.

Thats my load waterline on HFM. When we hauled out last week the travelift said we weighed 29,500lbs. We are a bit light with not much water, tools and food supplies aboard.

Bow of an Oyster 46 cutter.

Niad 46 sloop.

The Oyster and Niads bows look almost the same. The red boat is a Hinkely 46

Amel 46 ketch. Dont forget to pull up the bow thruster !

Nice racing sloop.

Bow, bow , bow all about the same in depth.

Looks like cookie cutter boats but all from different builders and designers.

Ah a nice Swan 65 bow. This sloop has sailed several hundred thousand miles. 

I think this is a Robert Perry design. It has a lifting bulb keel. See the bow is not out of the water.

Ok now youve seen a typical selection of rudders and bows that are out and about to day.

What I want all you shallow draft design people to look at and think about is this. If you are going to only sail in very protected waters at all times then you can get away with a simple horizontal Bolger type rudder. It will not be fun to steer, it will be cranky as the wind changes. It will limit you to this small world. But it will set you apart as being old school and stubborn. 

I delete my blog photos as I go along to make room for more. If you look back on my other shoal draft sailboat posts you will see these boats rudders. Some got it others not yet. It shows as you never see the bad designs out sailing.

Most all the rudders shown here are of big moderate to heavy displacement boats. A few were light displacement. Most all have very shallow bodied hulls with fin keels or separated keels. None of these hulls will sail with a small little rudder up under its hull. 

Ask Rodger Martin or Bruce Kirby to put a Bolger rudder on one of their designs and see what they say.

Ruel Parker redesigns old designs from the past. These are very lovely looking boats with most being coast wise capable but not offshore able. The last boat that Ruel Parker built was his redesign of the Howard Chappelle San Jaun Island halibut sharpie schooner. These boats look so cool on paper. They fished mostly with a bit of ice in the hold. Had low freeboard to be able to fish. Did not stay offshore for long periods. Could only carry so much load. With his new remake he added two huge cabins to get headroom and worst of all built in a swing keel which weighed several tons instead of a simple centerboard. Now this boat cannot slip along In Shallow water unless the keel is totally raised. He worrys about the keel hitting bottom and then dropping and breaking the lift cable.

Ruel asked us when we last sailed by for a visit if our boat pounded at anchor a lot because his sure did. "No ours doesnt because we did not copy an outdated design."Our bow is underwater. But Ruel made it across the 50 miles of the Gulf Stream to Andros so its got to be seaworthy.

If you want to sail across an ocean you will have to find a boat that is designed for that first and then will work well in shallow water when you get there. I feel I have found that combination that works for me.

All of the bows shown are under water. All of the French aluminum Ovini sailboats bow are under water.

Pete Culler designed and built some of the most beautiful salty looking craft ever. But several had terrible sea fates of sinking and abandonment. This gets back to my "people sail boats not boats sail people" saying. Some of what he says in his books has been proven wrong and outdated. Its time to move on.

Phil Bolger drew some incredible boats. Really got me off the traditional track to start thinking outside the box. He did lots of his designs in an era of home builders and cheap wood. So much has been learned since he drew up the Black Skimmer, Manatee, and all his other shallow boats. Lots of his designs turned out just like he called them when drawing up an idea. His cartoon.

I have sailed on many of his boats and have built two. I learned much from all of them. To me most need lots of redesign thinking. They are all old school. I would not build a Piver trimaran just because so many were built at one time. Time to move on.

Howard Chappelle got me going with his American Small Craft designs book. So much history. But nobody fishes under sail anymore in the Real world. His Sharpie cruising designs in todays world would be deemed unsafe to sail if you go over the numbers. I have read of many stories in old yachting magazines of people building these old Sharpie designs and having disasters in them when sailing.

Chappelle and Ruel Parker have designed along the same path of trying to reinvent the past when its so much easier to start from scratch. That is unless you want to live and sail in a boat with no headroom, low freeboard that cannot take a sea or a short chop, with a rudder that is a torment to hold underway.

Commodore Monroe got it right during his era. Look at his designs and boats. Lots of sail area with very minimal spar size. All his boats were sailed with no deck clutter. They all looked to be great fun for the bays and coastal waters that he plied. The Egret is a wonderful small boat. The Presto has a hull shape section much like a Dorys vee. But it is a deep running hull shape compared to an unloaded dory with a bunch of ballest in her. Rodger Martins Presto is similar in name only. In todays money you could have probably bought all of the Florida keys for what it costs for one of these beauties today.

Iam quite sure Monroe and Herrshoff would go nuts sailing Rodger Martins Presto across Biscayne bay if we had a time machine. Just think of how transoms, rudders, bows, centerboards and daggerboards would have changed then. The stinky snot could be shown to them last.

 

To finish up my thoughts here.

 Look to the past for inspiration, and knowledge.

Look at the present and separate what is working now and whats not.

Just because I said it, it does not mean its true, go find out for yourself.

