What do you do when your bow stuffs?

well, now, what if I have my very OWN fat bastard!

He prolly borrowed Jake's cape. <img src="<>/smirk.gif" alt="smirk" title="smirk" height="15" width="15" />

I donno man

Have you seen Mike's moustasche?

Thats skill embodiment right there.

Chris Ford did that on my P-19, acted as if it was S.O.P. and kept on trimming. He's the man.Your alright too, Mike.

And your's ACTUALLY Sails.

You know Todd when you're right you're right, I was out of line you are in a class all by yourself.

Thanks Ding, your a class act.

I've gotta get a job. I just looked at my post count.

and we're still waiting for something insightfull. <img src="<>/grin.gif" alt="grin" title="grin" height="15" width="15" />

Todd, I don't know how many times to tell you this, come back to the H16. Then you only have two options and your life will be much easier:

If your crew weight is under 400 lbs, you'll never stuff it to the crossbar, you'll be swimming before it ever goes that far.

If your crew weight is over 400 lbs, let everything out and hang on to the rear corner, you'll probably save it.

Mike

hahah!

with a spin out???????

I have flown around a few forestays and not capsized in my day.. but never with spin

I'm glad Beth is teaching you new words, now you just need to get Matt Bounds to help you with your spelling.

You have to go way out there to clear the spin....

Back to the question;

My 1st answer would be to get an Infusion! but you've already done that. if there's one boat where this is not an issue - it's the infusion. Something must be wrong..

Are you using a knackered spinny? you were trying to get an old one for training, is this the one? If it is a blown sail, the air can't travel out the leech.

If the spinny sheeting angle is too far AFT, the sail will twist which will induce pitch. The leech needs to be tight so that one armful of sheet released will open the WHOLE leech

make sure that you have the main sheeted tight - any twist is a killer offwind. traveling out is ok as long as sheet is tight.

Don't try and sail on one hull in a big blow, bear off a bit and get the windward hull bouyancy into play.

Spend a month on the old nacra F18 - you will learn loads about survival downwind!

I yell at the crew and then start righting the boat.

+1

I only loan that to my brother, who, while reaching with me at Spring Fever (2002?) on my 5.2 saw me pitchpole and went flying from the wire. He almost lands on the trampoline of a Hobie 18 in front of us but lands in the water...I managed to stay at the back of the boat...the sterns start their way back down (we're going to save it!) but my brother, who's bobbing briefly in the water, is still hooked into the trap line. As the mast comes back up, his trap yanks him clear back up out of the water, he scrapes his leg up on the forestay bridle, lands on the leeward side, unclips, ducks under the main, and we continue on.

but seriously - in response to this trimming / stuffing thing, I think different scenarios have different recovery methods but it all happens so fast, it's not realistic to get it right all the time. Clearly, sometimes, it's just not recoverable. However, I don't believe in easing anything at the time of the stuff. The boat is decelerating FAST (which is why it's trying to roll heads over heals). If you ease things (traveler, spin sheet...whatever), you're just trimming them to the quickly changing apparent wind. I like to hold the trim steady (sailplan is now over sheeted and stalled) until my rudders are back in the water and then ease quickly to get the boat accelerating again. You could ease and dump the instant the bow takes a dive but somewhere between where the sails are and where they are

dumped

is proper trim with more power....which is what you don't need at that instant.

Where was the 'chicken line' ? If the crew would have stayed back and trapped, would they have capsized as the boat rapidly decellerated?

I'm a bit slow, I pitchpoled twice visiting lakes trying to power through and back up like we do on the sea before someone on the forum pointed out that there was no wave to power through. Last time I had to wash mud of both bows, spin pole and mast. I'm clever now I bought Liz a PFD with extra padding so I dont hurt my knees when following her in.

Remain calm and make your way to the nearest exit.

Turn the boat towards the wind. If you try to bear away the rudder of the heeled boat will push your bows down. If you got a problem with heeling moment give sheet to the spi, but normally you lost so much speed, that there isnÄt too much pressure anymore. Of course you have to react in time, at least one rudder should be in the water. If you see the gust coming before the nose dives, bear away, if waves causing the nose diving change your course a bit. With this strategy I never pitchpoled with the spi, but I sailed forgiving boats (at least I think thez are forgiving)

Cheers,

Klaus

Rofl, I've done the same sailing the 5.2 solo. Going around the top mark, from upwind to downwind mode on the same tack I stuffed both bows in a gust, flew around the forestay, took a swim under the bridles and landed (hard) on the front beam. I unclipped, rolled under the boom, reclipped on the crew trap handle and continued on... To this day I still wonder how I recovered from that one.