I have a Cape Horn, so can comment a little on the self-righting claim. First, I don't think self-righting and maintaining operation after a roll are equivalent. There are some Coast Guard boats that are designed to maintain operations after an inversion. There is a lot of mechanical design and cost required for that capability, which the Cape Horn does not include. I expect that if my boat rolled, there would be a huge mess and many components may not survive. There is a huge danger to me, of flying objects. This is much of my own making depending on how I stow items and a need for me to add lock-downs on seat cushions, etc. Peter's contention was based on the design of the boat to self-right from 180 degrees. The capability is contingent on the house superstructure keeping integrity and relatively watertight do the house buoyancy is maintained. To that end, the house is designed and constructed of heavy enough construction to with stand the water pressure when inverted without the walls collapsing or the windows breaking. It is that huge buoyancy from a non-compromised house that makes it self right. I was told and believe that the reality is that it would be very difficult to get the boat to go much past 90 degrees because of the force required to get the house to submerge. This is probably the same for many trawlers out there and a big difference over a sailboat. The house has a huge buoyancy and if the windows stay intact, the house will be difficult to submerge, compared with a sailboat that has very little superstructure and consequently very little buoyancy above the waterline. The closest I have heard to a real test was a sister ship that was knocked down about 70 degrees. It's very hard to really estimate in the terror of the moment. As someone posted, the forces are huge. A passenger in the saloon was thrown across the room, but was okay. the furniture and appliances stayed in place, but the aft (watertight) door latch broke and the door was jarred open from the impact. The door latch has since been redesigned by the door supplier. So, what the design elements mean to me are an extra level of safety for the unexpected that may give me a little extra chance of being able to stay with the ship longer in a calamity. But, the objective is still to stay out of those conditions. you wrote: >If I recall correctly, Peter Sever (sp), the creator of Cape Horn trawlers >used to boast that Cape Horns could easily survive being rolled as they were >designed to quickly right themselves. He further stated the doors >and windows >were of sufficient strength that they would survive intact. To the >best of my >knowledge, this was never "tested" in a real life cruising situation. > >Bob M

A previous email mentioned window integrity as being essential to a vessel's recovery. Just to underscore the significance of this point, I thought that I'd mention that the first rollover test of the then new USCG 47' MLB was a failure owing to a single pilothouse window's blowing out. Ron Rogers