Hey Tom,

I've always thought the increasingly common practice of placing these gigantic portlights in the topsides is a really, REALLY bad idea... During a delivery south this winter, I was witness to a very spooky example of why...

In late February, I was taking a Cape George cutter south, and arrived at the City Marina in Charleston early one morning, just before the weather was forecast to go downhill in a dramatic fashion... It was expected to blow hard for that day and night out of the NE, and then come even harder the next day out of the SW... It was obvious I was gonna be stuck there for a couple of days, so I tucked into a spot in behind the Megadock, sheltered from the coming SW blow... Even though the fetch in the harbor there is not that great, it would have been crazy to lay on outside face of the dock during a SW gale...

Late in the day, a brand new boat being delivered north after being shown at the Miami Boat Show... I'll refrain from naming the brand, suffice it to say it was from one of the largest production builders in the world, in the popular modern shape of a suppository (to borrow Bob Perry's classic description), and was still sporting one CRUISING WORLD's Boat of the Year Finalist placards... They tied up on the outside of the Megadock, when I returned from dinner that night, they were inexplicably still there, and I assumed they planned to leave sometime during the night or early AM, before it was forecast to start blowing hard enough to pin them on the dock...

But they were still there in the morning, and by then it was too late to try to go anywhere... By midday, the breeze was gusting to 40+, and my boat was routinely being drenched in spray from waves breaking against the outside face of the dock, and blowing across... The suppository was taking a real beating, with the tide ripping out along the dock counter to the waves...

They were riding to 4 large fenders, suspended from the lifelines (one of my favorite pet peeves, drives me crazy whenever I see that, which is a lot (grin))... The fenders were virtually being squashed flat, and the lifelines sagging sufficiently to permit the fenders to slide lower, and lower, and you could see the stanchions working against the deck... The crew of 3 had borrowed a few more fenders from elsewhere, and was desperately attempting to push the boat off to get more protection in there, and raise their existing ones to a sufficient height once again...

I went over to give them a hand, and what I saw - and heard - was shocking... The Megadock is very high for a floating dock, about 3 feet or so, and the top edge is a large timber, perhaps a 2X10... Unfortunately, the top edge of the dock was pretty much precisely at the same level as the bottom of one of those picture windows in the slab-sided topsides of this thing, amazingly located at the point of maximum beam amidships, right where the hull was making regular contact with the dock itself...

With each impact, one could easily see the hull flexing inward... Keep in mind, this is right in the vicinity of the chainplates... But, what was most disconcerting, was the sickening 'cracking' noise being produced from the area of the joint of the hull and portlight - it was very spooky, and that particular boat will obviously never be the same...

Really a shame, to see a builder such as Sabre - who would never stick such ridiculous windows in one of their hulls - suspend their production of sailboats... Sad sign of the times, indeed...

best regards,

Jon