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From: Jeff Smith (no email)
Date: Wed Jun 08 2005 - 20:53:49 EDT
I have a fairly large sailboat I think. Two staterooms with queen beds, plus
a large double and dining for 6.
A great deal of thought was put into keeping her seaworthy, and two of the
more obvious (to me at least) elements were:
1) Keep the number of UNDERWATE HOLES in the boat to a minimum. Hence we
have just just four. Strategically located to serve multiple purposes.
2) Make damned sure that any HOLES in the boat that are underwater are
REALLY easily accessible. That means, without tools and in a location where
they can be felt for underwater should the need arise.
I could never sleep on a boat whose thru hulls required tools to access, or
where so numerous as to render figuring out which one to shut in an
emergency (i.e sinking!) a crap shoot.
Example: Somone I know well installed a watermaker. The intake thru hull was
up near the bow. The water maker about 25 feet away from that thru hull.
About 50 miles out to sea, in pounding waves the bilge pump alarm sounded. A
fitting or hose (forget which now) near to the watermaker had failed. He
rushed below and seeing substantial amount of water coming in, proceeded to
shut the thru hulls in the vicinity of the watermaker. He had 17 thru hulls,
and managed to close 8 as the water continued to rise. It ~finally~ occured
to him that it might be the watermaker. He tore the forward cabin apart and
ripped the plywood under the bed up by prying with a screwdriver in order to
access the thru hull and shut it. No time was wasted undoing the four or six
philips screws that held the panel in place. All this while being tossed
about down below in the waves and heeling in the wind.
By the time the leak was stopped, he had nearly a foot of water OVER the
floorboards.
His thru hulls were too numerous, and they were located badly, requiring
tools to access some of them.
I did not make the same mistake.
Just my opinion. To each his/her own I suppose.
Jeff
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