Can you roll a 19 Angler ?

T

tom&shan

New member
Question:
Is it possible to roll a 19 C-Dory using your trim tabs, i.e. highspeed, play with the tabs, turn sharp, hit a wave, weight all on one side ... ?
Tom
 
Any boat can be rolled, the C-Dory with a low ballast point should pop back up rightside up so long as you keep your cabin door and windows closed. Let me know if this is not the case . . .

Good luck to you guys! :beer
 
Tom,

Having met both of those guys, I think they're serious. :shock: I don't want to be IN the boat when you try it, but I'll be nearby to get the photo.

Given the right (wrong?) conditions, anything is possible. Not likely, though. Has anyone here ever heard of such an occurance? (Not one of those: "I knew a guy who knew a guy whose cousin once heard of guy that said..." :wink: )

I've been reading here for a couple years, Tom, and have not come across anyone rolling a CD (although the photo archives do show a CD nearly rolling in the surf in Mexico - and it came out fine).

These are amazingly tough boats; Wild Blue continues to impress me everyday.

Best wishes,
Jim B.
 
My 22 rolled in the surf with the previous owners in it. Waves and the shore bottom helped the process along.

I think you would really have to work hard at rolling a C-Dory in open water with a mild chop. (impossible ?)

Five pounds of Wisconsin Cheddar says you can't roll your 19 in open water with rated power and no huge waves. I sure would like to watch you fellas try however. :beer :beer

Chris Bulovsky :lol:
 
I got caught in a ship wake once off LA and the wake threw my 22 cruiser onto the starboard side. I was looking DOWN at green water thru the side window. The boat popped back upright immediately. That was way too close to 'rolling' for me!!

The lesson learned was to run away from a ships wake at 90 degrees and then gradually slow the boat and let the wake go under the boat from the stern.

I think that if you don't overpower the boat(ie: stay with the factory power recommendation), and don't go parallel to a steep wave train (ships wake) these boats won't roll over.

High powered, fast boats that have a straight side, (not curved like a C-Dory) can experience a condition called 'chine walk' where the boat bounces from one chine to the other. This condition can amplify until the boat is 'bow steering'. If this condition is allowed to continue, the boat can flip sideways. I have seen videos of hydroplane racing where a boat does just that.

Trim tabs can amplify the roll effect of going sideways across a wave (the up-wave tab down and the down-wave tab up).

If you use tabs, consider the tab position prior to changing the boats course in big waves. Going 'down wave' faster than the wave train is the most dangerous time for our boats. That is the time to have the tabs retracted and the weight in the boat shifted aft. The stern has a lot of buoyancy and will rise to a following sea. It's surfing down a wave and submarineing the bow at the bottom that can cause real problems.

Tom, Tom, and Dave, let me know if you want a 'stand by' photo boat for your rolling experiment. I have a good fly bridge to watch from!
 
I remember a discussion on this topic on the 'old' site, it was before I got my boat though, so was just mildly interested. The shape of the dory bottom with its very small skeg lends itself to sliding down a wave if caught sideways. I believe I've experienced this just for a moment or so while handling large waves from the side while going slowly. It can be quite alarming at first, but afterwards you realize it's not too bad of a safety factor! A deep vee will tend to trip on its hull and broach in those kinds of conditions. Of course, very large breaking waves can roll anything plus trim tabs could be a factor in tripping the stern. That's about all I remember from that discussion.
 
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tom&shan":udzhbnvn said:
Question:
Is it possible to roll a 19 C-Dory using your trim tabs, i.e. highspeed, play with the tabs, turn sharp, hit a wave, weight all on one side ... ?
Tom
Click to expand...

In general I would say no; that's not to say that the "perfect" set of conditions could never conspire to make it happen, just that it's highly unlikely.

What can happen though, and I've "been there, done that", is that you can roll the boat completely up on its side. This is a scary thing when it happens but so far (thank goodness) when it's happened to me backing off the throttle and steering to the low side (into the skid so to speak) has put the boat back on its feet immediately.

