I wish to disagree with the recent table in your magazine by Georgs Kolesnikovs that listed power voyaging vessels ("Power voyagers suitable for trans-oceanic passagemaking," Issue No. 93, Nov./Dec. 1998).
Range was Kolesnikovs’ only criterion in defining a power passagemaker, but even in this narrow definition there is a factual error. The shortest route across the Atlantic is actually 1,400 nm, from Newfoundland to Ireland, not 1,800 as stated. Many boats not mentioned are quite capable of that distance at moderate speeds with lucky weather.
Range alone does not define a capable passagemaker in the power world, any more than it does in the sailing world. To suggest otherwise is a disservice to your readers.
A more pertinent issue omitted is: can the yacht safely handle weather and other real-life voyaging hazards? Can her windows and doors take it? Can the hull take it? How stable is she? That’s how long-range sailboats are judged and how trans-ocean trawlers ought to be judged as well.
The Trawler Corporation markets the Cape Horn linewith hulls from 50 feet to 75 feetof power voyagers. These vessels are conceived and designed to handle the worst weather, as well as serious underwater or above-water collisions with shipping containers, rocks, and other things that sink boats. They self-right from 180° in three seconds; are double bottomed; have a submersion-proof superstructure, including the 1/2-inch windows and dogged doors; are ice rated; surpass ABS/Lloyd’s commercial rules for steel ships; and have redundancy and back-ups in all major systems.
We have contracted hull #9. Three boatyards are working for us, plus our own furniture shop. A Cape Horn 60 is preparing to go to Antarctica and around Cape Horn. One Cape Horn 50’s maiden voyage is Nova Scotia to Seattle, via Panama as opposed to the Northwest Passagebut she could do that too. Our customers include an ex-U.S. Navy battleship engineer, a submarine officer, and sailing circumnavigatorspeople who know boats.
Our boats have been tested in severe conditions in the North Atlantic and passed with flying colors.
We do not make the only worthy passagemakers, but we feel they are the safest and longest-range vessels currently being marketed.
