Righting an inverted boat

[cedric]

Bob
I have been studying your excellent tips on righting an inverted boat.

I have had quite a bit of trouble with this recently (or fairly recently, ever weekend when I have been free to sail recently has been cancelled due to strong wind!), every time I go over, which is often, the boat seems to invert.

I actually use my righting line which comes from the mast rather than the halyard, ignoring the front beam one unless only capsized at 90 degrees, but have found that even balanced right out by the rudders and bouncing until exhausted nothing happens. The only way I have found around this is to take the righting line and climb out to the bow of the opposite hull and pass the line in front of the bridle wire so it is pulling right from the front of the opposite hull. I then go right back near the rudder opposite and lean out, eventually up she comes.

This is probably made harder in my case as a combination of being fairly light and short means much less leverage than our more comfortably built giants. In fact this is going to get harder as having had a series of injuries and problems over the last couple of years means my weight had ballooned to 10 stone and I am now well on the way to getting back to my running racing weight of 8 stone which means even less to throw about!

[Bob Carter]

Hi Cedric,
I have not encountered that technique before. Are you really standing up on the back of the hull just in front of the rudder and leaning back pulling on the righting line? That technique usually works OK. As you get back towards 8 stone it will be harder but it should not be a problem at 10 stone. If the wind is stronger and there are some waves it is generally easier.

Quite a few people add a separate piece of rope tied to the mast ball as righting line (see the comment below from Frank Sandells). You still need to take it under the windward hull before attempting to right the boat.

Cheers
Bob

A note from our capsize artist / model:

An extra tip would be to tie a "righting line" round the mast ball. Doing this allows you to have a line in each hand ( righting line in one, halyard in the other) I find it easier to keep your balance on the hull and it allows you to transfer weight as the boat starts to come up greatly reducing the chance of falling in and having to start the process all over again.

Cheers

Frank

PS the picture was taken before I perfected my technique

[cedric]

Hi Bob
Yep I do stand right at the back and I was passing the righting line under the other hull. Only seems to work for me if waves, in a fairly calm sea I just stand there bouncy up and down until I eventually fall off!
Effectively pulling from the far side right near the bow, which is what the bit about round the bridle wire achieved, is the only way I seemed to get back up.
I had wondered if perhaps something like my mast being less buoyant was possible. Perhaps my new boat will be better, I don't seem to have been able to get out much with that yet.

[Bob Carter]

Hi Cedric
One piece masts help quite a lot. They are lighter, more buoyant and less inclined to take in water. What has your new boat got?
Cheers
Bob

[George Stephen]

Hi Cedric

I think your idea of taking a righting line round the bridle wire may be a really good idea for lightweight helms. The righting line, on which you are leaning back, is then at a much lower angle and I think that the Mechanics mean you may get more effective leverage (I've been too lazy to work it out - it's been over 40 years since I last did any such maths/physics, but I ought still to be able to do the maths.... Perhaps we have a younger mathemetician/physicist/engineer Sprinter who can work it out, and prove which is likely to be best).

But I think that you are wrong to bounce up and down. It does suggest that you are close to upright, rather than leaning back. Or did you mean that the waves were bouncing you up and down? Concentrate on leaning back as far as possible, even to about 40 degrees from the horizontal, on the righting line to get what weight as far back to genrate more turning moment to pull the bows up.

Bob is absolutely right that you need to be right at the back of the hull next to the rudder, again to use you weight most effectively.

One last tip for anyone capsized : avoid treading on the trampoline close to the hulls, especially near the front or the back of the tramp. If you do stand near one of the corners you'll put a lot of strain on the small number of rivets holding the tramp tracks near where you are standing - if they are getting old and starting to lose their strength they may well fracture, and your tramp track (esp old-style) will bend and maybe crack a little.

Standing near the middle of the tramp will spread the load over nearly all the rivets and should not be a problem. Standing near a hull midway along the tramp is probably ok - mainly spreading your weight among more rivets (front and back from where you stand) than the small number near a corner. When you want to get to a hull near the front or the back of the tramp, do so using the main or rear beam.

[Steve Willis]

Cedric,

When you run the line out from the mast and under the hull are you making sure it passes in front of the main shroud plate before you pick it up and over the skeg.

If not then your rope will be angled well back.

Thinking about the applied maths you are trying to lift the hull / bows and thus should be pulling upwards as much as possible (with your weight pushing the other hull down as much as possible) - I would have thought not more than 30-40 deg from vertical (not horizontal) would be best.

If you have the rope around the bridle rather than the shroud plate and you are standing at the rudder then the angle of the rope (being about 6 feet further away at the pivot point) will be at much lower. I would have thought it would give much less lift.

It does take quite a time for the sail to drag through the water - with lightweights your 'bouncing' may help but risky in case you miss and straddle the skeg .............

I nearly managed an inversion in the summer - I've only just washed the 18" of mud off the top of the sail where I struck bottom and broke three battens instead

Steve W