Ok, so the downhaul was maxed out. The traveller and mainsheet were really loose though with the clew hanging down almost vertically into the water. I'll be sure to undo the downhaul next time though!
I also forgot to mention I not only released the jib sheets but also roller-furled the jib. Thinking about it last night I figured that was probably a dumb thing to do in this case. After all, a jib sausage filled with water is probably quite heavy.
I'm gonna try Jakes approach next time, especially with the added cartwheel effect if I go out on the stern too far. If I can do that consistently it means I can always get the mast to windward easily by spinning the whole boat around at once.
I'm not too keen on bringing aboard more hardware. With the drift as it is and the lake not overly wide I normally only get a couple of tries in before getting blown onto shore.
Dennis
I keep thinking about adding this system ... and now that I think about it and have my trampoline in my truck ready to drop off to my fix-it guy, I may have him sew a tight pocket with flap under the trampoline for a future chute. All it takes is a piece of 1/8" vectran, the chute (which is very compact), and a carabiner to clip onto the bridle. I would tie the end of the 1/8" line to the dolphin striker post where it would live. If needed, open the pocket, extract the chute, toss it into the water and clip the biner to the bridle. As a bonus, with it tied to the dolphin striker, you can quickly just gather it up and pull the chute up to the biner to deal with it later if you have other issues to tend to (like a lost crewmember). We're still planning on doing some distance racing and it would be nice to have this as a backup plan.
Also keep in mind that the chute will slow the boat through the water and (hopefully) prevent it from accelerating once righted...These spin boats like to turn and accelerate when initially righted which can create a safety issue.
