Ran the SC20 this last weekend in 15 to 20 plus. All good fun, til it deteriorated into 5 to 25, with up to 70 degree shifts in direction. Decided to head down toward home, floundered in a monster lull, and watched the approach of the next blast with some trepidation. Travelled out, sheeted in, hoping to be at a reasonable angle when it hit. Not so much.
Went over in a slow motion pitchpole, as we had no speed when it arrived. Long fall with a 12' beam.

I managed to stay with the boat, Brad was in the water, swimming furiously (pfds and drysuits), and the boat was pulling away rapidly, tramp broadside to the breeze, mast upwind. He managed to catch the mast and drag himself back to the hull. I scrambled up onto the mast and released the shroud extender, and with just Brad on the righting line she was ready to right. But the wind was now a steady 20 plus, and if we righted from this position it would surely slam violently over the other way. Brad(who seems to be doing most of the meaningful work here) proposes that we deploy the yet to be tested drift sock(Cabella's, one size above the smallest, maybe $35?). I needed to help it fill, but once it did, the bows rounded up nicely into the wind, and with the wind easing a bit, Brad easily brought her to her feet without my help. Heaved ourselves aboard, sea anchor keeping us nicely pointed upwind, we prepared to reconnect the lengthened shroud, which requires retrieving the sock(untied at the fwd beam and released when we drove over it and could pull it aboard, line was run thru a carabiner hooked to the bridle wire, 'biner stays there), and then tacking the boat to get the mast vertical again. It's disconcerting looking up at the rig listing off to leeward some 30 degrees from normal. And the boat really doesn't want to build up enough speed to make a tack into significant pressure, but Brad jumped on the wire and could bring the mast back to vertical while we executed a successful tack. He re pinned the shroud, and carefully resumed our ride home, our appetite for adventure temporarily sated. Crash to sail time, less than 10 minutes, which included waiting a bit for the windspeed to moderate. Acceptable for a couple of mildly rusty catsailors, early season. Nice to be reminded that we can get her back up unassisted, nice design Bill.

Dave

SC20 for sale, don't need two of them it seems.