How to safely increase weight

Heavy sailing clothing, including multiple woolen jerseys is banned under the racing rules anyway. RRS 43.1a. This was introduced long ago because of the safety problems caused by excessive clothing, even multiple woolen jerseys. Neutral weight in the water it might be, but the more clothing you have on the quicker you run out of energy, especially if you're trying to move about in the water, so its a sensible rule, even though highly controversial when introduced.

Well worth having a session with the righting lines on a warm day: you may well find that some fairly subtle adjustments will make things a whole lot easier for her.

For example I found when I had a fairly extreme singlehander that setting the lines up so I grabbed the rope with it anchored at shroud and stern, so I was pulling on a loop, was much easier than just grabbing the end of the rope from the shroud. I'm sure length will be fairly critical for a youngster, and some sort of loop far easier to hold than just the end of a rope, even with knots in.

Originally posted by Eminoxon wasnt thinking of bulking her up, more along the lines of weight belts (!)

Probably isn't very safe or healthy to go trying to change her weight at this age, might not be the best thing for her in the long run. As the others have said, I'd wait it out until she's bigger or work on her technique. Technique is a pretty big part, I've watched 2 girls right a 49er before, which is a task that pairs of 80kg blokes sometimes struggle with!

"I realise this sounds a bit unhelpful, but I reckon the best could just be to keep a good idea on her- and she'll soon be heavier and taller!"

How about a bit of buoyancy (an empty milk carton?) at the masthead so a capsize doesn't become a turtle