Hi Jake, Wouter, etal,

I've been following this conversation so that in the event my F17 ever goes turtle on me, I'll be some what prepared. Couple things still aren't clear. The scenario is the boat is completely upside down. Probably some pretty good waves are sloshing over the tramp. The following is the sequential process I think your suggesting, but I want to be sure. 1.) You say to tie the righting line onto the mast. Doesn't that mean that the righting line from the rescue boat has to be tied onto the mast post (the rod that holds the mast ball)? And that puppy is now under water, right? 2.) To do this, I've got to hold my breath, dive under the tramp, tie on the righting line to the mast post, and then loosen both downhaul lines, swim aft and uncleat both the traveler and the main sheet. I hope the water isn't forty degrees. 3.) Then I take the submerged, secured line, and throw it forward, up and over the dolphin striker and let it flop onto the bottom of the tramp (now facing upwards). 4.) Then I swim around to the stern, grab the line, pulling it tight and position it, midway bewteen the two hulls with their upward pointing dagger boards and rudders. 5.) Then I clamber up out of the water and stand on the end most part of one of the hulls to assist the rear of the boat to sink as much as possible (which on my boat will be a zero response). 6.) I suppose to help keep my balance I can steady myself with the righting line, by then held taut by the rescue vessel, while the boat very slowly applies power. Is this is all correct so far?

Question: Assuming my spinnaker is snuffed when the boat turtles and the only sail up is the main, then for the life of me I can't see why my main sail would ever have any stress on it at all, nor ever "catch water" because the leading edge moving through the water will be the mast itself with the luff firmly locked in the sail track, and the leach flowing straight out behind. The sail will not only never fill, it should slice through the water like a knife--right? And the dagger boards and rudders pose no problem as to preventing the cat from slipping sideways in the water if it needs too, because as the boat begins to raise its' mast it must at some point stop moving forward and begin to pivot on the stern of one of the hulls; at that point the mast will begin to lay over onto its' side more and more as it continues to rise to the surface causing the boat also to begin to tip over on its' side--which is where we want it. Does that all square with what your telling us? A problem comes to mind at this point. It occurs to me that the rescue boat, must as it pulls, keep the righting line absolutely centered between both hulls or the line will move to one side and the cat may start to skid across the water, instead of comming up on its' side. What do you guys think?

Wouter, I can't figure out any advantage to releasing the downhaul, because it seems to me all this will do is allow the sail to "bag" and in so doing create more drag moving through the water than a "flat"sail would, and thereby resist our effort at righting. We would just be creating another problem, and for what purpose? Additionally if the downhaul is even partially released, the sail with all its' weight hanging straight down only has to slide down the sail track one and a half inches and the ring holding the sail head on the mast hook will be released. Boy I don't want to have to get up on my boat, finally righted after a lot of hard grunt work, only to discover now I've got to pull a heavy, wet sail back up onto the hook, all the while bouncing around in heavy water. Plus I hate the thought of swimming around under water with my spinnaker lines, downhaul lines, and mast rotator lines hanging all over the place waiting to get tangled up in. Sounds like a bad dream to me.

Thinking this through, really for the first time, reminds me I don't ever want my boat to turtle. I'm very interested in everyone's thoughts regarding these questions and observations.

Thanks,
Daniel