As soon as I got it to nose up into the wind, it slammed over to the other tack and slammed into the water. In that case it went from upright to full turtle with the mast buried 5 feet into mud in about 2 seconds.
2 seconds?? Yikes! Fortunately I plan to sail in much lighter winds.. Mellow daysailing is my main interest, to start at least.
Still, I guess I'll hang onto that ugly float a while longer. Better safe than sorry.
If that idea works I might give it a try too.Yeah, so a while back I went to spray some expanding foam in my mast to stop it from filling with water. It already had foam in it so I guess that helps little, considering how fast it's turtled before. I'm going to add some eye-straps to the front edge of the mast and cut a section of pool noodle to fit, lashing it in place from just above the forestay to the top of the mast. It'll weigh very little and hopefully have little aerodynamic consequences. I need to then go tip the thing over and see how it all works... stay tuned.
Just bought a 14.2 (today) and considering the baby bob. I would love to have pics and the contact info for the bracket. Thanks!Yep the Baby Bob is much smaller than the Hobie Bob so it doesn't look too weird on top of the mast. And the mounting bracket that I added (custom crafted by a gentleman I bought mail order) made it super easy to install/remove the Bob. No way would you want to trailer with the weight of the unit hanging out at the end when the mast is down. And I have the option of being able to leave it off during calm days.
With a third season under my belt I have yet to dump Capri. Two close calls came as the result of a botched tack when my "Tiller Tender" line had loosened a bit (my bad) and got snagged on the trigger, thereby freezing the tiller in the come about position! Ended up doing a tight, panic driven circle while attempting to unsnag the line with sails cleated off in a close haul position. The only thing that saved me was agility, instinctive sailing skills (I've sailed for a lot of years), and quick recognition of what the problem was.
But it's nice to have that thing sitting on top of the mast when on big lakes or when there's challenging conditions. Also I'm 99% of the time a singlehander.
If I went over the boat it's easily righted with the help of the Bob, otherwise, forget it!
If anybody wants contact info for where you could get the bracket, plus pictures of how it looks, give me a shout.
Cheers!
Can't argue with that. I would buy a Baby Bob, but $350 seems a bit much. Maybe a Tightwad Bob https://sailingforums.com/threads/tightwad-bob-an-affordable-diy-mast-float.33546/The elephant in the room comes out if you turtle in water shallow enough to snag the mast. Then it gets ugly! Hard bottoms can do damage, and soft gooey soils would get it stuck, another bad option. In 6 years I've never capsized, but it's still nice to know that if she was ever laying on her side it's a super easy pop back up, much easier than if she was fully turtled.
Cheers!