It would seem that multihulls aren't the only ones at risk for going turtle... reading about the capsize and tragedy aboard the Texas A&M "Cynthia Woods" because of a keel falling off, perhaps it would be worthy of revisiting the engineering/design of some sort of emergency deploying airbag at the masthead (like a big Hobie Bob)to slow or even stop a boat from going turtle.

Even if it did go turtle, if it took longer to do it, there may be precious seconds available to reduce loss of life...

not only that, but if it stayed attached, wouldn't it result in the boat going down "mast up" therefore making it easier to escape from the hatch?

I suppose it would if the volume of air in the masthead bob exceed that of the air trapped in the overturned hull.

Interesting reading here

http://books.google.com/books?id=wSGPcXH...t=result#PPA109,M1

deals with some interesting ideas, including ocean racing's most tragic figure, Donald Crowhurst, who devised an interesting system. I recall a reading about a Canadian that was building an aluminium cat that had a righting system that involved flooding the bows to get the hulls standing up bow down in the water. To right the boat he would then hoist a waterbag on a boom attached to the underside of the craft to bring the stern down after which he could pump the bows empty again. Unfortunately I can't seem to find his site anymore, because I remember seeing diagrams in which he clarified the idea. Another idea is from the Exploder 25 which was discussed some time ago on this forum aswell. http://www.exploder.info/eng/content/view/42/124/

A Patent:
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5848574/fulltext.html

A thread on boatdesign.net:
http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/showthread.php?t=13645
Features cotributions by SA sweethearts Doug Lord and BaronvonRort, so be carefull

Farrier trying to reassure its potential clients:
http://www.f-boat.com/safety/index.html

Well, you might consider this:
http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/showthread.php?t=17142


A list of multihull threads on boat design.net I saw a thread on the exploder 23 (now 25) among them aswell
http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/archive/index.php/f-31.html

Everything old is new again . . .

But returning to your idea about an airbag-like contraption at the masthead. It seems very difficult to realise without adding weight aloft, which makes a capsize likelier, or being so complex that it is difficult to install and maintain reliably. Deployment in difficult conditions is also a consideration which makes such a system difficult to design.

And another....
http://www.sailboats.co.uk/Catalogue~Sec...SK20~c4875.html

Cheshirecatman

Geez Matt,
You amaze me sometimes. What year is that ad from?

J