Small Craft Advisor Seaworthiness Test

[Andy B]

Small Craft Advisor is a great publication.  A few years ago it moved to entirely online; though I like receiving paper magazines, a plus is that you can interact.

 

They re-published on old article with a seaworthiness test, and a link that you can use to score your boat and yourself.  Both are interesting and a good chance to evaluate your boat and yourself.  I graded my Core Sound 20 mk1 as 138, which was average seaworthiness for a boat.  Not bad given the test is for all sorts of trailerable craft--the highest scoring boats are self-righting with little cockpit.

 

I'm curious how others would score their B&B boats.

 

Article:  https://smallcraftadvisor.substack.com/p/seaworthiness-test-revisited-and

Test:  https://smallcraftadvisor.com/content/seatest/test-002.htm

 

[Andy B]

One issue this raised in my mind is my outboard and the Anderson bailer.  With the open cockpit I would take on a lot of water in a capsize or swamping.  The bailer works great, but only at speed (I think above 3 knot for me or so).  I've been looking at an electric outboard, and was thinking smaller the better.  But if I factor in a capsize, it would be nice to have an outboard capable of pushing my boat, full of water, fast enough to employ the bailer.

 

A small detail, perhaps, but good to think about these things.

[Alan Stewart]

I graded the CS-20 as my father and I sailed it say in the EC. I got a 108CS-20 grading.pdf

Here is what i chose. Some things mattered not I thought like to me seaworthiness has nothing to do with whether or not the boat has a motor. I think of seaworthiness as the boats ability to get you home when the conditions really get tough. In higher winds sailing in my experience is more effective than motoring when it gets really rough. I said yes to all the safety gear.  "beachability" i guess that speaks to whether you can beach it to prevent sinking? Also it's a 10 point swing if you consider yourself thoroughly skilled or somewhat skilled. I sandbagged and said somewhat just to see what that would result so had i not it would be 118 i guess. I think the score is fair for the boat. 

 

When we capsized our CS-20 in the North Carolina Challenge one year we just bailed it out with buckets before continuing. If you just capsized then you almost always have enough wind to sail plenty fast to empty the boat with the Anderson Bailer. You can just reach back and forth until it's empty if you like but I think it's much faster to heave her to, grab a bucket and bail for 2 minutes. There really isn't much water in the boat after you right her. As i recall the water was about an inch or 2 below the level of the bottom of the cockpit hatches so maybe 6" in the cockpit and that was with a fully loaded boat. Here is a link to some pictures of Graham's old CS-17 capsize testing in the river in calm conditions. https://photos.app.goo.gl/mKZeb53jJwYEK8bcA you can see how little water was left which is by design. 

 

Note also the very high down flooding angle which is thanks to having side decks combined with the cockpit seat flotation. Though the boat is taking on water here it only took on a small amount circled in red. An open boat (without cockpit seating) would just completely swamp at this point. Most potential capsizes can be prevented before even getting to this point by simply dumping the mainsheet. The mainsheet is what you want to immediately dump if you feel like you just got hit with a gust you're not going to be able to recover from. The boat will round hard into the wind and almost always recover even if you slip and slide down into the cockpit. Usually in fact it's better if you just let go of the tiller. In our NCC capsize i mentioned earlier this is what caused our capsize. We were both hiking on the rail and a gust hit and i fumbled the mainsheet and didn't get it un cleated and over she went. I know i was hiking on the rail because i was able to just swing my leg over the side and was standing on the CB and never even got wet. Old muscle memory from NC State sailing club racing. 

 

Best thing you can do is capsize practice!

 

 

 

 

 

[Paul356]

I got  117 on my CS 17MkI.  Seemed about right.  I have capsized 3 times.  Ugh.  It turtled two of those times, including once with the masthead float on.  The time it stayed at 90 degrees, the hull rode high enough out of the water that I couldn't reach it from the hull side to try righting.  I was in the process of going to the cockpit side to try crawling up or something when a safety boat picked me up and got me righted.  I was able to motor iin then.  The first time it turtled, my daughter and I got righted.  The third time I was solo and, of all things, my shoes kept slipping on the painted bottom.  A rescue boat came and got me before I was able to figure out how to get how to solve that predicament.  It towed me in upside downa and bent the main mast beyond recognition.  

[Andy B]

Thanks, @Alan Stewartand @Paul356, for your real-world thoughts.

 

Just for comparison sake, here's where I scored the CS higher than Alan:

 

Outboard not motor (3 points)

Terminal fittings--I chose the highest points because I would argue not having standing rigging is better than the best terminal fittings (5 points)

Cockpit lockers--I went with "absolutely watertight" because the front "lockers", below the front seats, are totally watertight, meaning the boat is not going to sink.  (3 points)

Ground tackle--two anchors for me (3 points)

 

For the test, I assumed "Thoroughly skilled and experienced" operator and "Exceptional" boat materials and construction.  Not because I or my boat meet these, but because that's how the SCA testing comparison scored them.  (And geez, Alan, if you are only somewhat skilled, the rest of us are in trouble).

 

BTW, my argument for a motor for seaworthiness is skill level and passengers.  As I gain skills (generally and with this boat) I realize that sailing is likely the best choice in a storm.  But until that point, a motor is handy to get you out of a situation that's outside your sailing skill level.  Second, the motor is a good choice to get to shore before the storm hits, or to get home faster if you have sick/scared/injured passengers.

 

 

11 hours ago, Paul356 said:

I got  117 on my CS 17MkI.  Seemed about right.  I have capsized 3 times.  Ugh.  It turtled two of those times, including once with the masthead float on.    

