The Impossible happened

[Be Free]

Still counting angels...

The sail is not raised completely but there is not enough wind to be "puffing" out the loose parts of the sail. No white caps just a light chop. The clew of the jib bounces with the chop so there is not a lot of pressure on the jib. I'd estimate the wind speed at 5 to 10 knots.

35 degrees heel in that wind makes me think that there was no ballast in when they were making the video. Looking at the chop going by I'll give them a very generous 4 knots to windward (probably closer to 3).

For reference, I've been a the same point of sail and the same amount of heel with full ballast. I was spilling all the wind I could out of the main, the bow was crashing into white capped waves and blowing over the cabin and into the cockpit. I was making less than 4 knots to windward and eventually ripped the clew out of my jib.

This was just two guys having fun on an average day seeing how far they could tip the boat.

[NiceAft]

This was just two guys having fun on an average day seeing how far they could tip the boat

.

YES!

Many don’t understand that it’s fun to heel the boat to rediculus angles. You don’t go anywhere, but the thrill is terrific.

I am fortunate to have a wife who gets a kick out of it also. Our tilt-to - meter (that’s what I call it) stops at 45 degrees; we have gone well beyond that.

I get even more entertainment when I see the faces of power boaters who think they are about to witness a great disaster.

[Be Free]

I used to enjoy it until I had to spend a very uncomfortable hour or so hand sewing the ring back in the clew of my jib. I don't go seeking it now like I used to do.

"It's all fun and games until someone loses a clew". Me

[Russ]

"It's all fun and games until someone loses a clew". Me

[LordElsinore]

My wife FREAKS OUT past about 20 degrees or so. Which is funny because she loves roller coasters and I hate them. I of course act calm and tell her to relax because the boat is meant to do that, but inside I silently panic just a bit too

I definitely learned not to have people reading or sitting there on their laptop or cooking or eating or something when the wind is strong enough to heel like that. Too many kids tossed about the cabin that way.

When I sail alone it still freaks me out a little to heel past 35 degrees or so, but I have gone out by myself deliberately to see what happens when the boat heels past that mark - mostly so I can tell the wife or other passengers that I have confidence it is not going to lay down, capsize etc. Past 45 degrees or so, sure enough the rudders come out of the water, the boat swings around with the wind since it has no rudder to resist, and the boat pops right back up. Assuming the water ballast is full of course, and that you don't have people sitting on the cabin top or standing up holding onto the shrouds or something like that.

My biggest worry about heeling past about 30 degrees or so is that something will fall out of the boat - like my phone, drink, a kid, a dog, a backpack, or myself!

[dlandersson]

Another form of thrills

I used to enjoy it until I had to spend a very uncomfortable hour or so hand sewing the ring back in the clew of my jib. I don't go seeking it now like I used to do.

"It's all fun and games until someone loses a clew". Me

[Russ]

My wife FREAKS OUT past about 20 degrees or so. Which is funny because she loves roller coasters and I hate them. I of course act calm and tell her to relax because the boat is meant to do that, but inside I silently panic just a bit too

Same here. We came from a larger keelboat. The Mac is VERY tender at first until the ballast kicks in and it stiffens up nice. But that initial heel is hard to get used to. Also, when stuff in the cabin starts to fall and make noise, it's disconcerting.

There is no amount of logical thinking that can compensate for the feeling of your "world" tilting sideways.

[Jimmyt]

I put locking pins on all of my galley drawers to keep them closed during abnormal heeling. The wife is good to about 15-20 degrees but wastes no time in issuing the “flatten it out jackass” command if I go past that. I really don’t do it much anymore anyway. Don’t like having to clean up the cabin contents that get rearranged by excessive heeling.

But, like Ray, some of my sailing buddies seem to try to go for the glass bottom boat effect when we go out on my Mac.

Ray's boat, Ray’s rules.

[Russ]

The wife is good to about 15-20 degrees but wastes no time in issuing the “flatten it out jackass” command if I go past that.

I get the "wooah wooooah" which translates exactly to that.

[Starscream]

A lot to unpack here. Some of my thoughts, echoing what others have said:

The boat hasn't sunk, it's lying on its side on a shallow bottom.

