On Tuesday, May 30, 1995 at 3:00:00 AM UTC-4, George Bunting wrote:
My wife is a neophyte dinghy sailor who encountered a potentially show-stopping problem on her maiden voyage, so I'm posting this
to seek your advice. As a board sailor, this is an issue I've never encountered.
She capsized a small Laser-like Banshee to leeward in 5-10 feet
of water, and fell clear without pulling down on the hull.
Nevertheless, the light wind apparently exerted enough force
on the vertical hull to bury the mast tip in the muddy bottom.
It was sufficiently stuck that my 220 pound weight hanging from
the centerboard had no effect, let alone her puny 130 lbs.
In order to self-rescue without seeking aid from another boat
(if there had been one), I had to unstep the mast from the hull,
tie the entire rig to the bow painter to avoid losing it, and
slowly tow hull et al in to shore behind my sailboard.
I had expected that dinghy sailing would be safer and less
problematic than windsurfing, but this experience suggests
that might not be true. So I have some questions re capsize
and self-rescue that I hope you can answer.
1) Can the mast tip be prevented from sinking?
Is mast-head flotation (e.g. empty bleach bottle) the answer
to this problem? If so, how much buoyancy is enough, and what
are the side effects? Is there any commercial product (other
than Clorox 8-) that addresses this issue?
2) Self-rescue from stuck mast?
Is there some well-known technique short of unstepping the
mast from the hull that can be used to recover?
3) The upper part of this capsized dinghy's hull appears
very lofty when viewed from water level. How does anyone
manage to scramble up there to stand on the centerboard,
assuming that they fell in the water when the hull tipped?
Thanks for any suggestions. I hope there are some robust
solutions for this problem, that can virtually eliminate
the possibility of a soitary sailor getting stranded.
Most of the area in the South S.F. Bay where we'd be
sailing is less than mast-deep 8-).
-gwb@netcom.com
I single hand a two man trapeze boat so if I capsize the wire always pulls me off the rail. The water in my creek is shallow and the silt is the consistency of wet pottery clay. If it is windy enough to be exciting, then the top 30 inches if mast and
sail will slid under the silt to my full to batten. This mud not only weighs too much to overcome by standing on the board but it prevents the wind from swinging the boat around so it just sits there with the hull square to the wind pushing the mast
farther under. First, if it is really shallow, be sure the tip of the boom is not also stuck since this will keep you from swinging. Next, let the vang off completely. The top of the sail will have to twist to allow the mud to slide off as the mast comes
up. These steps help but not always.
I often sail where there is not going to be a power boat to rescue me. I carry a 1.5 pound Lewmar claw anchor (about 11 USD) and 100 feet of line. I keep it in a bag tied near the mast. The anchor is stored in a piece of a wetsuit leg that I cut off so
it won't damage my boat. The fall piece of the anchor line is always tied to the boat. I swim this up wind the entire 100 feet. Holding onto the line gives you a surefire way to get back to the boat. Once back on the board the I gently pull on the anchor
line until it has a good set in the solid bottom under the silt. You need a lot of line since the anchor wll eat up a lot of bottom before it has a good enough bite to pull you out. Leaving the end tied to the boat, I now have enough slack to wrap the
line around a shroud. I pull a bend into the line while standing on the board, take the slack out. pull a bend, repeat, repeat---. This winches the hull upwind until the mast and sail slide out of the muck. I used to bounce the past tip in and out of the
water to clean the sail off but found this usually leads to an second capsize since the bow will swing past head to wind while you are doing it. So as soon as the bow is near head to wind I pop the boat. roll over the rail and try to get the anchor line
off the shroud, and either secured far enough forward that the bow stays into the wind or I lean over the foredeck and pull myself towards the anchor until it breaks free. The hardest parts of this is not capsizing while recovering the anchor and not
letting the thin anchor line tangle while swimming it out.
Good luck
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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