Rainmaker in trouble.

I still think after reading part 3 that it is a bad design or idea to have large windows that can't be blocked out at sea. Also pretty amazing is that the boat took off in winter with a bad forecast but with no drogue. If they had a parachute or trailing drogue they could have sat it out after fixing the windows.

Salient lessons for us when designing and building to remember that we still need large cats to be fixable and workable by their users at sea. I do remember a guy telling me last time on the hard that his cat was really good because it had all the essentials for a cruising boat - air con, two fridges, whopping freezer and a big genset.

I do remember when cruising boats had to be seamanlike first and foremost.

cheers

Phil

 

Kind of reminds me of Titanic mentality, unsinkable, latest tech BS, blah, blah and so on. Gunboats have been a mess since the first one arrived, ugly, boxy, too heavy with all that "necessary living" junk aboard, and stupidly overlarge windows. Combine that with egomaniac owners hiding behind wealth instead of basic sailing abilities ... disaster waiting to happen.

 

Gary how right you are

well said

 

After reading part 3 I started wondering about the possibility of a capsize in the following storm. A few things caught my eye.
1- The captain put the boards down for the evac.
2-The hull under the window was closed off with seat cushions.
3-The search by the trawler and the later air search turned up debris areas.
4-The storm conditions reported by the trawler had 80 knot winds and wave height greater than beam.

With boards down there is now a tripping hazard. If one hull took on water side slip is further reduced.When a multihull capsizes the water washes things out of the hulls quickly unless they are secured. If a boat isn't slipping with the waves once they become bigger than the boat beam a capsize is very likely.

I pondered these things over on cruisers forum but the cruisers thought it unlikely. For Gunboat and the insurers, or bounty hunters, it seems worthwhile to contemplate drift based on a capsized or swamped boat with visual searching focused on a bottom paint colored target versus those shiny topsides.

 

That big sprit seems to have created a lot of problems with worries it would dig in etc....Maybe the Neel tri could advertise the benefits of a having a hull underneath.
It did make me wonder how short a center bow section could be and still remain effective. Extra bow buoyancy is a good thing, if carried back far enough a central board could be used freeing up hull room. Or perhaps a central engine with the hull end amidships? Something to contemplate anyway.

 

Even right way up water sloshing though the hull causes a lot of damage.

Agreed, a boat (any number of hulls) is reasonably safe from wave capsize if the waveheight is lower than the boat beam.

See here for a trawler in what appears to be not too big a sea, certainly under 20 or it would have disappeared in every wave

The last 20secs are the important bit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yt69DcjgZsA

As you know, most people on CF are not experienced multihull sailors

RW

 

When considering the sequence of events and the structural features that led to those, even in a top boat like the RM (even if not perfect), I have been looking at the harryproa designs with a different eye. It would seem that shunting in a cruiser is a low price if any to pay for a planform that would prevent or halt most of such a cascade of failings and risks. Even the unstayed mast breaking to lee would be quicker to secure away from puncturing the leeward hull. Cockpit and cabin are out of harm's way... Am I missing anything from a safety point of view, all else being equal?