Carl,
<<What is the problem with the drum style for an ocean passage,
given thats exactly what I plan to do>>
Depending upon your priorities, nothing is wrong with the drum
rudders. It's a very subjective matter.
---
If I were to purchase a monohull, I'd purchase an ETAP, because not
only are they unsinkable, they can be actively sailed while full of
water, and can even recover from a 90-degree knockdown while full of
water.
Most monohull sailors don't think this is an important feature. Some
reviews say that unsinkability is nice, but not worth the loss of
interior space due to the foam-filled double hull.
Is it just a "nice" feature? For some, yes.
For me, it's a requirement for any boat I intend to sail more than a
mile off the coast (I don't mind swimming longer distances, but my crew
might, and the water temp in Maine can put some people out of
commission pretty quickly). I'd say that unsinkability is like a
seatbelt and airbag. You'll probably never need them. But if you do,
and you don't have them, things can get pretty ugly.
But since people are accustomed to sailing very heavy boats that sink
if there's a hole in them, unsinkability is seen by most as a novelty,
not an important feature.
---
Kick-up foils on multihulls are a similar nice feature to have that
matters to some people and not to others.
But for me, if hitting a whale, sandbar, log, or submerged container
could render your foils useless until you find a boatyard, or even
worse, sink the boat, that could make for an ugly day.
I want to be comfortable with what might happen if
my kick-up foils collide with whatever lies unseen beneath the water.
I'd love for a grounding out to mean nothing more than cursing,
retrieving my foil on it's line, setting it back in place, and sailing
away.
Many people are more than happy to sail everywhere with tall
daggerboards, and most never hit a thing. I've known a number of
Corsair owners, and only one of them ever had issues with the
daggerboard -- and he made the mistake of chartering the boat out to
people who couldn't read charts, resulting in multiple repairs to the
daggerboard and crash box.
Statistically, if you go with drum rudders in the hull, you'll
probably be fine. Just as if, should you decide not to wear a seatbelt
in a car, you'll also probably be fine.
To each his own.
I'd say that any harryproa on the water is a great thing, regardless
of its foils, daggerboards, leeboards, mini-keels, and such.
- Mike
On 6/15/2010 10:16 AM, Omar Khayyam wrote:
Mike, in your last post you said "And if you want to go fast, avoid steering balance issues, have an easy up/down system, and stay away from experimental designs, the drum is a good choice. Especially if you're not going to make an ocean passage."What is the problem with the drum style for an ocean passage, given thats exactly what I plan to do.Thanks,Carl.