Floatation Foam for my C-16?

[Duckie]

I have sailed Kab.  Make sure you get a detailed lake map for it.  The good ones have all the shoals and boulders marked on them.  Kabetogama is pretty shallow overall and will do a lot of damage.  Keep an eye out for waves that don't look quite right, and changes in the color of the water.  It is a very beautiful lake and large enough to take a while to explore.  You should enjoy the trip.

Al

[Potcake boy]

I second the kayak approach. Used to tow a 12' SOT behind my 19 and didn't see any significant effect on performance. The SOT was easy to board and egress from the stern ladder (which by the way is an important piece of safety equipment).

[Duckie]

I just did a three day two night trip to another northern Minnesota lake that I would recommend to other CP 16 sailors.  Birch lake is located in northern Minnesota just outside of Babbit.  It is a reservoir for the iron mine there and follows the Birch river valley.  The lake is about 15 miles long and twists and turns so that you will see every angle to the wind if you go the distance of the lake.  There are very few cabins on the lake, so it looks for the most part like a wilderness lake.  Camping is either at designated campsites, or wherever there is a nice spot.  I anchored out both nights.  It is a glacial granite lake, so the anchoring can be a bit sketchy, but there are a lot of hidey holes that can provide protection from the wind and waves.  There are only two launch ramps for such a big lake, one on either end, and the boat traffic isn't terrible.  They never see a sailboat up there, so they all notice one which is a safety benefit.  Also, most of the dangerous rocks and reefs are marked on the water.  A detailed lake map is necessary to get the most out of traveling there as well as locating the rocks that might not be marked. 

Anyway, this is one of the most beautiful lakes up there for sailing small shoal draft boats.  No permits or fees involved, and stay as long as you like.  It is certainly worth a look see.

Al

[Potcake boy]

Duckie,

That sounds like a real jewel compared to all the restrictions and sailboat hatin' you find elsewhere nowadays, especially here in Florida. It was recently proposed as a law that there will be no anchoring in certain state-owned waterways because some wealthy folk bought a politician from an unrelated part of the state to sponsor the bill. One of these locations is a popular place for cruisers to await fair weather for the Bahamas crossing. I guess that's the story of minorities. Where is BOATUS after all these years of support? Down here it is the Southwinds magazine that champions sailors with information and editorials.

If I had a small trailer boat, and lived anywhere near there, it would certainly be on my list.

[Craig Weis]

Fixed heavy keel of about 40% of the boat's total unlaidened weight will pull the boat under when filled with water NO MATTER HOW MUCH FOAM is used.

And I would guess that the deck being pulled up [weight of the boat hung from the deck] to float the boat would pop all the rivets holding the deck and hull together.

On a CP-19 about two thousand+ pounds of water [two hundred and thirty gallons of water] would need to be displaced by the foam.

There is no U.S. Coast Guard or any boat manufacture requirement to make any Com-Pac unsinkable.

You want a boat like that, find a double hulled French ETAP sail boat.

Don't let this be you~! I grew up staring at this Winslow Homer print that hung in my parents schooner's saloon.

Craig Weis

[Duckie]

I understand the concern for safety sailing border lakes that are on the Canadian Shield.  Granite doesn't give if you hit it.  Knocking a hole in a CP is not out of the question, but the consequences of that should not be tragic on any of those lakes, if a person wears his life jacket, and the water isn't too cold. 

I mostly sail my Weekender up there, a boat with a considerably weaker hull than my CP, with no more concern than I would have anywhere.  I have knocked over my Weekender to test it just in case.  Fully swamped, it sits high enough that I could start the motor and head for shore.  With the cabin closed but not sealed I could, if I act quickly enough, right the boat and continue sailing with minimal water sloshing around.  Probably even with a hole in it somewhere, a CP 16 could make it to shore if one is quick about it.  None of those lakes are that big that it would be too far to swim.  The kicker is that the water is too cold to do that most of the year.  Being able to stay with a crippled boat is the best alternative in cold water, but it needs to float to do that.  I am sure that a CP 16 could be made to float after taking a catastrophic hole in the hull, but you would give up a lot of storage space that would make cruising problematic on anything longer than an overnighter.  It would be possible to inflate  bags the would fill the entire interior of the boat which would keep it afloat thereby negating the need for foam.  How that could be done is left to the imagination, but it could be done.

My CP is the only one of my three sailboats that will go to the bottom and leave me alone in the water.  I have resigned myself to that idea and have made preparations for that event.  That in the end might be the best answer to this question.

Al

[Craig Weis]

Duckie, just  duckie. " if one is quick about it. "   Hummm.

The United States Power and Sail Squadron and the U.S. Navy's 1933 Blue Jackets Manual states the following.

a~ The Rule of 50. It is ... 50 years old-50 degree water-50 minutes before hypothermia takes your life. Adjust the 50's as required.

b~ Distance viewed over water is distorted in two ways.  Standing on deck and viewing an object the mind sees one distance. Turning your back, bending over and viewing the same object from between spread legs the mind sees two times the first distance. This is the true distance to the viewed object.

Which kind of explains why swimmers start out on a voyage and end up dead from exhaustion.

'Know Your Ships' is a facebook page. [foto]

Craig Weis

[Craig Weis]

A typical ETAP [ unsinkable, they will float down to the deck/hull line and still be sail-able ] looks like a spaceship to me. Very little tradition.

Craig Weis