I am curious how well they work. I single a H-18. I have managed to figure out how to get it righted but if it ever went turtle I'd be on a long slow ride to Canada.

Why?,

Stand on the aft corner that is the most downwind, and the mast should come up to windward. A boat that is turtled can usually be righted again, unless the mast is stuck in the mud. I've had to remove my PFD, and swim down a mast, and pull it out of a muddy bottom putting my feet agianst that same muddy bottom for leverage! Kinda scary. However, a mast float will prevent this kinda thing, check out those guys at Delray Beach, with all the mast floats, milk jugs, etc.

I fully agree with Todd. The mast-head float prevents turtling from happening in the first place.

Robert

As you all probably know by now, I am strongly in favor of all beach cats having some sort of masthead flotation, and it is probably especially important for cruisers (non-racers) who tend to do a lot of sailing when there may not be other boats around. However, (and I think I have mentioned this before, too), there is one thing you should be aware of if you use a Hobie bob. I discovered this with our Hobie Waves -- the bob floats the tip of the mast so well that once the boat capsizes, it tends to go skating downwind faster than if the mast were digging into the water. So in the event of capsize, make sure somebody holds onto the boat, or it can quickly get away from you.
Of course, any boat can easily get away from you after it capsizes, so holding onto the boat or something attached to the boat is always the primary consideration. It's just that the bob helps the boat get away a little faster.

Here's a photo of my Prindle 18 fitted with a Baby Bob float. I haven't gotten it wet yet, so I don't know how well it works. Maybe we'll test it out in a couple weeks down in Key Largo. We mainly sail in a shallow lake, so our main concern was keeping the mast and sails out of the mud.

Jack Hoying
Fort Loramie, Ohio
Prindle 18 #1645
http://www.bright.net/~jmhoying/sailing/prindle.htm

I've been thinking of ways to deal with this. This is not a cure but on boats that have spin.halyards, if needed, you could tie your throw-able floatation cushion to the haylard and pull the cushion "down" to help float the mast.

Mike

Here's a product that was advertised in a 1980s Hobie Hotline. Does anyone remember seeing one in action?

Jack Hoying
Fort Loramie, Ohio
Prindle 18 #1645
http://www.bright.net/~jmhoying/sailing/prindle.htm

Would a discus shaped mast head float act as a "canard" and improve the performance of the mainsail?

GARY

Gary, you look different somehow.
Or maybe I should say, "Grandma, your teeth are so BIG!"

Anyway, I looked up the definition of "canard," and I'm not sure what you mean in the context of a masthead float.

I have one installed on my TheMightyHobie18 and it works great. I glassed mine in though, because the rivets cracked the mast slightly when I was squeezing them. I've also heard of them braking off when they hit the water if you're going fast enough.

Canard is duck in French (I think). I don't think the humane society would look kindly on this practice, but it would probably work. You'd have to train the duck quite a bit first . . .
Can anyone explain "modulus of elasticity"?

We have Hobie Bob's on our fleet of Hunter 140's at Sail Sand Point, www.sailsandpoint.org. It is a great addition for safety, and a real time saver when righting the boats. As part of the US SAILING training format, all classes are required to turn over the boats, then right them.

Caleb Tarleton, Sail Sand Point

I'm sure when the duck hits the water in a capsize, it would be screaming, "Aflack!"

Basically it's a measurement of how elastic a given material is. It's a constant for certain materials. Soft stretchy materials (like aluminum compared to steel) tend to have a high MOE. Hard brittle materials tend to have a low MOE. The different aluminum alloys have widely varying MOEs too.

That was tongue in cheek from another thread, but thanks. I'm just trying to work my way up to pooh-bah, plus it's Friday afternoon.
The more I think of the duck idea, the more I like it. It could swim the mast into position for righting, or, better yet, PREVENT capsize or pitchpole by flying upwind! Of course, it would only be a matter of time before some hotshot had a great blue heron up there (maybe Wouter can calculate the necessary wingspan to prevent a pitchpole).
Happy Friday everyone.

Al, your duck is on the verge of infringing upon my idea of an articulating masthead airfoil which would give lift to the top of the mast and help prevent capsize.

Well Mary, you're still safe. Someone already patented the duck.

yeah well...poo-bah isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Jake,

You got that the wrong way round, Aluminium has a lower modulus of elasticity (70GPa)(often called Youngs modulus), and steel has a higher modulus of elasticity (200 GPa).

When you see equations for stiffness the Modulus of Elasticity is often represented by the letter E.

It is basicly a measure of how far a material will stretch under a given load (stiffness). A mast made from a lower modulus of elasticity material would be less stiff.

My Materials Science Professor would be ashamed