I recommend a sea drogue / drift sock when offshore or other situations where limited outside help is available. On my F18, I sewed a pouch into the underside of the trampoline where I store a drift sock, some line, and two carabiners in there. If capsized and either difficult to right or I'm concerned the boat may get away from me once I do right it, I deploy the sock. One carabiner, already attached to the end of the line, clips to the dolphin striker post. The second carabiner, through which the line just floats through, gets clipped to the forestay bridle to keep the center of effort toward the bow. Throw the drag sock in the water. The socks typically have floats built into the edge in two places and weights sewn into the edge in an opposite two places. The sock opens up when it's in the water and the wind pressure on the boat will naturally spin the bows into the wind while you wait. Once you right the boat, the sock keeps the bows pulled toward the wind and keeps the boat from sailing away. Once I'm on the boat, it's pretty easy to pull the drift sock up to the forestay and tie it off. If I have crew (hopefully they are still with me, we can usually retrieve the sock by sailing over it slightly and stow it on the top of the trampoline somewhere leaving the line in place.

Here's an example of the sock;
drift sock

Last edited by Jake; 05/03/17 07:21 AM.

Jake Kohl