Kip,
Let me explain my background with the FX.
During a week of daily sailing with 2 FX-ones (shed opened at 10:00 a.m. and closed at 6:30 PM) we had a competion going who could get the FX-one righted as it came standard from the factory. Meaning no extra righting aids; just the righting line and the common righting procedure. Any tricks like swimming the bows over, using the mainsail etc were allowed. The conditions varied greatly from time to time, From no wind to absolute howling winds. Only one every managed to right the boat like that and that was because he got really lucky. He flipped the boat to windward in a lull (unintentionally by the way) in very gusty conditions. He saw the potential and dove under the leeward hull to pop up hitting his head on the daggerboard. Climbed on the boat as his life depended on it grapped the righting line and throw it over the upper hull while the boat was speeding up on its side and rotating with its mast to lee. Gust came and he hung on the the rigting line. Gust hit the trampoline and the mainsail when the mast was a little over 45 degrees of the wind and righted here with some effort. He never could repeat this manouvre and he tried, nor could anyone else who tried that week or in later weeks (as most of us came back at later times). We were all around 185 lbs. The safety crews of the spot (halve of them been doing that as long as the FX was there = about 2 years then) reported that our winner was one of the very very few to ever righted that boat. It was a standard reaction of them to rev up the safety boat to aid in righting. As a matter of fact the did that on the time of succesful righting as well a little amazed that they were not needed.
Of course I understand that all kinds of rigting aids can be had to allow the sailor to right the boat ; water bags, garies solo right, Bills supercat Pole idea etc. But one can forget about it when using the standard setup and I know I tried quite a few times and was the only one to have succeeded at it, only once.
Hence my comments and my question how you square your comments (good joke by the way).
I see that the answer to my question is that both you and the former owner are using an aftermarket righting aid.
Wouter
