Zrtsixx
Member
PRACTICE beats PANIC!!
With the season right around the corner, when the wind picks-up, I have started to get antsy to get out on the water. This last Sunday we had mid 70’s temp here in mid TN, with a wind out of the southwest around 12-15 mph. The lake surface temp is 52, which didn’t really scare me (In years past I was on the lake on my stand-up jet ski with ice on the lake!). I wore a short wetsuit and life jacket and went out and had a blast! I had been out over an hour when I made a turn and a gust took me just about over! I recovered, and kept sailing. Within 5 minutes, another gust caught me and I capsized. As I was going in to the water, I kept telling myself “Oh $#^&!! This is going to be cold!” As soon as I came up, I was headed to the boat to right it. Before I had the dagger board fully extended, it turned turtle! I righted it pretty fast… the sail was on the side the wind was coming from and it helped me right it. I was back up on the boat pretty quickly! I’m not sure how long I was in the water, but I think it was less than a minute... Needless to say I went straight in! I didn’t really feel cold until I got home.
When I bought the boat a year and a half ago I read all I could about it…. One was a brochure about learning to sail…. http://www.avonsailboats.com/pdf_files/learn3days.pdf It recommended taking the boat out on a calm day and capsizing it. I did it twice last year intentionally. I am really happy that I did!! I think I would have been able to right it without doing it before. Having practiced it before, I didn’t panic because I knew what to do and that it would work!
If you are new to sailing, I strongly suggest that you take your boat out on the water (when the water is WARM!) and capsize it. If you have been sailing a while and never capsized, practice it anyways!
Expect the unexpected!
With the season right around the corner, when the wind picks-up, I have started to get antsy to get out on the water. This last Sunday we had mid 70’s temp here in mid TN, with a wind out of the southwest around 12-15 mph. The lake surface temp is 52, which didn’t really scare me (In years past I was on the lake on my stand-up jet ski with ice on the lake!). I wore a short wetsuit and life jacket and went out and had a blast! I had been out over an hour when I made a turn and a gust took me just about over! I recovered, and kept sailing. Within 5 minutes, another gust caught me and I capsized. As I was going in to the water, I kept telling myself “Oh $#^&!! This is going to be cold!” As soon as I came up, I was headed to the boat to right it. Before I had the dagger board fully extended, it turned turtle! I righted it pretty fast… the sail was on the side the wind was coming from and it helped me right it. I was back up on the boat pretty quickly! I’m not sure how long I was in the water, but I think it was less than a minute... Needless to say I went straight in! I didn’t really feel cold until I got home.
When I bought the boat a year and a half ago I read all I could about it…. One was a brochure about learning to sail…. http://www.avonsailboats.com/pdf_files/learn3days.pdf It recommended taking the boat out on a calm day and capsizing it. I did it twice last year intentionally. I am really happy that I did!! I think I would have been able to right it without doing it before. Having practiced it before, I didn’t panic because I knew what to do and that it would work!
If you are new to sailing, I strongly suggest that you take your boat out on the water (when the water is WARM!) and capsize it. If you have been sailing a while and never capsized, practice it anyways!
Expect the unexpected!