I've had better days

W

Webfoot

New Member
Went out sailing in a stiff wind with the wife and kid. Flipped after about 30 minutes of sailing. Wife and kid pulled the boat upsidedown on top of me. When I came back to the surface the wife tried using me as a flotation device and was pushing me under. Trying to hang on to the boat with one hand and keep the wife's face above the water as her life jacket was riding up. What saved my bacon was I had been taking my kid to the pool two days before for a swim review. He was able to help me work around the wife and get the boat upright. If he had been in a panic state things would have gone over the cliff. Managed to sail around and find the paddle and hat, left the SPF 50 bottle floating in the water and called it a day.

Things I learned. . .

Get the wife a Type 1 Jacket and some swim lessons.
Tie a milk jug to the mast.
Inexperienced people will not know when to shift weight, they are going to pull you over soon or later, in my case sooner.
 
Thanks, gotta do some thinking and retool before I go out again. Gonna paint the bottom of the center board International Orange and take a couple of my flotation cushions with me among other things.
 
Did you have to remind your spouse about the 'for better or for worse' part of the wedding vows?
:):):)
 
Strangely enough - I had a similar experience on Saturday. It was only my 2nd time out this year, and I didn't sail at all last year (3rd boy born in May 08, so that took up a lot of my time). I still consider myself very much a novice. But, I started sailing alone, with pretty strong winds, and some decent gusts as well. I was flying across the water - it was intense, and great fun, although I still sometimes have trouble reading the wind.

I decided to swing in to shore to see if my 8-yr old boy wanted to ride along. He's a decent swimmer (mostly dog-paddling, though), and I thankfully brought a Type 1 jacket. I foolishly had come into shore at a horrible position - to start sailing again with him, I either had to skirt right along the beach, or turn 90 degrees, and risk being pushed into the swimming area. I ended up flipping it (3) times before I even got 30 feet from shore!!

We finally got her sailing, and things were going well until my 1st tack attempt - and we dumped it again. I flipped it upright, and then dumped it right back over trying to get in, and this time it started to turtle, and the mast was definitely snagged in some of the crazy amounts of seaweed in this lake. Luckily, my son was able to swim clear of it with me, and we righted it, and didn't have any more trouble with tipping. I'm very glad I didn't have a 3rd passenger (wife or 4-yr old son) to deal with out there.

A few of my lessons learned:
1.) Must train son on what to do if and when we flip.
2.) Might want to add a milk jug or similar to my mast.
2a.) Need to upgrade my cap and base for the mast to make it waterproof - it definitely filled up with water and that didn't help things.
3.) Even though 8-yr old son can swim, I think the Type 1 is a must for the next few years. My 4-yr old will probably only be able to ride along in MUCH lighter winds.

Glad to hear that your wife and son are fine. I was very frustrated with myself last night just thinking about how much worse things could have been, and that I need to plan better, and especially work with my son (or any other passenger) to make sure we stay safe.

tag
 
It was a Sunfish and you're right, the two extra people were unsecured cargo rolling across the deck. As for Wedding Vows, my wife tried to kil me by pushing me under so I guess we're 'Even Steven.'

I'm not going out with more than one other person after this. I've always sailed mostly by myself so I could start recovering the boat right away. Last time I was dealing witn a disabled swimmer and could not start recovery. Not being a Life Guard, I probably made a bad move by breaking the lock the swimmer had on me and flipping the boat over. When I got back to my wife she was going under. The deal now is I have to develop a plan for dealing with a disabled swimmer and a way to recover the boat at the same time which I not sure is possible. If I had a length of line stored along the underside of the rub rail, I could form it into a big loop, throw one end over the daggerboard and the other end looped under the arms of the swimmer. This might free me up but I don't know where I'd go from there. I guess just getting the situation stabalized is the most important thing.

Might blow some money and put myself in a Type 1 also. Sailing alone it's not unlikely I could get hit by the boom. My life jacket collection is starting to get big. Wife said she only want to go out in the row boat. Tried to explain that if the row boat swamps we're going to be in the water at least 30 minutes or longer.

Also brings up the question of going to a larger boat were self rescue may not be possible in a boat 16 feet or larger.
 
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