We got caught by a squall in the Great Texas that capsized us. When we tried to right the boat we found ourselves capsizing in the other direction. We opted to sit on the side of the hull while the squall passed overhead.

I'm sure these guys are not having their best day either:


http://www.vsail.info/2013/10/10/virbac-paprec-70-has-capsized-off-belle/

[Source: VIRBAC-PAPREC Sailing Team] This Thursday 10 October, at 13:00 hours, Jean-Pierre Dick and Roland Jourdain were sailing off Belle Ile on VIRBAC-PAPREC 70, training in 15-20 knots of wind with a view to the Transat Jacques Vabre. The boat overturned suddenly. The crew is safe and sound. The Cross, SNSM (lifeboat association) and technical team have gone to recover the crew and the boat.

In that top right photo, is that one of the crew being launched from the high side?

That's a long way to fall! I hope he hit the water and not the mast!

Looks like a flag to me. Easier to see if you right-click on the pic and open in a new tab or window.

But in the first pic, rudders don't appear to be pointing the right direction. Shouldn't she be heading down? Water spray kinda looks like she's on a beam reach at that point.

Hard to say - easy to armchair quarterback...

That's a flag. Three guys are in the center hull ****.

Video of the capsize

You can see one of the guys get ejected. The aft frame ALMOST comes down on him. Yikes! The other two pop out of a hatch under the hull after it flattens.

Damn! Looks like the driver kind of bounces into then out of the ****.

This s the 2nd time one of the MOD72's has capsized in recently.
In the video there is a hydraulic cylinder under the boom, maybe those thing are too slow for sheeting out quickly in an emergency.

Ok-- so please don't laugh ; NAH -- go ahead, it's cool.
I told Ya all that i'm a Mono-huller.

I got Numerous Hours on a land-sailor ; more than 1/2
in 25-30mph winds.

When the windward wheel comes up to a height where something
NEEDS to be done , like right now, i would turn the
land-boat down-wind and sheet Out.

If i JUST turn down-wind a few degrees, the windward wheel
will immediately go lower, but it won't Stay there unless
i sheet-OUT.

So when your windward hull raises to high, do Ya come off
the wind to lower it then sheet out ?

Bille

If your below a beam reach, yes. If somewhere near a beam reach (death zone) it becomes more a "which way feels like it will hurt less" kind of deal. The wave action can play into that scenario also.Sometimes it's sheet out AND dump traveler and sometimes it's just time to get wet.

They seemed to be reaching a bit but had the sails sheeted pretty hard on. I would think that heading up into the wind sharply would have been the thing to do there (easy to second guess from a helicopter view, though). It doesn't seem like he tried to steer much at all through the event.

I was amazed how far they went before they finally tipped over! Looked like they were going fast and then got a big puff, but didn't worry too much about it.

Looked like they were sailing on the side of the low hull for a long time and the didn't try to fix it. It didn't look like he was trying to go up or down to save it, just straight ahead.

Maybe they are so used to sailing it that far up on the edge they were thinking the puff would pass and it would come back down to normal?

It looks like the main trimmer tried to release the main as they were heading over but it never eases.

Maybe someone was sitting on the main sheet...

Yeah, that's my job...

I'm liking the lazy-boy recliner the helm is using. Hmm... wonder if I can get one of those on my boat.

Interesting linkage to the rudder. Never saw them move until the very end. Didn't see the boom move much either. Very strange...

When Spindrift went over this past summer, I think I read they use some kind of hydraulic sheet control that doesn't react very quickly in emergency.

I've read they have some sorta big red button near the helm that blows the main in a hurry in emergency. It appears that button doesn't work as well as it should.

How do you think these guys felt?

Part of me wondered if they didn't do that on purpose looking at the lack of reactions to that puff...but there's no way those guys would have taken such a bad fall if that were the case. Just watch the skipper closely. As he finally bails out of his lazy boy he takes what looks like a heck of a fall and I couldn't find him again.

The perils of helicopters filming you.

The question was : "So when your windward hull raises to
high, do Ya come off the wind to lower it then sheet out ?



Thanks for that !!
I've never used the tiller to correct the windward hull's
height yet ; always controlled with the sheeting so far, with
the heading remaining constant.
This info will help !!

Bille