I vote for ventilation. I have 14 1/2" holes in the mast, about six
inches from the collar. When the bow's pointed into a stiff breeze it
is truly amazing the amount of air that comes in through all the slots
in the mast and shoots out through those holes. Often, that's happening
when all the hatches have to be shut tight, so that air is welcome. I
never considered the reverse, of moving air up out of the boat, but it
makes sense. I'll have to do an experiment, and set a fart on fire and
see where the smoke goes. <VBG>
A dozen or so years back a keel-stepped Islander 37 was a victim of bad
line handling in the Panama Canal, and was swept under the transom of a
container ship. <http://www.pmbc.net/htmls/brokenboat.html> The whole
mast was spun in a big circle, and was devastating to the interior. I
can only guess that the rig was actually lifted off the mast step during
the crash. Frankly, I don't know if having the mast bolted to the step
would have done much good. When I rebuilt my rig with a new mast step,
I asked the rigger to drill a hole through everything so we could bolt
it down, and he looked at me like I was an idiot. (At the time, he'd
just finished rigging Bruce Schwab's Open 60 'Ocean Planet', and he was
the best rigger in town.) He told my that my mast step had 2" high
1/2" thick walls, and if the mast ever jumped over that it would be the
least of my problems.
Anyway, Eastern Pacific has had two Cat 4 Hurricanes within the first
two weeks of the season. I sure hope that isn't a sign of how the
summer will develop. I've been waiting here for weeks looking for the
right weather window to sail north. The SSW winds don't kick in until
hurricane season. Everybody is gone; they've all motored into the
northerlies, or waited for dead calm to motor north. I don't like
motoring for days on end. It's an insult to the boat. And it looks
like this weekend there will be three days of 8-15k from the SW, with a
3-4 foot 13 second SW swell. Cool. Give me 8 on a flat sea (with a
clean hull,) and I'll make 4-5. Give me 15 and I'm at hull speed, with
the boat on it's feet. I can set the sails, set the Monitor, and fire
up the BBQ. The contour lines are a bit squirelly, so sailing the rhumb
line won't happen, but who cares as long as you're moving forward.
I will miss this place, though. The fishing boats pull in every
morning, and I can walk over and get fish off the boat. I have often
bought a kilo of fresh yellowfin tuna, cut off the fish while I watch,
for 150 pesos. Yes, I have eaten the freshest sashimi possible until I
can't eat anymore and still have leftovers.
Wal
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