Hello! First let me just say how much I appreciate your books, your designs and your web site. You really are unique!
We are starting to seriously think about "getting off"and I therefore have a lot of boat design features to sort out.
I hope you can help me with these two: Storm shutters. How did you deal with storm shutters on the Sundeer series? I think about the large windows in the hull and the "pilot house". Are storm shutters used or are the windows simply designed to be "storm proof"? Insubmersibility. What do you think about insubmersible boats, or modifying a boat (injecting foam in interior spaces that are not used for example) so that it becomes insubmersible? I have seen your comment on the Yacht Saver, but this seems like a costly and technically complex solution (just another thing that needs surveys and that will malfunction when it is needed). Another thing is the problems with large balloons inside the boat in a crisis situation. I hope you will take the time to answer these questions. With regards, Erik
Hi Erik: First, the pilot house on the Sundeer 64 is really a permanent dodger. There is a waterproof sliding hatch into the interior, so the pilot house windows are not part of the water tight integrity of the boat. There have been many circumnavigations done in these boats and I have not heard of any problems. But in a roll over you would expect that large house to go – or at least to lose some of the windows.
Built-in floatation is very tough to achieve in a true cruising boat because of loss of storage and tankage volume. We think it is better to have watertight bulkheads, strong keel structure, and extra laminate in the collision areas. Regards – Steve
Posted by Steve Dashew (November 30, 1999)
