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What if there’s a gust of wind? Will the boat capsize?
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What direction are you sailing? If the wind gusts the beginning sailor will want to pull in on the line controlling the sail (sheet in). The best thing to do is loosen up and dump the wind, in other words “let everything go.” Don’t actually let go, but relax a little. The boat will not capsize if you control the sail and shift weight and steer up a bit into the wind, as the boat will slow and stop as you steer into the wind, also called “going into irons.”
Don’t be afraid to capsize, early lessons include standing next to the boat in shallow water and use the halyard to pull the boat over onto its side. Make sure the sheet is not tied off and that the daggerboard is fully inserted. Work around to the bottom of the boat and push the daggerboard down to right the boat. Climb back aboard.
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Clark and Skipper
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Strongly agree that learning to treat capsizing as part of life is fundamental in dinghy sailing. ?It was my great good fortune to be taught at a place with that philosophy, instead of the club across the river that said to sit on top of your turtled boat and wait to be picked up.
The link that was posted below starts out with two statements (about avoiding capsize) that don’t necessarily apply. ?First of all, it talks about the stability of a keelboat, and a Sunfish is anything but that. ?The only ballast is you, so keeping the boat rightside up depends on your alert response to the amount of wind in the sail. ?You respond in two or three ways:
— if the gust is sudden and brief, and your heading gives you room to let the sail out sufficiently, then rather than turn the whole boat into the wind (the other statement that may not apply), you just loosen the sheet and let the sail spill the wind.
— if the wind increase is sustained and you want to take advantage of it and go faster, you can keep the sail sheeted in but move your body weight farther out to counterbalance it. ?Be ready to come back in quickly if the wind dies!
— if you’re going in a direction where there’s not enough sheet length to slacken the sail, then you do need to turn into the wind, at least enough that you have room (sheet length) to let the sail empty. ?But be careful — if you have the centerboard down and you turn too quickly, the turn itself will roll the boat in the same direction the wind is pushing it. ?(Known as “tripping on your centerboard.”) ?So it’s generally good not to have the board too far down when you’re sailing at an angle that’s downwind very much. ?In those directions you don’t need the board much anyway.
The Sunfish has a boom whose tip slants reasonably high above the boat. ?But if you go spend time in another kind of dinghy whose boom is lower, there’s another way you can trap yourself, too (and you might even manage it with a Sunfish, I haven’t tried) — if:? — you haven’t responded in time to keep the boat from heeling over,? — and you’re moving along at a significant speed,? — and the sail is out far enough that the boom has begun to drag in the water,?
then loosening the sheet can’t save you, because the drag of the water itself on the outer corner of the sail will keep your sail tight even with the sheet released. ?Beginners who have this happen to them are going in the drink, and can end up wondering why it didn’t help to loosen the sheet. ?(In the desperation of getting rolled, it’s hard to be very analytical about everything going on.) ? This is probably one reason that the small sails sometimes issued to beginners on windy days are cut at an angle that holds the boom high. ?(Another reason may be to reduce the chance of the boom knocking you on the head in a gybe.)
And beginner or not, there may not be much you can do at this point — the only two things, but I’m not sure I’ve succeeded with either of them, are (1) hike out really hard and try to pull the boat flat enough to get the boom out of the water (but since you’re dealing with a gust that’s rolled you to begin with, good luck with that…) ?and (2) if you did leave your board down, then counterintuitively, you may be able to roll back up a bit if you turn sharply downwind — the flip side of the caution I mentioned earlier.?
Even if this succeeds, you’ll be in a kind of undefined situation, pointed strongly downwind with a sail too full. ?If you have enough sheet length available, you may still be able to let the wind out; if not, and you’re clear of other boats or obstructions, your best option may be to gybe and try to stabilize yourself on the other tack.
Have fun learning to use the wind!
Crispin
———————————— What direction are you sailing? If the wind gusts the beginning sailor will want to pull in on the line controlling the sail (sheet in). The best thing to do is loosen up and dump the wind, in other words “let everything go.” Don’t actually let go, but relax a little. The boat will not capsize if you control the sail and shift weight and steer up a bit into the wind, as the boat will slow and stop as you steer into the wind, also called “going into irons.”
Don’t be afraid to capsize, early lessons include standing next to the boat in shallow water and use the halyard to pull the boat over onto its side. Make sure the sheet is not tied off and that the daggerboard is fully inserted. Work around to the bottom of the boat and push the daggerboard down to right the boat. Climb back aboard.
Check out this flyer Learn To Sail in 3 Days and keep the questions coming??
Cheers
Clark and Skipper
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Our book?
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I dread capsizes because I'm not exceptionally young or fit and when I have gone over, climbing back in after righting the boat in deep water has been a huge struggle. After a couple of attempts I get too tired. So for now I sail only in a shallow cove where I can literally stand up and ?walk the boat back to shore.