Every hull has its limits just as every vehicle we drive does. As you become more familair with the hull you'll sense when things are working right and when they're not. That comes with experience and that comes with time; there are no shortcuts. If you can handle a car at high speed in the twisties I can guarantee you didn't start there (no matter what your 16 year-old mind told you) and it took time to develop the skill and experience to do that. I think boats are viewed as somehow being easier than cars (I suppose because there are no lines on a highway and we're not usually quite so close to other traffic) but 'taint necessarily so. It pays to get to know your boat...well. Go through a few corners slowly before you try a 30 mph curve at 90. :)
 
Les Lampman":ps6z59wc said:
tom&shan":ps6z59wc said:
Question:
Is it possible to roll a 19 C-Dory using your trim tabs, i.e. highspeed, play with the tabs, turn sharp, hit a wave, weight all on one side ... ?
Tom
Click to expand...

In general I would say no; that's not to say that the "perfect" set of conditions could never conspire to make it happen, just that it's highly unlikely.

What can happen though, and I've "been there, done that", is that you can roll the boat completely up on its side. This is a scary thing when it happens but so far (thank goodness) when it's happened to me backing off the throttle and steering to the low side (into the skid so to speak) has put the boat back on its feet immediately.

Every hull has its limits just as every vehicle we drive does. As you become more familair with the hull you'll sense when things are working right and when they're not. That comes with experience and that comes with time; there are no shortcuts. If you can handle a car at high speed in the twisties I can guarantee you didn't start there (no matter what your 16 year-old mind told you) and it took time to develop the skill and experience to do that. I think boats are viewed as somehow being easier than cars (I suppose because there are no lines on a highway and we're not usually quite so close to other traffic) but 'taint necessarily so. It pays to get to know your boat...well. Go through a few corners slowly before you try a 30 mph curve at 90. :)
Click to expand...

Les---as always excellent wise comments.

With very little previous experience other than a RIB and canoe we entered into boating the first year in a pretty big way. Lynn canal, Inland Passage, Alaska, Yukon ect. Two main things kept us top side up. One as Less said its unlikely to happen except under a perfect set of unusual conditions and two our years of experience on Yellowstone Lake in a coleman scanoe with a 3 hp motor in all kinds of conditions helped more than we had realized. Surviving many storms in that scanoe in conditions which would have easily equaled a c-dory in a major storms in open ocean water. I know there is many differences between the two. C-dory and scanoe, but they still were very much boat-bad water handling, learning experiences-again such as Les described. Grouped into this learning curve was time spent in rough conditions on a RIB and between purchase and that first major trip in our c-dory we purposely maneuvered the boat in the roughest conditions we could find before taking the big trip that first year. So the inherent ability of the c-dory and experience in most any boating form with a little added luck should keep the right side up.

Our worries of this happening pretty much disappeared following a trip out under the golden gate bridge during small craft warnings when we met a huge container ship shortly after passing under the bridge. At the time We were very concerned, but the ships wake felt very little different than the over all sea conditions we were in and that was nothing more than exciting and fun. Never felt once any concern of the boats ability to handle the sea conditions. Was many times worse in the scanoe on Yellowstone Lake where we felt in real danger and were.

Jay
 
THe risk of rolling a boat while using trim tabs is highest with following seas. I've had a few instances where the boat suddenly took a hard turn, and nearly broached, or so it seemed . Scared the crap out of me. It really was all do to my inexperience with trim tabs. As I understand it, when you have swells/waves coming from behind you should have your tabs up. What was happening to me was the bow would grab hold and track like it's suppose to but the stern was being pushed sideways by the following seas. The boat righted itself with backing off the throttle. In reality I probably wasn't anywhere near broaching but it sure feels like it frmm inside the cabin. Live and learn.
 
The only boat I know that rolled was Chris B's SCOUT -- but the story I've heard is the couple ran out of gas on the Oregon coast and the boat ended up rolling over in the rocks -- not a pretty sight! To look at the pictures since he's restored that boat, you'd never know it wasn't straight from the factory as it is.
 
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