Heavy weather boat designs?

[anton hart]

Hi guys,
I am looking at building an aluminuim yacht for a round the world cruise. I am looking at the Dudley Dix designs namely the Dix 43 Pilot and the Vickers 45. But I have been told that the van der stadt's are also good heavy weather designs. What would rank as the best heavy weather cruisers around?

Any other good designs out there that beat the Dix and van der Stadt designs for heavy weather characteristics ?

[LyndonJ]

Anton
That depends on your expectations, levels of tolerance and desired tactics.
If you post the vessels parameters ratios, stability curves then you might get specific responses.

Have a look at the discussion on the following threads as a good primer of the issues and debates :

The roll acceleration: What´s the best for crossing oceans?

Also another iterestig one which has some good discussions:

Seaworthiness

My own opinion is that the heavier the boat for a given length the more comfortable it is but then hull shape design is more critical for performance and sail area needs to be greater for light air performance.

All the best
Lyndon