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When I was younger (and more fit) I could sometimes work it so that I could move from the top of the dagger board directly onto the boat as it was coming back upright.? Though this was on a sail fish.? Took my kids out on it a couple of times as well -- they could just hang on to the splash rail on the high side and ride the boat back up.
I've considered rigging some sort of foot stirrup?that I could use to get back onboard with less effort.? Thinking about doing it on a kayak as well.
I dread capsizes because I'm not exceptionally young or fit and when I have gone over, climbing back in after righting the boat in deep water has been a huge struggle. After a couple of attempts I get too tired. So for now I sail only in a shallow cove where I can literally stand up and ?walk the boat back to shore.
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One thing to try if you get tired and can’t get back on is to hang on the bridle and tiller, grab the sheet and sail back to shore with the Sunfish dragging you behind. Might be a lifesaver as it was for one gent who had a mild cardiac event in a similar dinghy, he got back to shore and was able to call for help.
On Friday, May 8, 2020, Shawn L < shawn@...> wrote: When I was younger (and more fit) I could sometimes work it so that I could move from the top of the dagger board directly onto the boat as it was coming back upright.? Though this was on a sail fish.? Took my kids out on it a couple of times as well -- they could just hang on to the splash rail on the high side and ride the boat back up.
I've considered rigging some sort of foot stirrup?that I could use to get back onboard with less effort.? Thinking about doing it on a kayak as well.
I dread capsizes because I'm not exceptionally young or fit and when I have gone over, climbing back in after righting the boat in deep water has been a huge struggle. After a couple of attempts I get too tired. So for now I sail only in a shallow cove where I can literally stand up and ?walk the boat back to shore.
-- Kent B. Lewis
(850) 449-4841
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Cheers
Clark and Skipper
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Mark Suszko wrote:
“I dread capsizes because I'm not exceptionally young or fit and when I have gone over, climbing back in after righting the boat in deep water has been a huge struggle. After a couple of attempts I get too tired. So for now I sail only in a shallow cove where I can literally stand up and ?walk the boat back to shore.”
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My club (in normal times) conducts sailing lessons for adults using Sunfish sailboats. We get a wide range of ages and fitness levels. One thing we do for people who have difficulty getting in the boat after a capsize is to create a stirrup by tying a 6 to eight foot length of line to itself with a bowline around the hiking strap. If you don't have a hiking strap a line secured to the top of the dagger board will do. In shallow water we adjust the stirrup so that when the line is flipped over the side of the boat it forms a loop that the sailor can put his or her foot in and step up to enter the boat. In normal sailing the line just lies on the bottom of the cockpit.
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If you don’t hike out hard enough, ease the sail out enough, yes, a Sunfish will capsize in a puff.? Capsizing is a normal part of sailing Sunfish.? Tip it over once near shore and right it to learn about the leverage you need and how it comes back up.? Anyone 85 pounds or more can right a Sunfish.? ? ?
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Yes, you need to be practiced at recovering from a capsize so it becomes second-nature. I'm an old fat guy so my capsizes are usually to windward: the wind quits and my weight and slow reactions means the boat comes over on top of me. It's always an unpleasant surprise. If you are a new sailor you want to be sure that you are wearing your PFD and that it has enough buoyancy to float you high in the water. There is nothing worse than being too tired to climb back in the boat.? ALSO: It helps to ensure that your spar and mast are sealed and plugged so they don't fill with water.? Sail smart! Sail Safe!? Tom = Mudshark - #35083
On Sunday, May 17, 2020, 9:28:10 PM EDT, turluck <gail@...> wrote:
If you don’t hike out hard enough, ease the sail out enough, yes, a Sunfish will capsize in a puff.? Capsizing is a normal part of sailing Sunfish.? Tip it over once near shore and right it to learn about the leverage you need and how it comes back up.? Anyone 85 pounds or more can right a Sunfish.? ? ?
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Any dinghy I sail in, I add a mast tip float to prevent turtling. ?This can be a dock fender or something else, but I inherited a nice cordura sack made for containing a gallon bleach bottle or gallon milk jug. Milk jugs are fragile so the tougher bleach bottle is what I recommend, and the handle on one lets you tie a line thru it.
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My jug of choice for its durability is the ones they sell windshield-schpritzer fluid in. ?They’re thick and tough, less brittle than I’ve sometimes had bleach jugs be. ?I carve scoops from them for bailers — hadn’t thought of them for mast-head floats.
