Hi DDW,

...would be on a multihull... You have a lot of inherent directional/tracking stability, and an extremely wide platform on which adjust a drogue... And, if you have the use of both engines, you can easily use them to steer in lighter winds...

I'll give Hank Schmitt the benefit of the doubt, the guy is a very experienced offshore sailor, after all... I suspect what might have really been at play here, were the wishes of the owner and his wife which were aboard, as well... Probably unlikely they were cut from the same cloth as Miles and Beryl Smeeton, for example, and it wouldn't surprise me if they got to the point where they simply wanted OFF that damn boat, PERIOD... And in that situation, Schmitt would really be under the gun to accede to their wishes, and give up sooner than he might have otherwise...

Little surprising they simply chose to lie ahull, multihulls are generally better-suited to lie to a parachute than monos, though of course perhaps they were not so equipped... It I were gonna sail a catamaran to the Islands in mid-January, that's probably one piece of gear I'd really like to have aboard...

This will be interesting to follow, Charlie Doane will obviously have much more to say... One downside of blogging for a national publication, you can't really run and hide... (grin)

best regards,

Jon