Well, I did it! I put Elsies (my 5.2) on her side today. A friend and I took our boats out to lake Thunderbird, it was very very cold but the wind was nice and we had a blast and our wet suites kept us warm!

But like I said, I needed to right the boat for the first time. I got in that situation by cleating the main, when a hull started to lift I tried to uncleat it and couldn't get it until I was to the point of no return. I went over so slow I was able to climb onto the side of the hull and just slide down the back. It took a few minutes but the mast started to come around into the wind and then I grabbed the righting line and she.... did very little. It took me almost 20 minutes to get her righted and that was only because a gust got under that sails and lifted her up.

So after that long story, I need some advice on a righting pole. I want to make one so that I can right much quicker. If anyone has advice on how to do it please tell me. Also a few pictures would be great.

Thanks guy in advance.

First of all, you should never cleat your main in heavy air. (At least when you are not using a spinnaker.)

Second, did you release the mainsheet and traveler after capsize? The reason for doing that is so that the water can run off the sail when you are righting the boat. Otherwise, water is on the sail, and that is a lot of extra weight to try to lift.

Third, after you capsized, did you go up on the bow and depress it so the bows would turn toward the wind? Sometimes it helps if you even sit on the bow with legs dragging in the water (like a sea anchor) to get the bows to turn toward the wind.

Usually you cannot get the bows closer than a 45-degree angle to the wind (wind coming in between the bows and the mast). But that is normally adequate to be able to right the boat.

First off, I know I should not have cleated the main, but i was reaching for the bottle of water that I had laying on the tramp and a large gust just happened to hit at that moment, and to make matters worse the angle that the cleat is set at is a little to low right now. But that is fixed now.

Yes, I did uncleat the main and traveler, the mast actually floated really well, and the sails were just barely in the water.

Yeah, I had never tried sitting on the bows before, I had read it on here but I couldn't remember if it was the bows or the stern. I tried the stern first and then my common sense took over and I switched to the bows. It just took a little while to come around.

And like I said after all of that I was able to right the boat but it wasn't quick. But thanks for the advice, do you have any about a righting pole.

Did you get the bows around far enough? I had difficulties righting my boat the last time out, and I think that may have been the problem.

I suggest carrying a water bag as insurance until you absolutely positively determine that you can't get it up with better technique on your righting line. You can get water bags so big that they have multiple purchase systems built in.

Righting poles are expensive and require installation and maintenance. And they break (mine did). I'd make sure you really need one first.