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have you ever heard of something like this happening to a hat?

  • Thread starter Thread starter brian4190
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Uniflites were generally considered to be a thick, strong hull. I believe that they were used as patrol boats in Viet Nam if my memory serves me. Of course somewhere else in my memory, I seem to recall that they may have been made in two parts and stitched together at the keel.

I'm having my liferaft repacked next week, and I plan on having an epirb loaded in the raft while it is open. In a situation like that, I don't want to have to grab the one from the boat.
 
Wonder about the part where the boat was extensively modified...

At least they got the rum out!
 
A 10' wave breaking it into 3 pieces some thing is up with that. And $300,000.00 :p I guess that's what he is telling Insurance good luck collecting that.
 
That is one heck of a story. Though I don't know much about the Uniflite S.F.'s my father had a 46 Uniflite FBMY and the hull and entire boat was very well built, thick and strong. That must have been some freak wave - glad they are all ok!
 
it's been pretty windy last week and over the week end, wonder what the gulf stream was like... uniflites are suposed to be strong boats, something's not right or the wave was much larger than 10'... even then, i dont' see how it crack the hull in 3 pieces.....
 
I wonder how fast they were going when they stuck the bow into that second big wave?
 
Bob Bradley said:
I'm having my liferaft repacked next week, and I plan on having an epirb loaded in the raft while it is open. In a situation like that, I don't want to have to grab the one from the boat.
Click to expand...

Although I don't have my EPIRB with me at the moment, I do recall a label on it that advised about having to replace the battery every so many months. If you pack it in the liferaft, will you be able to maintain the battery?
 
I believe the battery is a 60 month, and rafts should be certified annually. I try to get mine done at least every other year, so I'll be in there before the battery expires. The only thing I worry about is having it malfunction and send out a false alarm. I guess I'd just have to move quickly to get the raft to a service center if that occurred.
 
I seen many boats that had hull failures. And I'm sure there will be more engineering types that chime in but several factors lead to hull failure.

The main problem is back to e=mc squared. Usually m is a very small number compared to speed as in an atomic/nuclear bomb. But in a few cases m can be important. As can be the case with a wave. Lets say the wave itself weighs up to one million pounds and also happens to have the backing of the Atlantic ocean.

And lets say you decide to take on that energy with your 30,000lb uniflight going 20 kts or so, guess who wins :rolleyes: .

And under those conditions it always seems to happen that just before the boat encounters that wave the prior wave kicks the back end up just for good measure. Now the boat tries to stop all that energy (1) and act like a submarine while doing it. So the water tries to crush the hull like a submarine going too deep (2) and the air inside tries to pop the boat apart like a ballon breaking (3).

So three factors all compiling all at once and yes this could and does happen to all kinds of boats.

Of course the next question is how do I make sure this doesn't happen to me? Be at the helm and captain your ship so you ride on top of the waves and not smack into them. There are times you may need to tack like a sailboat. There are times you need to be on and off the throttles sometimes going into reverse as you crest a wave. Then giving her some juice just over the top to get the bow to rise again. Only to repeat this over and over again until you get home. It can be done and it's not a lot of fun but it can be done safely and with confidence.

garyd
 
MikeP said:
At least they got the rum out!
Click to expand...
And the cigars....don't forget the cigars.
 
Cigars, rum and water, gettin' sloshed while sloshing around in a liferaft dreaming of big insurance checks, could be the basis of a new Buffett album..............Pat
 
I spend a month or two every year on Kauai. It's usually very rough (12~15 feet is standard). We fish often, on a Pacifica 41, and in the past on a Betrtram 35, and a Delta 53.
My son works the summers as mate on the Pacifica 41.
Anyway........pulling the engines out of gear going over the top of every sea is standard practice when the trades are up. It gets to be something you could do in your sleep .
 
Pretty remarkable IMO that (3) folks can escape with no fractures or other injuries. At least (2) of them probably didn't see it coming- wouldn't they be thrown violently into something?
Gary
 
Perhaps there was a bit of rum-numbing in effect.
 
The last Uniflite built were for the military if I remember correctly. I used to see them running around the ICW and southwest Creek by the MCAS here in Jacksonville.

In Fact, I know where there is a complete mold for one of those boats.

I also know a man who spent well over 300k having his old uniflight rebuilt, including engines and a whole new fly bridge. He then loaded it onto a transport ship and the boat now lives in Italy.

There is a uniflight at the boatyard. It has been there for years. The hull is pot marked with blisters but only from the boot stripe up to the toe rail. One man asked me for an estimate on fixing it if he bought the boat, but the sale never happened.

I think the owner wants too much.
 
speaking of catatrophic failures, this reminds me of two stories where large silverton convertibles sank after a wave ripped the pulpit and open the deck hull joint apart over most of the bow, lifting the deck a foot or two.

i dont' think it will happen on a hatt!
 
I have been in some REALLY nasty seas on my Hatt and never worried about something like THAT.

But with that said - if you screw up and drive a 50,000lb boat into a wave face, there's no guarantees as to what's going to fail first.
 
Did you notice they grabbed the rum, cigars , water and blankets. I would have been really mad if no one grabbed a lighter :mad:
 
ROFL!

Yeah... cigar, no fire. That would suck.
 
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