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Chris 249 View Drop Down
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    Posted: 05 Dec 14 at 11:21am
Originally posted by alstorer

I can heartily recommend not falling boot, head or hand first onto the window in the mainsail.

I can recommend it too. The worst time was when I had met a brilliant sailing-mad woman and we went out sailing on her high-performance cat about the fifth time we met. I went through her main when we tipped it in.

Oh, the anguished feelings of going foot-first through the expensive mainsail of the woman you are trying to impress. It's amazing how one can feel emotions with such clarity and depth when you're four feet under and going fast through mylar.....

Oh, the joyous feelings when, through the bubbles of shame, you see her going through the same hole half a second later, and realise that you don't have to take all the blame......

A dozen years later, we now have a cat with a tougher main, and she's gone through my Tasar's training mainsail so we're all square.




Edited by Chris 249 - 05 Dec 14 at 11:23am
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GarethT View Drop Down
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Posts: 714 		Post Options Post Options   Quote GarethT Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Dec 14 at 9:51am
Originally posted by iGRF

Caption competition if ever there was.

"Quick dear get the washing in before it gets wet"


"See...... The kite does lift the bow. "
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kneewrecker View Drop Down
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Posts: 1586 		Post Options Post Options   Quote kneewrecker Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Dec 14 at 9:44am
Originally posted by maxibuddah

I like that but about gracefully and quietly. I was sailing my 300 once in a drifter, was sat right up the front and for no apparent reason the boom suddenly swung across the boat trapping me against the side deck. I had no chance as I was going so slowly the rudder did nothing. Oh well, I'll do this as quietly add possible and hope no one notices and slid in backwards. Unfortunately the other 300 sailor noticed and cheered very loudly, which of course travelled across the water for all to hear

I lost my footing standing up in my phantom once- to the onlookers it looked like I ran out of the boat backwards.... they jeered, and even with the inevitable bad start I still got the bandit moniker upon returning to shore.
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iGRF View Drop Down
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Posts: 6499 		Post Options Post Options   Quote iGRF Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Dec 14 at 9:23am
Caption competition if ever there was.

"Quick dear get the washing in before it gets wet"
Snow Equipment Deals    New Core Kite website
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maxibuddah View Drop Down
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Posts: 1760 		Post Options Post Options   Quote maxibuddah Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Dec 14 at 8:42am
I like that but about gracefully and quietly. I was sailing my 300 once in a drifter, was sat right up the front and for no apparent reason the boom suddenly swung across the boat trapping me against the side deck. I had no chance as I was going so slowly the rudder did nothing. Oh well, I'll do this as quietly add possible and hope no one notices and slid in backwards. Unfortunately the other 300 sailor noticed and cheered very loudly, which of course travelled across the water for all to hear
Everything I say is my opinion, honest
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alstorer View Drop Down
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Posts: 2899 		Post Options Post Options   Quote alstorer Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 Dec 14 at 7:20am
it's all very well if you're sailing something narrow beamed and low powered. However, this situation occured because both helm and crew attempted to climb over the wing too far back:

Note they weren't "too far back" when it was upright- the boat requires all moveable ballast to the rear in those conditions. Better, when you do get a blown down, to accept the fate and make preperations to enter the water gracefully. I can heartily recommend not falling boot, head or hand first onto the window in the mainsail.
-_
Al
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Chris 249 View Drop Down
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Posts: 2041 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Chris 249 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Nov 14 at 8:59pm
Originally posted by fab100

. Even If I spent the next 5 years trying to master sailboards (ain't gonna happen) I'd still be falling in the water left right and centre. If you then saw me in action, you'd wonder (probably vociferously) why all the splashing about. Which would be fair enough - you'd diagnose that I was reacting the wrong way. aka Swimming = need for education

Or to look at it another way - in some classes it's said that you can only learn how NOT to capsize, by capsizing. One champ said to me "it takes 300 capsizes to learn how to sail a 12 Foot Skiff", and if that's true then it's arguably better to get all 300 capsizes over as soon as possible, rather than spending 7 seasons ruining every race by capsizing every race. It's faster to find where the limits are by going over them. 

If you were splashing about after 5 years of windsurfing it's possible you're rubbish but also possible that you're still trying new things, or trying new ways of doing things, which is great. I think that one of my problems with boards at the moment is that I'm not splashing enough. If I want to get serious again in them, I'm going to have to swim more so that I can learn more.

We just got a new and rather quick and high powered boat. We've stuck it in repeatedly (but only during our two training days, not our two racing days) and therefore learned an enormous amount. So far we've sailed it four times, capsized four times, but got the boat going much faster than we thought we could in such a short period. That's not a bad equation.

Obviously, other people may prefer another approach but there's certainly room for different styles and plans of attack. Mind you, the way I've approached it does lend itself to a lot of humiliation, since I've managed to do every capsize either right off the club, or right next to the other club's starting line. Embarrassed  As someone said the other day "I've seen your new boat twice, and it's been on its side both times."


* and the club STILL has the results wrong despite the class rep pointing it out. Sigh! 






Edited by Chris 249 - 28 Nov 14 at 4:37am
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Chris 249 View Drop Down
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Posts: 2041 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Chris 249 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Nov 14 at 8:31pm
It looks to me as if his perch on the hull may have driven the stick into the mud in the first place, causing a simply capsize to become a long one. YMMV.
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Medway Maniac View Drop Down
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Posts: 2788 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Medway Maniac Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Nov 14 at 11:08am
Truly, all is not easy down-under:
Wilsonian SC
3000 Class
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Chris 249 View Drop Down
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Posts: 2041 		Post Options Post Options   Quote Chris 249 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Nov 14 at 10:59am
Now fab, I'll normally go along with the stuff you say, but not on this occasion.

There are classes where if you try to stay dry the boat will normally invert, and (in the alternative) will come up with a gutfull of water instead of a dry cockpit - the Tasar is one. Hanging onto a Tasar in a capsize is extremely slow (in my experience). I held onto our cat (copy of a Hurrican 5.9) in our last capsize because I was in an odd position, and that drove the mast into the mud.

Secondly, a lot of the time swimming is the fastest way to get from where you end up in a big stack, to where you need to be- and that time can be vital.

Thirdly, .... something. Something that would really clinch the argument. Something I've now forgotten, and pizza's coming out of the oven.

Fourthly*, even when you don't have to pretend there are hungry sharks in there, motivation is not always enough to keep you out of the water. When it all goes pear shaped and you end up swimming, it's good if it's familiar.

Of course, all this is assuming reasonable gear and water temperatures. But even in our puddle in winter (8 degrees water temp) I'd rather have the option of really knowing how to use swimming as a tool in recovery, even if it wasn't a tool that was normally used.

* yep, it really was fourth - I'd just parked idea No 3 for a while in the hope that I could remember what it was. I'm sure it was worth saying, even if no one else would.

Cheers
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