Nick Benton, rest his soul, misinterpreted the historical tonnage data he based her plans on and built her a foot or two narrower than she should have been. How do I know? I did the inclining and stability analysis and she was incredibly tender. Only the density of the lead we packed in the bilges got her stiff enough to be sailed at all. Ballasted with stones and cargo distributed much higher in the hull, as would have been the historical case, she would have been nearly un-managable.
With the excellent stability data I obtained, I was able to go back and work out, to satisfy my own curiosity, that just a foot or two more beam would have given the vessel the amount of sail carrying power in historical loading configuration that probably would have been desired. As I said at the time, the original builders might have built one vessel like her but they wouldn't have built a second.
Due to all her freeboard, she should be quite safe. However, there is a letter from me somewhere in her files pointing out that sailing her with the gun ports open is very risky. I suggested they frame that letter and post it in the chart room but I'm sure it's buried in a file cabinet a quarter century later.
I have a complete set of the original plans for her which will probably go in the trash when I finally close up my office to sail off into the sunset. They would make a good model building source, just add 1-2 feet to the beam.