Paul, any thoughts on why it turtled even with the masthead float?

[Alan Stewart]

Paul, Thanks for reminding me about that. We definitely don't have enough capsize practice going on and your turtling with the float is definitely the kind of thing we want to avoid. The float can only provide so much righting moment and if the wind pushing on the hull is great enough to overcome that then the boat will of course turtle. There's also some hydrodynamic forces at work. If the sails are sheeted in and the boat is on its side but being blown downwind then the sails could anchor themselves (essentially scooping water) and the net result is that they cause the boat to rotate and turn turtle acting like water planes (dive dive dive). 

I'd love to get out in some wind and do more testing and plan to do just that on my 20mk3 as soon as I get the electrical installed. (maybe i should wait HA). The 17 might need the 30lb float Afterall? We've done capsizes with the 20lb float but not in heavy winds. 

 

I'm reminded of this video from the 2019 capsize camp which we need to repeat. They had the float but we forgot to seal the tube so the mast filled up with water. The float actually caused the problem because the tube just acted like a straw straight into the mast. That's the main reason we switched to the external side mounted bracket because it just eliminates that issue while also making the float able to be installed on any mast. 

 

Another thing to note is the amount of time they spent on their side I think their lockers filled up with water. You've got to have really got gaskets and a secure hold down because the hatches are definitely under water and will slowly leak you just need them to leak slowly enough that it's no issue. On our CS-20 we only got maybe 1 gal of water in the lockers when we capsized. 

 

 

The other problem of not being able to reach the board is another issue that I'm sure most sailors don't even think about. A righting line you can throw over the hull to the underside is commonplace on catamarans. Catamarans usually don't turtle until the mast fills with water but the masts being nice and tall act like a float until it does. The Core Sounds masts are short by design which has its advantages but floatation is not one. You can see int he video that the CB was fairly high off the water so you need a high level of upper body strength to climb up onto the board something most aren't going to do and you really need to lift your body weight out of the water to effect a righting moment and that takes energy. A righting line might be required for some people. Two people hanging on the centerboard make it easy but if the mast took on water then you've got to lift that water on a looong lever arm so checking mast tops for leaks is just as important as installing the float in the first place. 

I think a third thing a lot of sailors don't consider is re-entering the boat. I've seen people struggle to use a boarding ladder due to not being prepared for the extra weight of their soaked clothing or just not being fit enough. So you've got a boarding ladder. have you ever actually used it in the water? Imagine you right the boat after a surprise capsize and you're solo only to then discover you cant get back on board. Better hope you're wearing your Epirb then! or can get the attention of another boat. 

[Andy B]

Thanks, Alan, kind of some somber stuff.  My hatches (plastic on-deck type) remain my weakest point, I think, as I was reminded in our recent rainstorm when the boat was left exposed.

 

Edit to add:  Not for every day, but if I was going on a cruise alone or doing the Everglades Challenge I would consider a mast float on each mast.  That would be just about rock solid.

[Jonathan M. Cohn]

I was able to practice using my boarding ladder and it was fairly easy in a still lake. The difficulty I found was that in a bigger breeze, when the boat is right side up and moving, (even though the sails were depowered). the water flow kept pulling me off the ladder. I really needed a handle to be able to pull myself up and over without climbing all the way up. I also found that my weight would cause the boat to heel a lot to the boarding ladder side. This would increase the water flow. Bottom line, practice that reboarding and think about how it will work in non ideal conditions. I am considering both a grab handle and perhaps a re-entry webbing sling like they use on the Welsford SCAMPS. Anyone else feel like the water flow swooshes them off the ladder? 

[paul_stewart]

After sheeting out the sails and righting the boat after a capsize, the sails may not be in "heaved-to" configuration and the boat may be trying to sail forward.  It is good to know that that situation may make climbing the ladder difficult,  as you observed.

-- With the ladder in hand but with the tiller and sheets still out of reach, was pushing/pulling the rudder blade an option to turn the boat more into the wind?  Similarly, if the mizzen sheet was within reach, sheeting it in could help turn into the wind and slow the boat. 

-- I imagine if you just happened to have a drogue (parachute/basket/bucket) on a 10' line neatly folded and mounted on the transom for emergency use, deploying that would slow the boat. 

       

[Jonathan M. Cohn]

I definitely made some mistakes as the boat was sailing downwind. I could reach the tiller and I should have tried to turn up into the wind as the boat had plenty of momentum. I was a bit too obsessed with getting on board and should have focused a bit more on getting the boat stopped. I always have a bucket in the cockpit and it would be trivial to tie its line onto a cleat just in case I need it as an emergency drogue. Thanks for the idea. It is essential to get out and practice this stuff but it is always more fun to sail. :-)

[Paul356]

I think the reason it turtled despite the masthead float included some of the things Alan mentioned.  It was 'way too windy the day I was out.  I (dummy) had a double reef in the main but only a single reef in the mizzen.  A gust -- 35 or 40mph? -- caught the mizzen and just threw the boat over.  I suspect the mizzen then scooped the water as Alan described and the gust on the hull pushed the boat some more and the combination caused the whole thing to scoop water and keep going.  I was under the boat in no time and it was not pleasant.  I had safety lines rigged but for whatever reason could not get them up to the bottom of the hull where I could make use of them.  The lockers stayed pretty dry, as did the forepeak and the areas under the forward seats.  I was able to get on top of the hull by swimming to the stern and sort of climbing up the motor mount.  I can't remember why I couldn't get any traction pulling on the centerboard.  Maybe because the sails were 20 feet down into the water.  I did get a phone call.  Spam.