Report of NZ yacht lost on East Coast (NZ) storm. www.maritimenz.govt.nz/commercial/safety/accidents-reporting/accident-reports/documents/Essence-mnz-report-22July2021.pdf
The windows popped out.
A lot of talk about storm boards being fitted over windows, but their illustration of fixing of the storm plastic covers shows a pretty weak design.
Also in other sites, a lot of talk about hull flexing.
My only experience of modern "flat bottom" production designs was being horrified at the shock loads on the hull when pounding into steep seas inside Broken Bay (Hawkesbury Heads at the Northern end of Pittwater). Hate to imagine what the stresses would be in storm conditions.
Discussions: www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f2/maritime-nz-report-into-the-loss-of-the-yacht-essence-october-2019-a-253634.html
On a Lord Howe cruise 7-8 years ago a Beneteau had a window pop out due to hull flexing. Can't remember what size but over 40ft. It was bloody rough, we heaved to but I'm not clear how close they were to us.
My boat is from the era when hull windows were the latest craze, even though the windows are small oval Lewmar style, and they are clamped in with an aluminium backing panel bolting through to the outer bezel, I'm glad my boat only has one pair, the next size up have 4 and then 6 on the 42 footers. I have re-bedded mine after I had a water leak. It seems each manufacturer of big brands, is trying to our do the other with more outlandish window gashes. They are really a marketing thing, a bit like push button starts that cars all seem to have now. I hope the fad passes!
