My crew tried to puncture my hull with her trapeze hook about 3 weeks ago. Resting on the hook with her 55 kg weight and for good measure she started by slamming into the deck and then compounded by slowly sliding of the hull dragging the hook with her
I agree with you that a glass fibre foam sandwich hull would have faired much worse. Two anecdotes:
(1) On a light air day in between races I thought it would be really funny to push my crew in the water. As I helped them back out they tried to pull me in and dragged me across the deck. The hook of my harness punctured the glass/foam construction deck of our Tiger - duhh!
(2) A friend of ours tells a great tale about losing his footing on an I-20 and swinging in to the side of the hull such that his harness hook went right through the hull and left him stuck to the side of the boat as it began to heel over. Could have been rather serious! Again, glass/foam construction.
Ply/Epoxy or cedar strip construction rulz for robustness...
Chris.