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Chine runners for flat bottomed sailboats some thoughts

32 years ago I owned a 21 San Juan centerboard sloop. I had bought it for $1,000.00 with the mind to clean it up sail it a bit and resell her. This fiberglass design had a long drop cast iron keel that you would hoist up with a hand crank trailer boat winch through a big hole in its trunk. I learned very quickly that this set up was a nightmare to try and stop the ingress of water into its cabin. I also learned that when you hit the bottom with this heavy metal keel it would shake the boat like you had just lost all the ocean out from under you and dropped to the sea bed. Needless to say when in anything that looked like shallow water up it went and away would we start sliding to leeward on our crabbing passage to our anchorage. I learned I would never want this set up. I sold the boat for $3,000.00 which you could still do back then. I at times owned up to 8 boats that I was buying with the mind to fix up , learn it bit and then resell. Ive never lost money on a boat... Yet.

When I met and sailed with Jim Melchor on his Phil Bolger designed Mannatee yawl I got hooked on shallow water capable sailing vessels. I loved the way he could just sail about in 2-1/2 -3 of water without worry. The mizzen sail offset on the stern was so radical. Who was this guy Bolger that said you could do this and not follow convention ?

Jim sailing Alert in shallow water. The leeboard acts like a a simple long low aspect keel. Its design has been around for centuries.

Jim Melchor asked if he could finish one of his sons Bolger Black Skimmer leeboard Yawl designs in my custom boat building shop " Back Bay Boats" in Tavernier in Key Largo. Sure! After Jim launched we sailed that boat every chance we got.

I loved just watching the water flow around its simple exterior 2x4 chine logs. Who would of thought of doing this to make it easier for amature builders. Oh yea, to hell with convention.

I owned a Herrshoff Prudence sloop at time that I had built with all matching bronze hardware. Here was a designer I could follow in my own personal life. 

This boat was very stiff and fun to sail but had a wicked weather helm at times. The hull scantlings were way too light for me. The hull looked like it would not last long if not looked after carefully. In reality it did not. These boats with butt blocked plywood panels and one layer of Dynel cloth just do not hold up.

The next intresting boat I came across I had only heard about through my sailing  friends Michel and Idda Little. They had built a smaller Bolger double ended leeboard cat rigged 30re. They only sailed it a very short distance from Key West to the Marquesas keys to camp out on for the winter. You could do that back in those days. They have written a great book on camp cruising small boats.

From them I heard of this kid that they had met named Matt Layden. They said he was living aboard and crusing in a 13 cat rigged flat bottom dinghy that had a cabin top. And the thing that they wanted me to know was that it had no Keel, leeboard, daggerboard or anything. They said he sailed everywhere on just the chine !

It would take many years later before Matt and I finally met up in the Exumas. 

See pictures in an earlier blog.

During this time frame I decided to design and build my own shoal draft yawl. I wanted a very ocean capable boat but also very capable to really sail across very shoal waters with out the need for an engine. Between this time frame I looked up Henry Scheels keel design for reducing draft on production standard keels. The Austrailans had won the Americas cup with a wing keel. 

I had seen how easy the water flowed around the Bolger 2x4s.

This guy Matt was sailing all over with just his Chines. 

So what I figured was that I would kjust spread out a Scheel keel to both sides of the hull bottom.

The boat only sails on one side of its keel at a time. The hull sides would act like a leewards low slung flat surface... Except that I could use the whole side of the boat.

I ended up putting this chine edge down the whole length of the first Hogfish design. Pete Culler in his book on Skiffs and Schooners goes on to say you should never have a hard chine boat with a protruding exterior chine or the boat will trip and be very unsafe. Well Bolger must have not read Petes book. 

This chine protrusion, lip, extension, winggy thing what ever I feel works very well to stop the slipping you would otherwise get with out it. I have learned much since meeting Matt Laden, comparing boats and ideas. Now mine are very short. As in 12 long on HFM. Not too big. 

I can see how they work when I pull up my daggerboard or when I raise the centerboards on the other two Hogfish designs. 

BUT they do not give lift, not like some wing Keels can. They work best when the boat is hard pressed and heeling over in a breeze. If its light winds and we are trying to sail to weather in 4 of water the sails cannot be sheeted in too tight. As the breeze increases then you can see and feel the dig. You can see the grip by looking over the stern at the wake.

This is very low tech stuff here.

Lots of people dreaming of a shoal water simple boat would love to not have to build a board into their boat and also give up that space.

A Chine keel- wing like this WILL NOT WORK in anything bigger than maybe 18.

Why because you will need to use human ballast to lean the boat over to get it to dig in. This is impractical. Windage comes in to play. 

Its a good addition for gunk holers as a simple thing to add when building your boat.

This is what I would suggest putting on my H-28 for about 8-10

Heres showing what I feel is the difference between a traditional vee bottom and the Hogfish types.

See the difference in vee in going to windward in a decent breeze. The vee bottoms bow gets flatter.

Notice the freeboard. Must reef earlier in the upper boat.

Thats as far over as the HFM sails in 20-28 knts with one reef in the main.

Showing a box boat. Ive never seen a picture of one in strong winds so Iam only speculating here.

If you have some pictures in a strong breeze please send me some. 

To finish up heres some thoughts on rudder depths. Some loose drawings of contemporay designs and their rudder depths. Ill go offshore in any of those that go below the hull bottom. The others will be very hard pressed in a breeze as they will have to shorten their sail to handle the speeds and loads.

If you have no offshore sailing plans than no big deal. 

Rained all this afternoon today so no more work re installing Wild Birds deck Hardware. Time to write a post while Rachel cooks dinner.

Its Movember , mustache month. Rachel and I having lunch between squalls today.

Later...

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