Originally Posted by Rolf_Nilsen

Jake:
When diving under the hull after righting, do you have a special technique for that? Foot against the daggerboard or someting?
Doing this fast, before the boat starts to move have to be imperative?
Do you use a drag chute yourself? (if you answer yes to the last question, there will be follow up questions on type, rigging, deployment and retrieval wink )

...

One last question. When I decied it was time to do the geromino move I pushed off to get clear of the boom and mainsail. After resurfacing I had to swim a couple of quick strokes to catch up with the boat again. With the Tornado it was easy to grap the lines holding the trampoline to the hulls. With the Infusion there is just nothing to hold on to and I had to risk swimming to the daggerboard and re-enter by grasping the mainbeam. Any tips there as well on how to hold on to the boat?



Not much technique - but I do make an effort to make sure I'm not tangled in anything before and try to get a foot on the daggerboard as I go under.

I came up with the drag chute idea a couple of years ago (I'm sure it's been done before that)....but I've never needed to use it. I had a pouch sewn into the bottom of my trampoline that stores a small chute. It has a piece of line and two cheap , different colored, aluminum carabiners. The carabiners are clipped through a grommet in the opening of the pouch to make sure they're accessible. Carbiner 1, which has the end of the line tied to it, gets clipped to the dolphin striker post. Carbiner 2, which just has the line flowing through it, gets clipped to the forstay bridle. Then throw the chute in the water. Clipping it to the dolphin striker should enable you to pull it up out of the water and let it dangle at the forestay if you need to do something else quickly (like go pick up your skipper that jumped of the back).

If you are jumping off the back, I imagine you were on the trapeze - either keep your trapeze ring with you or hold fast to the mainsheet and use that to stay connected to the boat.


Jake Kohl