I’d be interested to take my boat into wading depth and turn it over sideways to see how much buoyancy is needed on that long a lever. ?(Just because it feels inelegant to have a whole gallon up there. But having internal halyards, my mast is definitely not airtight.) ?I imagine the size of float needed may have a fair amount to do with hull shape and not just the weight and displacement of the mast itself, so I think a test would be in order. ?(Maybe, if it’d be big enough, I might fasten a styrofoam sandwich around the mainsail headboard — seems like that might feel more streamlined.) ?Never needed to think about it when I was 30 to 40 and turtling wasn’t hard to deal with, but now being 70, while I think I could still deal with it, I guess I should think more about it.
One class of guys who?really?need to be serious about mast-head floats is catamaran sailors, because a turtled catamaran is a dire predicament. ?I know of two guys sitting on their turtled Hobie who drifted out of sight from a Pacific beach and were not seen again.
But I do have side-rail buoyancy tanks on my dinghy, so when it's upside down it might as well be a narrow catamaran. ?(Mine are custom, on an early Tech Dinghy, but I believe current Techs do have them. ?Same idea as on 420’s or 505’s.)
One thing I did, even back then — reminiscent of the stirrup idea but for a different purpose — was to take a ten-foot scrap of old soft fat line that was easy on the hands (mainsheet off some bigger boat I guess), and tie it around the foot of my mast so that if I did have trouble righting a turtled boat, I could duck under the leeward side and fish that line out, fling it over the hull to windward, and go stand on the windward rail with that line to hang onto, so that I could lean my full weight outward, which you can’t do if your hands are on the centerboard. ?(Righting from the windward side, as I guess is standard, so that as the sail comes up it weathervanes instead of filling with wind and flipping the boat on top of you.)
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Any dinghy I sail in, I add a mast tip float to prevent turtling. ?This can be a dock fender or something else, but I inherited a nice cordura sack made for containing a gallon bleach bottle or gallon milk jug. Milk jugs are fragile so the tougher bleach bottle is what I recommend, and the handle on one lets you tie a line thru it.
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Several folks have mentioned attaching pool noodles with zip ties to the upper boom and/or the top of the mast. Does anyone have any experience with the effectiveness of this?
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Cheers
Clark and Skipper
Our blog
Our book?
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I think pool noodles on the spar can work but consider if the mainsheet is released during capsize, then the weight of the boat means the spar floats but the mast will rotate down with the boat. Might not be quite as effective as a float at the top of the mast.
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Some people zip tie a swimming pool noodle around their gaff instead of the gallon bottle.? Doesn't take much to keep the Sunfish on its side.?
Difficult to seal the booms and mast.? Back in the day the mast came with cork plugs near top and bottom,? invariably,? they dried out and broke up.??
To drain the mast, drilling a large hole in the middle of the bottom mast cap works well.? Can flush it with fresh water if sailing in salt water,? too.?
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I zip tied thick pipe insulation onto the ends of both gaffe spars to address this problem.
Dave in Kansas
I think pool noodles on the spar can work but consider if the mainsheet is released during capsize, then the weight of the boat means the spar floats but the mast will rotate down with the boat. Might not be quite as effective as a float at the top of the mast.
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One other advantage for having it on the lower spar is that it provides some cushion when it hits yours head.
My son has been in a couple of regattas for FJ's that require them to wear helmets.??
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A friend suggested this to me and it seems to have worked just fine. Took the bottom mast cap off, split a couple ?pool noodles (the kind with a donut hole) down ?the length with a box cutter, wrapped it around it’s axis and gradually shoved it into the mast. Took a bit of effort ?but it does float what ?was not previously a water tight mast. Mark Wild
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On May 18, 2020, at 9:37 AM, turluck <gail@...> wrote:
? Some people zip tie a swimming pool noodle around their gaff instead of the gallon bottle.? Doesn't take much to keep the Sunfish on its side.?
Difficult to seal the booms and mast.? Back in the day the mast came with cork plugs near top and bottom,? invariably,? they dried out and broke up.??
To drain the mast, drilling a large hole in the middle of the bottom mast cap works well.? Can flush it with fresh water if sailing in salt water,? too.?
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That's a great idea, extra flotation without extra air drag!? I think I'll do it on the spars too.
On Mon, May 18, 2020 at 11:18 AM Mark Wild < wild0224@...> wrote: A friend suggested this to me and it seems to have worked just fine. Took the bottom mast cap off, split a couple ?pool noodles (the kind with a donut hole) down ?the length with a box cutter, wrapped it around it’s axis and gradually shoved it into the mast. Took a bit of effort ?but it does float what ?was not previously a water tight mast. Mark Wild Lake Michigan On May 18, 2020, at 9:37 AM, turluck <gail@...> wrote:
? Some people zip tie a swimming pool noodle around their gaff instead of the gallon bottle.? Doesn't take much to keep the Sunfish on its side.?
