Most of you have spoken against tethering yourself to the boat, but what if the tether also deployed a sea anchor?
Attach a line, say 25', to the boat, stow it in a bag on the tramp. Attach a sea anchor to the bitter end, then a short line from the sea anchor to your trapeze harness via a quick disconnect. If the sea anchor didn't slow the drift of the boat enough to get back aboard you could still disconnect and try swimming.
I went out in wind blowing 20 kts and gusting to 25kts last weekend (Mar 4th to be exact) (I did *not* sail my F16, instead I sailed a Wave.) I capsized (several times) and was amazed at how fast the wind on the trampoline was able to push the boat away from me. At one point it almost turned the boat turtle, despite the hobie bob! At any rate, the boat was moving faster than I could swim. Fortunately, I was able to grab something each time (side stay or mainsheet.)
I expect that people don't like the idea of being tethered to their boats, the line would be inconvenient and possibly even cause a capsize, and I expect that in most winds such a line is unnecessary. Pete, I don't think it matters if that line is attached to a sea anchor or anything else, I'm guessing people don't like the idea of keeping such a line untangled with all the other lines we have to deal with. However, such a precaution seems prudent if in a distance event with heavy winds and out of site of land.
I think some sort of
kill switch
may work better? Something that if you get lost overboard would pop a snap-shackle on the mainsheet/traveler connection?
Probably wouldn't work with sloop configuration...unless it also popped the jibsheet?
But again, would you go out singlehanding by yourself (no other boats) in 25 kts?
25kts is ballistic wind.
Yeh, that's a lot. If I'm by myself I won't usually leave the beach if I can see white caps! Along the coast we get down bursts associated with thunderstorms that can be unmanageable.
I'm mostly concerned with equipment failure or that simple gybe where you didn't enter with enough boat speed.
Last time I got in trouble it was before noon, 6-8 knots of wind. I'd launched from the ramp on Sanibel and was paralleling the causeway. A little squall came through with puffy wind up to about 12-15 but it had heavy rain so visibility dropped almost to zero. I didn't want to go through the bridge like that so I gybed away to let the squall pass. Sure enough, I started the gybe without enough boat speed, got hit by a puff and was on my nose and over in no time. Fortunately I didn't get separated and I was less than 100 yards from shore anyway. But still....
Yes, I was surprised that the Sailing Center let me take out one of their boats. They also let four teens from their 420 team take out a Getaway. That boat capsized and the mast broke.
The only damage I suffered was a broken top batten (and a lost shoe.)
GOOD post,learn more
a Wave just gets warmed up in 20, so 25 may not have been unmanagable... <img src="<>/smile.gif" alt="smile" title="smile" height="15" width="15" />