HEAVY-WEATHER OBSERVATIONS
SINCE ESSENCE’S LOSS I’VE REFLECTED LONG AND HARD ON WHAT WE DID RIGHT AND WRONG, OR COULD HAVE DONE BETTER, BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER THE EVENT. I SHARE MY THOUGHTS AND CONCLUSIONS IN THE HOPE THAT IT MIGHT HELP PREVENT, OR AT LEAST MITIGATE, ACCIDENTS LIKE OURS.
CENTRAL TO THESE ISSUES IS THAT ESSENCE DID NOT HIT ANYTHING SOLID: ALL THE DAMAGE WAS DONE BY WATER. WE UNDER-ESTIMATE THE POWER OF THE OCEAN AT OUR PERIL.
WAS THE BOAT FIT FOR PURPOSE?
I’m not going to express an opinion on this point, but offer a few reflections.
Essence, a Bavaria 47, was a purpose-built cruising boat. She’d coped well in 20 years of cruising the world but met her match in conditions not uncommon in New Zealand waters. She was certainly very well-equipped and had been sailing beautifully right up to the roll-over. So why did she sink?
There’s no simple answer, but design might have played a part. Cruising yacht design is often a compromise between speed, manoeuvrability, comfort and safety. A fast, easily-manoeuvred boat requires light weight and a relatively flat bottom, and a fin keel or similar.
A cruising boat that will handle large seas, preferably on auto-pilot, requires a heavier displacement and a longer keel, and perhaps a rudder post on which to hinge the rudder. But such boats are slower and less manoeuvrable, so designers – no doubt influenced by buyers’ preferences – often compromise between the two.
Similarly, to have a pleasant, airy feel down below requires large windows, but small windows was the central-cockpit version of the Bavaria 47, with much bigger cabin windows than her aft-cockpit siblings.
