Nephroid
Member
I wanted to share my first capsize experience on my Sunfish (actually any sailboat) yesterday afternoon. I was out on the local lake w/ my 9yr old daughter, a very windy day with winds blowing steadily at 20+ knots. We were flying up and down the lake and having a blast when a gust caught us awkwardly just as we were rounding up to tack - and we were both in the water before we knew it.
Now I had mentally prepared for this scenario many times and had seen countless Youtube videos on what to do. The one thing I didn't do was practice.
Once in the water, I first made sure my daughter was okay before untangling her from the lines. I made sure to let out the mainsheet all the way before swimming around to the hull. I grabbed the leading edge of the daggerboard, like I'd seen a million times before and pulled with all my might and...nothing. Despite all my efforts, I just couldn't get the sail out of the water. I swam back to the other side checked the lines again. No problems there. Back around; to the dagger board and even with all of my 165lbs hanging on it, I could not get the hull to rotate past 90 degrees. I repeated this 3-4 more times getting more tired with each attempt. Eventually the hull turtled completely. I climbed on the now inverted hull and was sure that the momentum of righting her from a turtle would be enough to bring her all the way around. But still no dice.
Fortunately my daughter was splashing happily a few feet away from me and didn't notice the frustration and worry stating to settle on my face. Finally in a last ditch attempt, I fully released the mainsheet from the bridle and also removed the other end from the ratchet block. That seemed to do the trick and with my last burst of strength she popped back up. We clambered back onboard, reconnect the sheets, bail out the cockpit and sail on... exhausted and more than a bit shaken.
I've continued to mull over the scenario since yesterday and I'm still struggling to understand why my sunfish was so difficult to right. Some of my leading thoughts so far:
I'm hoping folks on this forum can tell me what I did wrong or about any other tricks to make it easier next time. In the meantime I'm going to practice more capsizes and recovery drills till I get them right.
Now I had mentally prepared for this scenario many times and had seen countless Youtube videos on what to do. The one thing I didn't do was practice.
Once in the water, I first made sure my daughter was okay before untangling her from the lines. I made sure to let out the mainsheet all the way before swimming around to the hull. I grabbed the leading edge of the daggerboard, like I'd seen a million times before and pulled with all my might and...nothing. Despite all my efforts, I just couldn't get the sail out of the water. I swam back to the other side checked the lines again. No problems there. Back around; to the dagger board and even with all of my 165lbs hanging on it, I could not get the hull to rotate past 90 degrees. I repeated this 3-4 more times getting more tired with each attempt. Eventually the hull turtled completely. I climbed on the now inverted hull and was sure that the momentum of righting her from a turtle would be enough to bring her all the way around. But still no dice.
Fortunately my daughter was splashing happily a few feet away from me and didn't notice the frustration and worry stating to settle on my face. Finally in a last ditch attempt, I fully released the mainsheet from the bridle and also removed the other end from the ratchet block. That seemed to do the trick and with my last burst of strength she popped back up. We clambered back onboard, reconnect the sheets, bail out the cockpit and sail on... exhausted and more than a bit shaken.
I've continued to mull over the scenario since yesterday and I'm still struggling to understand why my sunfish was so difficult to right. Some of my leading thoughts so far:
- Was I working against the wind? Is it better to right the boat from the windward or leeward side?
- Was the sheet fully released? In the end freeing the mainsheet bridle and removing it from the ratchet block really helped. Should I do this every time?
- The issue couldn't be my weight. I've seen kids much lighter than me do this online with no issues whatsoever
I'm hoping folks on this forum can tell me what I did wrong or about any other tricks to make it easier next time. In the meantime I'm going to practice more capsizes and recovery drills till I get them right.