I obviously missed the part where we adopted Napoleonic law in the US of A, a film that could use a little help, and to say I want this guitar is something of an understatement...
Yesterday while rowing in to the dinghy dock, I noticed a boat with an awkward life raft installation and not too far from it a local boat had sunk on it's mooring so that led my thought process to unsinkable boats.
The problem with the idea of unsinkability in sailboats is that while it is surprisingly easy to accomplish it is somewhat problematic to the interior and accomodation.
Take the Etap for instance...
The Etap 28i is a nice, extremely well built boat that performs well. The extensive use of foam in the hull has the added advantage of insulating the boat so the interior is going to be a lot cooler in tropical climes and condensation free/warm in places like Seattle or Northern Europe... What's not to like?
That said, we are talking about a LOT of foam to make the 28I unsinkable and a thick foam cored hull is not going to provide the needful floatation on its own. So, where are you going to put more foam?
This is where the problematic part comes in as the needed foam is taking away from storage. I remember the first time I was on an Etap and went to look in what I expected to be a large locker under one of the pilot berths only to find the locker to be about the size of a shoebox. OK, I'll admit it was the size of a big shoebox but pretty much anywhere you wanted to stow stuff the spaces you'd expect on a "normal" sailboat for stowage were a LOT smaller so it's something to keep in mind.
Personally, I really like the idea of an unsinkable boat and the added bonus of the unsinkability also makes for an extremely well insulated boat makes it a very attractive design. The downside, of course, is that you'd, more than likely, have to upsize to the next bigger boat in their line...
Still, it is something to consider!
Listening to the Texas Tornados
So it goes...
