emergency boat flotation idea
We have to invent this, ok?
For ballasted monohulls going offshore:
Imagine long slender tube along toerail both sides of boat. Could be designed as a bulwark cupping the rail, or inside, or outside the rail. Could be one piece, or two or three each side. I would vote for one tube each side, about 3/4s of the length centered on the designed balance point - for economy. Can you see the tube ready to be deployed from an oval, flexible, clamshell package attached to a well supported life rail? Or lower down to the hull itself, with the rails controling the bags? Hypolon tube in a shell of UV-protected polypropylene like the Potabote material.
Would be designed to keep an Ariel or Commander (or any small boat) from sinking. That, let's say, is about 3000 pounds flotation per side. CO2 inflated. I would guess the tube would be around one foot in diameter. 18 to 20 feet long. And would be repackable by the skipper back into its ready state - a much smaller dimension - after the crisis was over.
Selling points: Boat is usable, mother ship is the best possible life saving platform at sea. Cause of emergency could be attended to at sea. Life raft unnecessary. Boat could even be awash but would float evenly, and even provide safety from boarding seas and falling overboard. In a less disasterous scenario the vessel could still be sailed.
The device, while not particularly adding to the lines of the boat, would be viewed as the signature of a self sufficient skipper and an offshore competant voyager. Cost would be like that of a six person life raft and would be installable by the owner. Good selling points. Already SEE it at the sail-only boat show!
There is enough expertise in this consortium to put together something...!
IDEAS, anybody? Let's go!
[ how'bout: AIR RAIL or OBUOY!]
long winter day revisited, seriously
C'pete's
option 2. Assume you have the extra gas aboard on your way to Bimini. You'ld have it in a 5 gal lashed in the cocpit. Your 6 or 8 horse two cycle 45 pounder would be in the lazarette because that's the best place for it. That means the well hole would be well plugged when well offshore.
338 came with a fiberglassed cube of foam the size of the whole hole as a plug: rediculous! A less massive lid that takes into account the slope of the boat yet with a flat top should be made. First, it'll be easier to store when out of the hole. Second, it'll provide a place for cocpit water to go quick, rather then slosh around on the deck under the ob. Third, a one way drain valve could be put in the lid to let the water out.
Off shore A/C's must have certain upgrades, IMCO. One of them is larger cocpit drains. Especially in the Commander because of their larger volume. But ditto the Ariel. Unless you are young and prone to taking chances. An airboat in a valise could be carried in the cocpit displacing volume, along with the gas can(s). Anyway :cool: