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West Wight Potter Mailing List maintainer
dfarrell@ridgecrest.ca.us
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I just finished reading an account of a truly terrible storm in "Fastnet,
Force 10". The author's conclusion was that there was no one single best
strategy for weathering conditions of force 10. The discussion of the
various possibilities paralleled what has been said on the list. The only
clear findings were: 1) Harnesses and teathers can and do fail 2) a
drogue was useful 3) larger boats tended to fair better than small boats
as they were better able to maintain steerage way. Otherwise, heaving to,
running with bare poles, and beating into the swells had about the same
results in terms of swampings and capsizings. From my reading, another
conclusion was that many crews abandoned ship to early and placed
themselves in greater danger in the life rafts. - Eric
Eric E. Zilbert
Agricultural & Environmental Education Program
Dept. of Agronomy and Range Science, UCD
Davis, CA 95616 (530) 752-5943
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