Difficult to seal the booms and mast.? Back in the day the mast came with cork plugs near top and bottom,? invariably,? they dried out and broke up.??
To drain the mast, drilling a large hole in the middle of the bottom mast cap works well.? Can flush it with fresh water if sailing in salt water,? too.?
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For that matter, a do it yourselfer could fill the mast and spars with that expanding foam that is sold in hardware stores.? Using the existing drilled holes and maybe adding a couple more.? A drain hole in the base and storing the mast
vertically would ensure what ever water that gets in there will drain out.? Remember the base of the mast never goes in the water even on a capsize.
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I am going to tape the joints on my alum ?Force 5 mast to see if it will float.? The only holes in this mast are about a 18 inches above the deck with very tight rivets mounting the hardware.? Might float w/o foam.? I have capsized it a
number of times and it has never turtled.? It is a bit harder to right than a sunfish because of the very long mast and sail..
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For those older sailors like me, I am going to fashion a short stirrup that can be hooked to the gunwale to make it easier to get back in the boat when you are in water over your head.? When the water warns a bit I’ll give it a try.
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Mr Mike
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Sent from for Windows 10
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From: Tom Leone
Sent: Monday, May 18, 2020 11:28 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [SunfishSailor] Questions From The First-Time Sailor
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That's a great idea, extra flotation without extra air drag!? I think I'll do it on the spars too.
?
On Mon, May 18, 2020 at 11:18 AM Mark Wild <wild0224@...> wrote:
A friend suggested this to me and it seems to have worked just fine. Took the bottom mast cap off, split a couple ?pool noodles (the kind with a donut hole) down ?the length with a box cutter, wrapped it around it’s axis and gradually shoved
it into the mast. Took a bit of effort ?but it does float what ?was not previously a water tight mast.
Lake Michigan
On May 18, 2020, at 9:37 AM, turluck <gail@...> wrote:
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Some people zip tie a swimming pool noodle around their gaff instead of the gallon bottle.? Doesn't take much to keep the Sunfish on its side.?
Difficult to seal the booms and mast.? Back in the day the mast came with cork plugs near top and bottom,? invariably,? they dried out and broke up.??
To drain the mast, drilling a large hole in the middle of the bottom mast cap works well.? Can flush it with fresh water if sailing in salt water,? too.?
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One concern about using the hardware store foam is that it doesn't like to set up in thick layers that don't see the air. You might find that it sets up at the ends and stays a gooey mess in the middle, unless you want to drill a bunch of holes, which seems risky. You could run a test by sealing the mast or boom to test its buoyancy. If it isn't sufficiently floaty with just air in the tube, we know that the foam will be heavier than air.
On Mon, May 18, 2020 at 12:13 PM Michael King < mrmike17@...> wrote:
For that matter, a do it yourselfer could fill the mast and spars with that expanding foam that is sold in hardware stores.? Using the existing drilled holes and maybe adding a couple more.? A drain hole in the base and storing the mast
vertically would ensure what ever water that gets in there will drain out.? Remember the base of the mast never goes in the water even on a capsize.
?
I am going to tape the joints on my alum ?Force 5 mast to see if it will float.? The only holes in this mast are about a 18 inches above the deck with very tight rivets mounting the hardware.? Might float w/o foam.? I have capsized it a
number of times and it has never turtled.? It is a bit harder to right than a sunfish because of the very long mast and sail..
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For those older sailors like me, I am going to fashion a short stirrup that can be hooked to the gunwale to make it easier to get back in the boat when you are in water over your head.? When the water warns a bit I’ll give it a try.
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Mr Mike
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Sent from for Windows 10
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From: Tom Leone
Sent: Monday, May 18, 2020 11:28 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [SunfishSailor] Questions From The First-Time Sailor
?
That's a great idea, extra flotation without extra air drag!? I think I'll do it on the spars too.
?
On Mon, May 18, 2020 at 11:18 AM Mark Wild <wild0224@...> wrote:
A friend suggested this to me and it seems to have worked just fine. Took the bottom mast cap off, split a couple ?pool noodles (the kind with a donut hole) down ?the length with a box cutter, wrapped it around it’s axis and gradually shoved
it into the mast. Took a bit of effort ?but it does float what ?was not previously a water tight mast.
Lake Michigan
On May 18, 2020, at 9:37 AM, turluck <gail@...> wrote:
?
Some people zip tie a swimming pool noodle around their gaff instead of the gallon bottle.? Doesn't take much to keep the Sunfish on its side.?
Difficult to seal the booms and mast.? Back in the day the mast came with cork plugs near top and bottom,? invariably,? they dried out and broke up.??
To drain the mast, drilling a large hole in the middle of the bottom mast cap works well.? Can flush it with fresh water if sailing in salt water,? too.?
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Signal Charlie
Steve King
turluck
