Stability Of A Trailcraft ?

[peahead]

Hi All,

I Was chatting to a mate a work who owns a 595 sportscab Trailcraft, he told me of a disturbing story about his boat last weekend.

Apparently he was bottom bouncing near the peak just out of sydney, there was little swell and he was drifting. His son somehow managed to wrap his line around the prop, so he opened the rear door and was trying to untangle the line from the screw, when all of a sudden he noticed some water from a small swell come in from the open transom door which caused his boat to tip and turtle the craft. He lost all his fishing gear and anything that was not bolted down.

He and his son sat on the Hull for 1.5hrs until another Fisho drifted passed.

Luckily he was able to save the boat partly due to the sealed floor that the trailcrafts have but to all the boats that came to his rescue as soon as the radio call went out from the passer by

What is worring though was when the boat was taken out of the water, the sealed section had actually filled with water and that they don't come with a bilge pump as standard (due to the sealed floor)

Is it common or I guess extremely dangerous to have these transom doors open at all in open water ??, I would believe if the boat had sealed floors and it self drained then it should have been fine but to have a vessel flip that easy is a very scary thought.

Anyway the good thing is their both fine, he gets to buy new fishing gear. Although his insurance only covers him to the limit of $500

Any ideas as too why such a small amount of water could have done this ??

Your comments would be greatly appreciated..

Peahead

[pogo]

No idea but your post makes me think of another thing, can you get extra cover for your gear.

$500 would be a long way short of what I would be looking at if the POGOBOAT went to Davey Jones.

POGO

[Grantm]

Bloody Hell Thats not good at all.

I would be having serious discussions with the manufacturer on this one, especially when they claim these boats have fully sealed self draining decks in their advertising.

Have to say though that Trailcraft IMO arent at the upper end of hull design, but this surely should not happen. Scary stuff.

[djmac]

this is the 2nd trailcraft i have heard go under.

i saw a similar one go under at woy woy wharf, brand new, the guy put it on the wharf to go get some alcohol came back and it was sunk.

apparently the skin fitting on the bung let go (apparently).

for the price, there are plenty more plate alloy boats id be looking at before trailcrafts.

and yeah when you insure your boat you can insure your gear also.

5k of my insured sum is gear.

[riders]

I would seriously have to ask how much is a small swell for the boat to tip over ?.

I've had 6" of water in the bottom of mine due to some very heavy rain and run off and I just fired up the boat and took off and the hull drained no issues and was stable.

I agree you need to be very careful if opening the door when outside but I would think that is common sense.

The sealed floor does leak and does come with a plate to mount a bilige pump if you want.

Depending on the safety level you want as to what you have I think.

riders

[heckendorfmortgage]

It comes back to 'free surface effect'. Oncontained water on the deck of a vessel or even unbaffled fluid balast can have a dramatic effect on stability.

Also, If the boat is tender ie has a fairly high centre of balance and a wash of water splashes in it can cause the craft to turn turtle.

Perhaps its a question for Dr Karl???

MH

[djmac]

but in any case that should not happen.

my boat has a very deep v and is a bit unstable at rest.

ive even had 2 waves broke over the front and its never even looked at doing that.

trailcraft seem to be buggy boats imo stay away!