Design Workshop - Seaworthiness, the forgotten factor...

This quarter I am taking a workshop offered by the school, "Introduction to Boat Design". The instructor is David Blessing, the President of the Board of Directors of the school. Here is a brief overview of David's background:

David grew up in Seattle and graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in Physics. For most of his working life until 2002, he was a nuclear power engineer, working on nuclear submarines for the US Navy. While living in Virginia, David sailed on Chesapeake Bay. He built a cold-molded wooden 505 sailboat which he raced for many years, and learned to appreciate the statement “Upside down is slow.” David built two other small wooden boats in his shop in Virginia. When it was time to choose another career beyond submarines, David came west to the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding where he could pursue his passion for wooden boats. After graduating, he worked for a while building wooden sea kayaks. In 2004, an opportunity came up to join the Lockheed Martin team developing the design for a nuclear powered spacecraft for scientific exploration. Subsequently, he has been working on advanced reactor designs for commercial application and on energy conservation projects.

What's great about David is that although he is an engineer, he is also an avid sailor and can relate the technical aspects of design to real world applications. What the bio fails to mentioned is that David commissioned the school to build his Dudley Dix designed Didi-Cruise Mini. 

So why all of this background information? The discussion about "Seaworthiness" and boat design directly relates to Dudley Dix the designer of David's sailboat.

In boat design there are always trade offs...sea kindly or fast? Which do you want? Do you want a boat that will take care of you at sea no matter what...or one which requires the crew stay engaged to keep her moving and safe? The complexity of boat motion in waves means the extrapolation from known designs can save a lot of trouble.

The video at the link below shows a heavy displacement power boat going through very rough seas. This is the case where a sea kindly hull is really important to keep the boat upright and powering. Try to imagine what the boat's motion would be if it were a shallow draft planing hull with a deep keel.

So to the main event. Dudley Dix's article "Capsize!" in the June/July 2014 issue of Professional Boatbuilder on a wave-induced capsize in a modern sailboat (click on the word Capsize! to read the article).