we flipped our infusion for the first time today .she came up incridibly quickly but didn't turn head to wind and proceeded to take off with me holding the dolphin striker unable to get on and crew swimming after it . How do I ensure it turns head to wind and stops ?
I have a lot of practice capsizing <img src="<>/smile.gif" alt="smile" title="smile" height="15" width="15" />
1) make sure all sheets are eased.
2) before righting get you and the crew on the front of the lower hull to rotate the boat into the wind (at least 45 deg off the wind).
But the best thing is if either you or the crew can sit on the lower hull forward of the front beam as the boat is righting. Then stay on top and just jump on the tramp and steer into the wind. If you are both in the water and the breeze is on, I hope you are in good shape.
release the downhaul on the main and unclip the jib. I attach the jib clue to the block with an S hook so its easy to undo.
Thanks for the help ;we were lucky to be rescued before we hit a rather solid wall .But it makes you think what might happen in open water
We have had the same experience with our Infusion. Once it comes up it want to sail off despite best efforts to right into the wind. cracking the mainsheet off might be a solution that we have not tried yet, at least not to an extreme. We usually crack it off a few feet in the block to block distance. As Bo spoke of earlier we have found that having the crew sit on the bottom hull as it comes up puts him on the deck as the boat is righted. He then steers into the wind I come onboard between the tiller tie bar and the rear cross bar. It seams to be working pretty good but he does have to move mast to get to the tiller.
I think the problem is that the jib is to tight compared to the main. When this happens the boat wants to turn down wind.
The advice of unhooking the jib clew may be too extreme though. You can probably get away with letting the jib traveler out and keeping the main traveler tight.
In the past when the boat wants to take off after being righted, I have worked my way to the stern while under the boat (holding on to a rope like the righting line) and then turning the tiller while still in the water.
The trick of standing next to the crossbeam and moving to the top of the boat as it comes up works great. But, I don't see why the crew should be the one that gets to do that...
The crew gets to do that because he is typically lighter than us old fat skippers. Someone needs the weight to bring the boat the rest of the way up...
What Bo said.
I do that trick because my crew is lighter and I can lift my crew out of the water onto the boat really fast...
I have a hiking strap along the bottom of the tramp to facilitate getting to the back of the boat...Worrell veteran suggestion; unfortunately I know that it works great!
I have some experience in this situation - we were practicing one day in rather a lot of wind and when we righted our Tiger after a flip, the rudder arm was on the wrong side of the footstrap - making the boat bear off. The boat took off with us both holding on to the dolphin striker and body surfing. I let go to make a grab for a rudder arm to head her up - but the rotator line under the tramp was slack and caught me - leading to me missing the rudder arm. My crew body surfed under the boat about 1/3 of the way across the lake before the boat rounded up and he could climb on board.
We now put a lot of focus into getting the crew onto the hull as the boat is righted. They then stabilize the boat while the skipper climbs on.
Disconnecting the jib is overkill - I've never done this (even when righting in 20+ knots).
We carry a small fabric drogue in our tramp pocket and deploy it when the capsize is problematic - first and foremost if one sailor doesn't manage to reach the boat, but also if we don't manage to turn her head to wind by sitting on the bow, or when to close to rocks.
We have a long 6mm line attached to the capsize line, and initial deployment stops drift. We then tie the drogue to the bridle, and from that moment she lies quietly head to wind, almost no drift and plenty of time to prepare, overturn, climb aboard and even rest before reeling the drogue in and sailing on.
For our new boat we are considering sewing a dedicated drogue pocket on the bottom side of the trampoline.
I like the idea of a strap there to reach the rudders, we're adding that as well.
That is a very good idea!
That idea is from a multi worrell/tybee veteran AND I just used it again this weekend. It is good and cheap.
I saw some where, some time, that if you keep the main sheet tight and stand on the traveler, it will pop up and you can slip onto the tramp as the boat comes over....????
how big should the drogue be ?
Ours is about 2 feet diameter of the mouth. It has a flexible metal rim that folds up together with the fabric so it stuffs conveniently in the tramp pocket. It really slows the boat down, so smaller would probably be just as effective
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This was at the Australian nationals this year. Lucky they had a rescue boat to pick them up!!!
How do I embed the youtube vid??
Whats the dayglow velcro pocket on the underside of the Wildcat tramp for?
No good for the righting line