Re: Centennial Vs. Scamp?

Originally Posted by
Daniel Noyes
do as you wish Ken but this thread was by no means meant to be Centennial only... though the title is a little narrow, I'm interested to hear how any small adventure craft might claim to handle the conditions that brought Howard to grief.
I don't think there is anything that could handle the multiple whirlwinds that Howard caught. You'd need something with great stability and no windage. John did what he could to design a rig with as little windage as possible under barepoles, but I have seen thundersqualls rolling through a fleet of centerboarders, even big ones like Lightnings, and capsize boats with the rigs down, centerboard down and crew in the bottom of the boat. When Hurricane Bob came through years ago I did a controlled experiment to see if I could paddle into it in a confined no sea running space ( just enough fetch for whitecaps) To my surprise I did, but I was blown over even with a brace when I had the wind broadside turning around. I could not roll up into the wind. For those thinking about Centennial, Harpo and Samuelson with no windage were rolled by a big sea. Where you would might end up is with a ballasted liferaft. And with the kelp beds in that area, pretty much anything that stuck down would have created a problem.
Ben Fuller
Ran Tan, Liten Kuhling, Tipsy, Tippy, Josef W., Merry Mouth, Imp, Macavity, Look Far, Flash and a quiver of other 'yaks.
"Bound fast is boatless man."