Watch: Schooner Nearly Capsizes During Launch

Perched rather precariously high on the ways at Damen’s Galati shipyard in Romania, a three-masted sail training vessel was launched on 22 November.

With a far higher center of buoyancy above the bottom of the vessel’s keel relative to the typical commercial vessel, she basically gets dumped off the end of the slipways and takes a heavy roll as she finds her feet again.

Had they left the hatches open on deck this might have been an issue, but sailing vessels like this are certainly designed to take heavy rolls without any problems at all.

This particular vessel was built by Damen for the Navy of Oman and designed by the world-class naval architects at Dykstra Naval Architects. Once rigged, this vessel will carry upwards of 2700 m² of sail area, and be manned by 34 crew members and 58 cadets.

After Stad Amsterdam and Cisne Branco, this is the third steel clipper built by Damen Shipyards.

Delivery is expected in August 2014.

Editors note: This vessel had 350 tonnes of lead in the keel and Damen notes that she was in absolutely no danger of capsizing during this launch.

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