After a two week trip along the coast of UK on our vivacity 650 it got me thinking about the
boat displacement, it's LWL and their ratio - and how it affects
boat behavior in the seas.
We've got 21 feet twin/bilge
keel Vivacity 650. It's documented
displacement is 1150 kg (2535 pounds).
Displacement/LWL ratio - 150. (classed as ultra-light in one of the articles about ratios)
On day 1 we left with a very marginal weathercast for our experience level - it said bf6, NE winds (onshore), and we had to cross Thames Estuary with it's shallows. Waves forecasted were 1.5m.
We were motorsailing,
wind was building, so were the seas. Due to the shallows we had to follow waypoints exactly, and this sometimes meant taking waves on the beam.
It was not so bad initially, till we arrived at one location where the waves really started to build -swell coming from the sea plus additional waves due to
wind against tide combination made quite a messy combo.
Some of the waves started really hitting us on the beam on the verge of broaching - I could no longer hold the course with our tiller. This really scared us, and we decided to change our plans and run for shelter. This shelter was still 20 miles from our position.
Running with those seas in our little boat was also quite scary - each wave lifting our stern and trying to turn the boat around. It wouldn't just simply surf straight down the wave - it was quite tense trying to keep the heading. I couldn't imagine leaving the boat under
autopilot in this..
So long story short - is it just our inexperience, or our boat is simply not suitable for that sort of thing, and we should stick with her coastal inshore waters?
is 150 ratio too small? I believe it is, but I would love to hear your opinions
Would longer waterline make things smoother?
Thanks