I used to spend a lot of time on monos until I saw the light! I raced a Soverel 33 a bunch. We raced against a Hobie 33 and a Beneteau first 10 which I also raced on ocassionally. We saw similar things happen on all three boats.

I think after looking back on it, it was a combination of things that happened. We would surf down the face of waves, as the bow would push into the next wave ahead, it would slow down. The sails would continue to push the boat forward, but it couldn't go forward anyfaster because of the wave. In more sever cases, as the bow would go under, the rudder would start to lose bite (loss of surface area and flow). With all the water on the wide bow, it has a hard time going in a straight line. The boat will often keep going straight with the sails and water holding the bow down, but some times will go into a death roll. The deathroll usually brings the wave crashing in from the stearn and windward side. The sudden loss in speed results in the stearn wake catching up and the transome sinking slightly. So... water comes in from all sides.

w/o spending a lot of time thinking about it, I would think it impossible to completly displace all the water around a hull and make it sink. F=m*a.... for the water to be pushed away, something has to do that (the hull), so the hull is pushed back up by the water. If the hull does not push the water, the water does not move, so the hull stays where it is. Conservation of energy.

my thoughts

Will R