Clawing Our Way To The Truth
At the recent TrawlerPort: Miami we hosted a seminar on selecting the right boat…the exclusive “ideal” passagemaker. As in other TrawlerPorts, a panel of experts debated various hull shapes and systems deemed important for the needs of a cruising couple.
As we reaffirmed, a couple must honestly assess their dream, and develop realistic cruising plans to successfully match boat to dream…or the other way around.
One point only superficially cited regards the need to occasionally think about unpleasant situation scenarios. To make sure the vessel and system “package&rquo; can handle those infrequent times when, despite best intentions, things go from good to bad, from a nice, carefree cruise to serious effort to make port in adverse conditions.
Our lifestyle is about “pleasure boating,” but there are always the inevitable days when waves are angry, winds too strong and from the wrong direction, or an equipment failure throws us a wildcard.
This subject was recently brought home to me on an aborted trip to Saint John’s, Newfoundland, about as far northeast as one can get in North America.
Three of us met at Baltimore’s BWI airport to embark on a series of connecting flights to Saint John’s in time to witness model tank testing of the new Molokai Strait 65 passagemaker. Naval architect Eric Sponberg was already onsite with the engineers at Oceanic Consulting Corporation, busy preparing for resistance and stability tests on a 13-foot model to verify the design before actual construction begins.
No matter how hard we tried, weather kept us from reaching out goal. First, our connecting flight from Toronto was delayed an hour, then two, and before the end of a very long and frustrating day, all flights were cancelled to Newfoundland, an unlikely location for the high-tech model ship tank testing.
Our window of opportunity for seeing the tank testing was quite limited, as we missed a precious day of baseline runs down the 90-meter tank. But we weren’t alone in our dissapointment, and Air Canada provided hotel accommodations in Toronto for many people unable to travel in the foggy conditions.
We were to be foiled in our quest the next day as well. Lee Cherubini and Geoffrey White, Independence Cherubini’s driving forces behind the Molokai project, sat on the aircraft with me as, within a few miles of our final destination, conditions again deteriorated on the ground. The jetliner circled over Saint John’s for 30 minutes or so, before changing course toward an alternate airport at Halifax, Nova Scotia. As we backtracked west, we knew Halifax offered little prospect that we would actually make it in time to see the results of the hull variations under close scrutiny at Oceanic Consulting.
Our carefully scheduled plans had been made weeks in advance, necessitating absurdly expensive airline tickets and layers of altered commitments.
So we explored our options, including driving a rental car overnight to reach the ferry running to Newfoundland from the mainland. I even considered calling J.J. Marie of Zodiac North America, to inquire about the possible loan of one of its superbly rugged Hurricane RIBs to try an attempt by sea.
But we gave up and returned home.
When you consider the ideal boat, don’t forget this helpless factor, the inability to beat nature with technology. It is a fool’s folly to compete with is. Despite our preparation, there will surely come a day when all that brightwork and exotic stereo gear won’t help you. When small rudders on your planing speedster are rendered ineffective as you’re forced to power back in worsening conditions. Shame on you for not using all that available speed to get out of there before things soured! It’s no longer the right boat for the job.
it has been suggested that vessel choice should be driven by the worst conditions likely to be encountered even though every effort should be made to avoid them. A valid idea.
My journey of discovery came up short on this trip, and I never did see the tank testing of the Molokai. But the key people were in Saint John’s, and the right decisions were made.
But it does remind me once again that successful passagemaking includes occasional dips in the road, zigs instead of zags in the courseline.
We owe it to ourselves and crew to be ready for such turns when we voyage off, and be prepared to reach the other side, no matter what.
Or turn around.
Bill Parlatore
Editor-In-Chief