Capsized last weekend solo and had a chance to see if I could right it solo. No go. I was in the mist of trying the garbage bag over the shoulder, but didn't have enough water in it. By then, I had one motorboat, a H16 and the beachstaff jetski offering help, so with a lift of the mast, my experimenting with the bag was over.

After the fact, I'm thinking I probably needed at least 5 gallons of water to make it work.

I'm trying to do the math, but I'm not sure of the weight and moment of a capsized Blade. My guess is 20 Kg at 14 feet. To offset that, I have 138 Lbs at 3 feet. It just seems like I need quite a bit of water at 5 feet to make it work. Anybody know what weight and moment I should be using for the rig?

I'd prefer not to have to install a righting pole, but I definitely need to do something, because on weekdays, no one may see me and it's a long way across the lake.

138 lbs body weight (63 kg) ?

You are a light fellow.

I'm more heavy myself but I think 70-75 kg persons can right the F16's with alu masts.

In your case about 5 gallons of water (19 kg) should do it for sure, total 82 kg. I'm guessing that about 3-4 will be sufficient though.

Probably best you can do is get a pully setup and a specilized bag that is easy to fill to the required amount. I refer to other for this as I never needed it. I'm about 85 kg.

Wouter

I find a canvas bag works best (or a pillow case -- yes it'll leak, but not so quick that you can't use the water within). The plastic garbage bags don't work as well because they'll burst as you pull them over your shoulder with any substantial amount of water.

Thats right, been there done that. Good thing my body weight can bring it up, but I do need some wind to do so. Jaime, you remember when I capsized at the seminar? Barely enough wind to help me bring the boat up.

Try one of those righting bag rigs or like Terry said a Pillow case.

Had the opportunity to right my boat a couple days ago. I figured out what I did wrong trying to right the 4.9 this past winter. When I threw the righting line over the hull, I didn't go behind the sidestay. This gave enough pull forward that I couldn't stand on the board for more than 5 seconds.

I repositioned the righting line and after 7.5 seconds of hiking the Blade came back on her feet.

The sad part is I didn't notice it was also on the trailing edge of the upper board. Need to tune that board now <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Where did you reposition the righting line?

It was all in the throwing over the hull. It is still tied to the mast base. I just now make sure that I throw it aft of the sidestays. Previously, it would have been thrown over at the front beam. I was wondering why I couldn't stay on Rick's boards for long.

My last boat had the righting line strung under the tramp.

Neglecting that you are bigger than I, what is more important: A. leaning off the hull at a angle that is almost parallel to the water or B. leaning off the daggerboard, but not being as good of an angle as you can get off the hull?

I couldn't get the mast past horizontal when standing only on the hull, no matter how low I was hiked out.
Standing on the boards provided a lot more gratification. I think a lot of that is just the fact that you are standing on a lever that is trying to rotate the upper hull to vertical (bringing the mast with it. The lower hull defines the axis of rotation. Standing on the hull has no rotational effects.

Folks,
I would advise against standing on the cenreboard.
Regards,
Phill

From my limited experiance at a mere 90 kilos its not the weight of the mast /sail that is the problem, but the stiction of the sail to the water. Dead smooth water, almost no wind, my Stealth is a bitch to right, about 5 knots of wind and the smallest of a ripple and its a doddle. Any clues on how to break this stiction as the mast comes up to about 300mm from the water and then the sail just seems glued to the water.

Different idea here, in landrover pull me out of the mud situations we all use a great big bunchy line ie little baby 4 wheel drive sets off as fast as he can with very short bungy line getting tighter, the bungy finally says enough is enough and then stops the baby 4 x 4 but at this point the pulling power is about 4 times that of the baby 4 x 4 on its own. Now we could use the same philosphy here. Tie a bungy off and then lean back gaining momentum until you stop just short of the water, I bet the pulling power is probably twice that of just leaning on a rope. Has anybody tried it <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

The early windsurfer rig 'pull up' lines were stretchy polyester and I found them comfortable and easy to use. Although I do recall that once the sail overcame the 'stiction' it came out of the water pretty quick. By contrast, when on holiday last year in Greece, the uphauls on the boards available were all prestretch. I know I'm getting older, but I had a hell of a time trying to pull up a 6.0m sail!!

Your post, Wayne, has just given me a 'eureka' moment - now I think I know why it was so difficult compared to what I remember <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

John,

when windsurfing I assume you let the sail 'slide' forwards a bit just as you startet applying tension to the uphaul? I find it much easier to get the sail ut again with that little slide in the beginning, if it is not windy enough to waterstart.


When righting the T, we let loose downhaul, mainsheet and traveller. This makes it very much easier to get the process started as the main sheds water easier/faster.