AMELIA SINKING!
Saturday, August 31st, 2013Just how safe is a PAINE 14? To find out we conducted an intentional swamping on August 30, 2013. Would she turn turtle, or go to the bottom? Chuck tried to swamp her by standing on the gunwale and leaning out as far as he could, hanging onto the mast. At 190 pounds and rocking the boat violently, the coaming tops could not be gotten under water. Only by bailing the ocean in could he finally swamp her. She floated with the lowest point of the coaming 10 inches above the surrounding water, and was very stable. You could sit in the boat all day long like this and she would not sink. Though like Chuck, you might eventually decide to bail her out (took about two minutes), raise the mainsail, and sail away. (Caveat- this test was with the cold molded wood demonstrator. The fiberglass boats will have slightly different characteristics and will be tested when available).
Will she sink?
