It will be interesting to see whether the F-18HT class now will require positive flotation to be added to their boats.

But requirements by a class association to add flotation to boats (if it is not inherent in the construction or at least added within the hulls by the manufacturer as independent flotation materials) is not going to work for the people who buy a boat just for fun, recreational sailing.

Those people do not join class associations, but they do buy boats, both new and used. And they probably assume their boat will float even if it is full of water. They do not have access to the information that we do.

Some racer decides to remove flotation inserts from his hulls to reduce weight. Some "cruiser" sailor buys the used boat later and does not even know that there was supposed to be flotation in the hulls.

So how do we protect a guy who innocently buys a boat that can't float if the hulls are compromised when he is out there on a beach-camping trip with his wife and two small children?

Heck, even for the BIG multihulls, the big selling point is that they may capsize, but they won't sink and it will be your liferaft.

And who would have thought that a little beach-cat would sink? I mean REALLY sink? I suspected it was possible for certain boats. But how do we know WHICH boats?

P.S. And for those who bring up that long-ago lawsuit about the Nacra that supposedly sank, it is not true. The boat did not sink and was still floating quite well, upside down, when it was recovered and towed in. The manufacturer prevailed in that lawsuit.

That is not say that I trust any boat to float unless I know there has been testing and unless I know that there is some kind of flotation that guarantees the thing will keep floating even if both hulls are ripped open. Aren't there any laws about this to protect the blissfully ignorant among us?