It's just about realizing when to give up. Sometimes, if you wait too late, your options to find a nice landing spot are limited. During the '04 steeplechase, we pitchpoled my F18 pretty hard while I was skippering from the wire. If I had been able to keep my footing, we might have been able to save it. My crew had previously demonstrated a tendency to hang on a little to long so when I realized there was no way I was going to keep my footing, I grabbed his life vest pulling him with me as I went by...by that time, the boat was pretty much standing on it's nose anyway. We both landed cleanly in the water in front of the boat.

An example of a poor exit strategy is when I was crewing on a 29'er for the first time and for someone who hadn't yet fully grasped the concept of an asymetrical spinnaker. As we were getting overpowered by a gust, my skipper was expecting me to somehow do something to "depower the spinnaker" instead of him bearing away....anyway, the boat tipped over and a winglet grabbed the water and I was flung forward. I eyeballed a nice clean patch of water between the spinnaker and the jib and began to tuck for my dive. Then my trapeze line stopped me short and flung me head-first into the forestay. I took away two things from this experience: 1) make sure your skipper has a clue and 2) sail on boats that are fast enough that when things do go wrong, you'll be thrown clear <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Pitchpoles can happen pretty quickly - capsizing sideways is actually quite gentle and slow.

Those stories are pretty good. Well my 17 year old son is going to have a hard time. The skipper(me) doesn't have a clue!!! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

Thanks again airborne

my favorite type of capsize is the crash-gybe-death-roll type.

You know the kind where you've got a parasailor line about 15 feet in front of you and its either ge the mast in the water or lose it? Thats the best kind of exit-strategery.



He's young, he can take it.

I love the crash-gybe-death-roll type. I think that is the one I want to use.

airborne

I still can't believe you guys tried to get redress for that.

I just had the hulls gelcoated, and I need to know what you use for anti-skid on the top o/b side of the hulls.The area where your feet go when you are traping out.

Thanks airborne

WTF dude.

Hey, I was staying clear of that parasailor boat, it's not my fault he decided to do a circle around us.

would he then be considered "an obstruction"?

Very interesting tips. I havn´t capsized my cat yet, mostly because I´m not confident about the hulls being watertight (some deck ports mounted on curved surface and not sealing properly). I am fixing that right now and my plans are to practice rightning the boat, for which I installed a rightning bar. My concerns are:

- Should I still grab the dolphin striker to keep the boat horizontal after rightning, or should I handle that with the rightning bar?

- I´m afraid of the boat hitting my head when coming down, what´s the technique to avoid that? Maybe just hang firmly to the rightning bar all the time?

- What is the safest place for the crew, in case the idea is to protect them rather to have them help with the rightning? (like my daughters?)Would it be an exageration to have them grab a rope attached near the bow or stern, to keep them out but still linked to the boat?

Thanks!

You will definitely need to get to the dolphin striker when the boat is leveling out. The momentum from the rotation and the wind will want to push it right back over the other way.

Getting out of the way of the hull really isn't that difficult - once the boat reaches about 45 degrees, your weight is really not a factor anymore and you can begin to position to reach the lowside dolphin striker. If you're righting pole puts you far away from the boat, you could possibly be in the path of the high hull as it comes down to the water - just be aware of this (and make sure the daggerboard doesn't wedge itself between you and your life jacket!).

Trailing a line off the rear beam sounds like an interesting idea for the kids - I would think that if they were 5 feet behind the boat they would be safe. However, the boat will tend to drift downwind with the mast trailing so they will be on the opposite side from you and possibly near the mainsheet and boom as such. Their presence in the water will also tend to spin the boat as they are pulled through the water - and that might impede your righting attempt. I would probably put them sitting comfortably on the hull in front of the main beam and instruct them to hang on to the dolphin striker, or the righting line that should be trailing behind the boat just after righting.

Thanks!

On righting a H16 my son (7 years old) would stand on the lower hull just in front of the main beam and when the boat would come back over, he would step up onto the trampoline. I suppose, theoretically, he could make it through the whole capsize without getting wet (I did this once on an Apollo 16). It was the middle of August so the whole reason we were sideways in the water was to take a break from the heat. I would never purposefully capsize my Nacra 5.2, mainly because I am afraid of breaking something, but also because I don't think my mast is sealed very well. I agree with Gree that capsizing and sailing in extreme conditions is much more enjoyable on someone else's boat.

-Rob V.
Panama City

I have read that people got rid of the bungie and used a 3' line to pull up the rudders. I would like to know if they ran the line up through the tube on the rudder how they cleated the line.

Thanks airborne <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

I'm still using the old school bungie up through the tube. If you have any pics of the new way to do it, please post them.

Rob V.

This might work for the 5.2.http://www.catsailor.com/forums/download.php?Number=83895

try again .I got it from bullswan. Thanks bullswan.

airborne

It should be noted that we previously acknowledged that the wrong rudder was installed on the hull in this photo - the Ackerman steering angle is going to wrong way.

Thanks Jake, I forgot that little detail.

airborne