OK, I'm sure a zillion of you have been through this, but this was only my second time in my Laser and I need some suggestions on better ways to recover from a capsize.
Here's the situation. I'm 54 years old, 170 pounds, and not the best in upper body strength. The boat went over when I was heading downwind in 15 mph winds. It rolled winward, I reacted moving slightly to leeward, and it rolled leeward and I dumped in the water with the falling to leeward.
OK,swim to the windward side, grab the centerboard, put my foot on the submerged railing, and voila, the boat came up fairly quickly. The mast must have only been down about 10-20 deg in the water. But there was no way I could climb up on the centerboard before it righted itself. When I tried to lift myself up over the windward side, the boat just rolled once again over on top of me. You get the idea. Same thing happened (as expected) when I righted the boat with its sail to windward. And again and again.
Unfortunately the mainsheet came unraveled from the center cleat, and was off the end of the boom before I could hardly realize it. I did have a docking line that I could put around the mast, and toss over the floating side. That helped me right the boat, but again was of no use in assisting me getting back in the boat before it would roll over again.
Give me some ideas. The only one I can think of right now, is to make sure the mainsheet is strung thru the center cleat as usual, and pull in on the sail after the boat is righted, while I'm trying to board it. I can see where I might have a couple of seconds there where the sail is feeling the winds force and that could counteract my boarding torque on the boat. Unfortunately, it seems like the boat rounds up to windward very quickly so I gotta be quick.
In the end, I was able on my 6 or 7th time to climb onboard the side in time to stay low in the cockpit and then get everything back together.
The laser is a fun boat but I've really got to work on recovery from a capsize much easier (as well as launching the dang thing without any help from a dock).
Here's the situation. I'm 54 years old, 170 pounds, and not the best in upper body strength. The boat went over when I was heading downwind in 15 mph winds. It rolled winward, I reacted moving slightly to leeward, and it rolled leeward and I dumped in the water with the falling to leeward.
OK,swim to the windward side, grab the centerboard, put my foot on the submerged railing, and voila, the boat came up fairly quickly. The mast must have only been down about 10-20 deg in the water. But there was no way I could climb up on the centerboard before it righted itself. When I tried to lift myself up over the windward side, the boat just rolled once again over on top of me. You get the idea. Same thing happened (as expected) when I righted the boat with its sail to windward. And again and again.
Unfortunately the mainsheet came unraveled from the center cleat, and was off the end of the boom before I could hardly realize it. I did have a docking line that I could put around the mast, and toss over the floating side. That helped me right the boat, but again was of no use in assisting me getting back in the boat before it would roll over again.
Give me some ideas. The only one I can think of right now, is to make sure the mainsheet is strung thru the center cleat as usual, and pull in on the sail after the boat is righted, while I'm trying to board it. I can see where I might have a couple of seconds there where the sail is feeling the winds force and that could counteract my boarding torque on the boat. Unfortunately, it seems like the boat rounds up to windward very quickly so I gotta be quick.
In the end, I was able on my 6 or 7th time to climb onboard the side in time to stay low in the cockpit and then get everything back together.
The laser is a fun boat but I've really got to work on recovery from a capsize much easier (as well as launching the dang thing without any help from a dock).