I would imagine if I were out uni-sailing I'd be on a uni-rig boat (like an F16, WAVE, or something). I've only sailed an N20 once or twice solo, and it was in a lake setting.

If I were out with crew, that's a different issue..

Good reason to always surface with a decent residual PSI in your tank ... You never know when you'll need to duck under to save yourself from freighters or partying yahoo's out on the water.

I keep forgetting about it - but I had a pocket sewn into the bottom of my F18 trampoline to house a drag chute (aka "drift sock") that I could clip to the dolphin striker, run a line through another carabiner freshly clipped to the forestay, and then tossed in the water. The idea is that it slows the boat moving through the water and keeps the bows pointed into the wind while capsized and immediately after righting. You should be able to reel it back in from the line clipped to the dolphin striker once you have everything sorted. If you have to get undeway quickly (to retrieve a sailor), just leave the drift sock pulled up the forestay bridle and deal with it later. This could come in useful if one of us gets separated from the boat. I keep forgetting to buy the drift sock to try it out.

Todd Hart fell off my boat in the GT300 one year. The seas were so big, I lost sight of him pretty fast...as I was flipping over. Luckily the waves were big enough that I was able to right the N20 by myself. By that time, one other team nearly ran him over, then stopped to pick him up. We then coordinated coming together and Todd was able to step back onto my boat. I still can't believe we were successfull on the first try in waves that big. That was a fun day. I think the team that picked him up was more freaked out about the situation than we were. Before the other team snatched him up, I just figured I would take the boat into shore and waite for him to wash up....like garbage.

i had a little incident that shook me up a few years ago. I had only had my 5.5 for a little while, and was still learning how to sail it (big upgrade from my TheMightyHobie18)

We had just left a beach front tiki hut with food and drinks (Shells). the wind and waves were picking up as we left, but it seemed very manageable.

Belly full of great food, and a few rums in me, I jumped on the wire while sailing (west) out the Sand Key Pass. as i got into the gulf and headed north. my cat got turned around in a wind shift, and pretty fierce current change, and the boat capsized on top of me while on the wire.

I was getting tossed around with the surf pretty badly. I was trying to get my righting bag together but another cat was trying to give me some "assistance" from the water. he was trying to sail by me, grab the mast head, and lift it up a few feet. First attempt he ran into and got tangled in my spin bridal wires, second attempt he ran into my spin pole, third attempt he hit and dented my mast, 4th attempt he actually grabbed it and by then i had my bag full of water.

As the cat righted, the rudders landed and ended up in the water, and the jib filled with air ... the boat took off on me.

I held onto the righting line with all i had, and did a hand over hand climb back to the boat. I struggled to get on the still moving boat and was JUST able to get on the boat. I was completely drained of strength at this point.

Everyone around me (on other cats) was yelling that i was heading right into a wooden pilling (swim area markers off clearwater beach). When i tried to steer away, i found out that my main & travler sheets had wrapped around my travler car while capsized and i could neither steer nor unsheet. I frantically untangled the mess and was able to steer away at the last second.

the next hour or so home was a rough beat to weather. I was so drained, that i sailed main only, and not sheeted hard. This just made the wave action worse, and my spin snuffer basket would "dip" into the wave in front of me, bend down and then literally spring up and shoot the water into the air and rain down on me.

lessons learned:
Don't capsize
if that fails
furl the jib when righting (or sheet it hard to middle)
If your friend runs into your boat more than 1 time.. ask him to stop
don't wear loose fitting pfd in waves, esp when soaking wet
dont underestimate the tide running n-s when you are sailing e-w

I might add to that (and one that I've learned) - make sure the boat is ready to sail before you right it. I.e., rudder cross bar not flipped over (Nacra style), sheets untangled and ready to go, sails eased, etc.

Awesome garbage.
One thing I noticed trying to swim to the boat with all that crap you're wearing, really slows you down. I had a vhf, epirb and all the other required stuff. I still would have headed to the beach before using any of it. The other thing I learned is don't use suspect line for YOUR trap if the boat owner tells you what is there is fine.

Safety on the beach counts?
I touched electrical cables while raising the mast once... Isolated cables so nothing happened, but I feaked out.. I always had the warning in mind but it's so rare that in practice it's something you don't really pay much attention. The embarrassing part is that electrical safety is totally within my job description...

I was stepping the mast solo, so still on topic...

I think I recall it was your trap line that you insisted on using that broke. Never the less, that was a pretty fun day, Todd. Aside from you wounding your paw.

Yep, That's what I meant. Should have left it the F#%$ alone. That was a fun day. Steve was hilarious, He was wigging out. Juke was cool as could be.

+1.
Had i checked the mainsheet/traveler line... this would have been much better

I'm guilty of not getting things tidy as well. Too engrossed in pulling it back up.

I have noticed its been less of an issue having all my sheets trimmed as short as possible.

I also have a 20 foot line attached to the dive sausage so I can inflate it and send it to the surface while I'm finishing decompression. Can't remember if it came that way or if I added it later...

Not like a freighter could do anything if they did see that little orange thing, but it might get the attention of smaller boats who could alter course.

I agree 100% on both points. Even with minimal sailing apparel and a PFD, don't expect to swim any faster than your average puppy. I consider myself a relatively strong swimmer, but I can barely keep up with a 2-knot drift with my gear on.

And an old habit from fire-rescue days is that I would be so embarrassed to declare an emergency (and have my staff come pick my keister up) that it had to be something akin to an amputation, open head injury, sucking chest wound or the like to pick up the phone...

So if shore is in sight and I'm not currently being eaten by a shark, I'd probably save the VHF or cell phone until I was standing on the beach (other than to perhaps call Race Control and let them know I'm okay and will coordinate retrieval later on)

And if I was being eaten by a shark, my stuff floats so someone could probably get a free GPS, VHF and peanut butter sandwich...

You're assuming sharks don't like peanut butter.

Apparently they do. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2djs-hy4s8k