According to my boat-rules, I wouldn't leave my boat floating unattended without a bilge pump, battery bank and solar system. A well sized system like this could keep a big leak at bay basically forever, and isn't really costly when talking about the world of boating. I bet that a $500 solar/bilge pump system would have kept this boat afloat.

I've heard that the M model has a construction oddity at the rudder posts that could let water in. At my marina, a 26M was being launched last year and in the first day it filled with water and swamped. I don't know the real details, but I heard about the owner forgetting to do something, 3rd-hand info. Certainly the factory "thru hulls" are a weak point in all our boats and deserve constant inspections. Every year I plug the sink and motor-well drains, fill them to the brim with water, and do a thorough inspection. I also inspect the centerboard hanger bolt, as it can be underwater when heavily loaded.

Appreciate the thread, but this kind of thing is likely, not impossible, and I, for one, am surprised it doesn't happen more often. I think most of us who use our boats for cruising have very little faith in the "unsinkable" marketing ploy. Styrofoam tends to be removed over the years, and never-ending modding constantly adds weight. With all of our additions and cruising gear, we are hundreds and hundreds of pounds over factory weight, and we have less styrofoam than the boat left the factory with. To counter this, I have two large bilge pumps with independent exits, one on each side of the boat. In the unlikely case of a massive hull breach, I expect the boat to go to the bottom, and have plans to survive that kind of event. In the case of a thru-hull failure, I expect the bilge pumps to keep up. I carry a rubber bung that fits in the drain holes from the outside.

That's a crazy youtube video. As others have noticed and commented, the wind wasn't particularly strong, with the sails flapping at some points. Certainly a no-ballast situation to get to 35 degrees in those conditions. There is absolutely nothing I could do to get Bear Hunt over to 35 degrees the weather shown in the video, and the M has the added benefit of daggerboard ballast. It may even be a case of no ballast / no daggerboard.

Interesting, though; thanks for posting. Enjoyed reading the analyses as well.

[Russ]

The biggest question is what caused this. We don't know. Speculation at best. But speculation is fun to do.

The ONLY thru hull the M has is that sink/motor well drain that is above the water line when ballast is empty. Mine is submerged when full.

My boat also is full of gear that I doubt the styrofoam floatation would keep it afloat.

I don't have a bilge pump in 16 years have never had a drop of water in there (I just jinxed it didn't I?). But I think I may put one in just in case of a small leak from that awful thru hull Roger installed without a shut off valve.

I've pulled out thru hull transducers while in the water and saw how much water comes in a short time. No bilge pump can keep up with a real breach. A small slow leak, an automatic pump might be a life saver. And as mentioned, one of the cheapest mods you can do. But this notion that it will save you in a real breach is fantasy.

[Jimmyt]

Testing my Rule 1100 install in the boat. I’m using a small makeshift sump around it to prevent having to flood the bilge for testing.

Note that it’s keeping up with (actually outrunning) a pretty good flow of water that I’m pouring out of a 5 gallon bucket. I was pouring as fast as I could without dumping it all over the bilge.



The problem we have is, there is no sump. We will have a LOT of water in the boat before my pump can operate effectively.

But, I’m throwing in with Starscream.

[LordElsinore]

My boat is always dry too....except once when I had a hose leak around a water pump and water from my water tank mod leaked into the bilge (barb on pump was too small - I've since replaced it with a much better setup). I've had a bilge pump sitting in the boat waiting for me to install mostly for that scenario. Maybe this week is the time to put it in. It's not doing any good sitting in the box. It's the drilling the hole in the side that makes me put it off...

[Tsatzsue]

Had to be no ballast. The heeling was a dead give away. There was no wind. With no ballast to right the boat it would lay down on its side, Past 90 degrees fill and rest on the shallow bottom. No pump would fix that. Operator error. Maybe he left the keel down too. If she were on her side it may not retract. I was thinking tides but this sounds like a lake. Roll/tip it up as far as you can and use a trash pump from HD You can get that floating in a couple hours. Gorilla tape the engine -sink well drain from the outside or bring a bung plug.

[DaveC426913]

Excellent sleuthing to find that video.

Great soundtrack too. Now I want to rewatch "Heavy Metal" (1981).