Daniel,

I think I'll need to amid that I suffer from the condition called "Dutch bluntness". Often things people overhere say whats on their mind although it is never meant to be hurtful. Of course other cultures may and will value it differently.

Most important aspect is that I always hang together with the other sailors overhere, meaning the Inter-17 and FX-one guys and after racing we discuss the race and pat the best achiever on the back with a job well done. And from time to time we make fun of eachother in a cynical way. When I'm out of breath after walking my boat up the sandy incline they say :"I thought you had a ligtweight boat ?". Of course I have to even the score now and then. But all in good fun.

But the only thing I never found funny was the fact that some dealers will say anything to make a sale. In other cases will they NOT say certain things in order to make a sale.

Call me a die-hard sceptic but if 4 earlier versions weight in above 150 kg (330 lbs) then for some reason I have not much faith in the 5th version being miraculously lighter.

The reason that I started with the F16 class together with several other was for a large part because I didn't believe anymore that we solo sailors would get anything like we wanted (or needed) from the big boat builders. Better to get out and make yourself what you want.

I think it pains me to see some people buy a boat for a price that also could have gotten them a lot better alternative. And I really mean that. As a design that is.

But enough of that ! Lets get to the issue at hand because just as here on my home water I think we should help eachother get the most enjoyement out of cat sailing.

>>You might be right that I need a water bag, because I'm like your friend.


That is what he told me. Honestly I have not much experience with any righting aid.

Another option is to go sailing with a buddy (or some buddies) on another boat. I mean having two boats on the water. When bth your sailing skills are good enough than the other boat can sail up to you and have the crew jump ship and help right the boat. If the other crew is also singlehanding then he can sail up to the tip of your mast and lift it up from the water and give it a small push upwards. This allows nearly everybody to be righter (further) singlehandedly.

I've heard various reports on righting bars, little better reports on righting bags, but best reports seem to come from shroud extenders. The last bit allows the upper shroud to be extended allowing the platform to be righting a little before the mast is pulled from the water. In several cases this seems enough to have the boat solo righted. Downside is that the shrouds are really slack and thus won't hold the mast in place anymore. You'll need a captive mastfoot connection for this method to work and tensioning your rig back up after righting could be a handful. Personally I would opt for the righting bag.

There are also some other rigting aids around, like gary's righting system, but I don't know them at all. Ask others. I do understand however that these systems provide a bigger addition to your righting moment then the other aids and therefor may be very attractive to you. You should look into that.

My other comment about "when you start out on a mediocre basis" was also refering to the fact that really a design that can't be righted singlehandedly with just the righting line and good technic is relatively limited in the available solutions. There is simply not much you can do that is ALSO practical.

In emergencies you can opt to drop your mainsail (lowers about 8 kg of weight out of a total of about 30 kg for the whole rig = 25 % or more ) Now you should be able to right it and hopefully rehoist the mainsail and get on your way. But like I said ; this is only a viable option for emergencies not practical for day to day sailing.

The basis is that the design was never optimized in its weight distribution to be righted singlehandedly and THAT is a formidable (design) flaw. Please forgive me this statement. After all 10, kg body weight difference (22 lbs) on the righting line only makes about 1.1 kg (2 lbs) difference at the mast tip. Making the mast only 2.2 kg lighter (4 lbs) results in the same 1.1 kg tip weight difference. Making the hulls lighter is also achieving more than that at the mast tip weight. Meaning that even small improvements in the design can account for far more improvement in singlehanded righting then any after market righting aid can achieve. Point is that you should start with a basic design that comes relatively close to where you need it to be and then most righting aids are easily enough to tip the scales when needed. Some designs however are pretty far away from where they need to be in the first place and the scope of rigting aids is barely enough to bridge the gap. I'm afraid that there is no kind way of expressing this.

Of course non of this is helping you much. Let me see what else is available.

....

Only option left is to take somebody along and sail the boat as a doublehander. I'm sorry if this seems like a hurtful statement but I'm serious here.


>>>Hey before I forget, read what I asked Jake about loosening the downhaul. I'm interested in your thoughts about that. I'm don't get how that would help matters.


I can't much explain why it helps but only attest that it does help. To be honest I never looked at it in much detail. I tried it and it works so I do use this trick when needed (light winds and flat water). That is all I needed to know.


Good luck

Wouter