I am a catamaran sailor, now. Yesterday, I capsized my sailboat in a 12-knot breeze at the Tempe Town Lake. I had been lifting a hull, higher and higher, on several tacks, and I was getting a little ****. My Hobie 16 crashes so slowly… seems to take 10 seconds to slow down and finally hit the water. I ended up sitting on the top hull, thinking, “Oops!” I'm pretty sure my tiller movement during the upset made things worse, not better. I was just easing off the main sheet when it became obvious that the sail was going to get wet.

I slid down the trampoline into the water, and then swam around to the “bottom” of the boat, and easily climbed on the lower hull. A couple in their kayak came by and offered help, and I was glad to have it. It was all I could do to keep the mast from going down into the water, which would have “turtled” the boat… not a good thing, what with a 27’ mast and only 14’ of water below. :-( So the woman joined me on the bottom hull, and together we pulled on the righting rope. In a few seconds, the boat came back onto its “feet”. We hopped onto the hulls, and the kayak came around to where she could climb back aboard it.

I straightened out everything (really, just the halyards had come out of their little storage bag), got my wits back about me, and went back to sailing… another 45 minutes or so of marvelous wind. No more swimming, though.

At one point my water bottle slipped out of its pocket and went overboard. I spotted it out in the middle of the lake, and maneuvered to retrieve it. Wow, that’s hard to do! I was by it five times before I got the right combination of speed, angle, placement, body position, and timing! Felt pretty good once I had it in hand though. Good tacking/jibing practice, around and around. :-)

I took the boat to the dock and dropped jib and mainsail JUST IN TIME. The wind went up to 25 knots, gusting hard, whitecaps on the little lake, and dust filling all the sky. (Tempe is near Phoenix, Arizona.) I spent the next 80 minutes taking the boat apart for the drive back to my place; everything, including the drive itself, was made more difficult by the high winds. I was just so, so happy that I was off the water when the wind picked up. I’d still be out there if I hadn’t called it a day.

Lessons:
I've got a "Mama" mast float coming soon, and I'll feel better about picking up a hull with one of those mounted. I think the mast was being "pushed down" by the force of the wind on the bottom of the tramp. I didn't turn the boat so that the wind was coming from the top/front, like I was supposed to... not doing this made my job MUCH harder, I'm sure. I didn't seem to have much time, once I noticed the mast tip submerging. I could stabilize the turtling by leaning back on the righting line, but couldn't do anything else, it seemed. I was so grateful for the generous help from the kayakers.

I have a water bag, but I lashed it to the TOP of the tramp, where I couldn't reach it easily when standing on the hull. Duh. I'm going to find a way to attach it to the BOTTOM of the tramp, so that it'll be right in front of me when I need it. I'm 6'3" and 210#, so I should be able to do this without a bag if my technique is good... I think.

Practicing the righting drill seems wise. Next time I go out I'll dump it on purpose and get it back upright a couple of times.