Bloody Maiden

[BBSailor]

In High School, I had a 8' centerboard Dinghy that I sailed in several lakes over a few years. I've always wanted to get back into it. I've got a friend who was a Sea Scout that offered to teach me to sail. We are now both 25 or so years from our sailing days but have continued to own and operate other boats.

About a month ago, I ran across a modestly priced 1976 DSII. The guy I bought her from hadn't put her in the water in the couple years he was owner. She was missing a few things. Most of which I was able to buy or make. I also scoured this forum for info. Thank you! We stepped the mast and checked the rigging figured out the sails. She was ready to try out. My coach picked a small no motor lake nearby that he was very familiar with.

We rigged her up, launched and shoved off. Then hoisted the main, dropped the center board and got underway with a very gentle breeze. The breeze was so light we could only sail, forgive my terminology, downwind or crosswind, unless we got a gust that we could turn into. Those gusts got us going at a pretty good clip! We sailed back and forth and got in a lot of turning practice! Before long I went forward and rigged the jib to help catch a bit more of that light breeze. The breeze had us stuck at the end of the lake by the boat ramp for quite a while, then we managed to get around a point and over to the far end. The wind had shifted to allow that and was now making it difficult to return to the boat ramp side. We'd been sailing about 4 hours before the wind gusts got stronger, but with the same light breeze between.

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My Coach was running the jib sheets and warned me many times about putting the mainsheet in the grip cleat. We'd get going pretty good during a gust then just coast with little to no wind. Then another gust would come, and we were sailing again. On 2 occasions we got water over the gunnel, into the cockpit which promptly drained out the self-bailer. Those occasions the mainsheet had been pulled in tight and found its way into the grip cleat. We should've put our lifejackets on then, if not before we launched. We got back close to the ramp, and I decided to make 1 last trip out and back. Not long after our turn we caught a couple gusts and the next thing I know, I'm in the water.

As I came to the surface I hit my forehead, on the rudder, I'm pretty sure. She was capsized and as I coughed up some water and made my way around the stern I heard my coach. He'd come up under a sail and made his way out. He was very concerned about the cut on my forehead and all I could think about was putting some weight on the centerboard to get her righted. The center board had retracted, and we couldn't get it out. The calvary, in the form of a few amazing boaters in a row able rubber raft and a few kayaks, arrived in a few minutes eager to help. A Lady in a kayak was shocked at the blood running down my face and offered a first aid kit but I knew I needed to get dry before that would do any good.

Three of us tried to right her without the centerboard out, but she went turtle. They took the loose end of the mainsheet and began towing us to shore. My coach and I rested on the hull for a bit. My little wound clotted, and I rinsed out my sunglasses. When we got to about 20' of water, I felt the mast drag and knew we needed to roll her back over. So, I managed to pull the centerboard out, my coach and I put our weight on it, and she slowly came around. When the Mast came to the surface the Lady in the kayak came around and got under the end of it. We lowered the sails, and the Lady walked the mast up till she was righted. There was an applause from the beach! Then the Lady proceeded to row around and collect our floating debris while the guys towed us the rest of the way in. Thanks to keeping stuff in a dry box, and mostly everything in the cuddy, we didn't loose anything worse than my Coaches sunglasses.
Coach bailed water while I got the truck and trailer. After loading, it must've taken 45 minutes or more to drain on the ramp. We lost the bilge drain plug at some point.

We both went and thanked everybody that helped us out. We are so thankful for all the help.

Lessons learned:
-Need a bigger lake. There are plenty around here.[album][/album]
-The grip cleat on the mainsheet isn't always your friend, I've changed mine to a fairlead, for now.
-The missing inspection covers in the cuddy. Don't sail without them. I couldn't find replacements that size but have now replaced them with slightly larger ones. If they were in, I think she wouldn't have turned turtle.
- Lifejackets should be worn.
- Most of all, as I told my wife later, sailboats sometimes capsize. But we had a great day and will be out again!

Did I miss anything else?

[GreenLake]

Lovely writeup. Looks like you had quite the adventure.

See whether you can fit a ratchet block into your mainsheet setup. That's a bit more tricky if you have center-boom sheeting with multiple-sheave blocks on both ends. If you can, you may find it a game changer.

From my one extended sailing trip on a friend's DSII, I remember that the mainsheet cleats were rigged to cleat on an upward pull. That setup is dangerous, for precisely the reason you found. The original DS1 had a configuration where you had to pull low on the sheet to cleat it. Just lifting it would be enough to free it. Much safer, but with a ratchet block, you will only need that for the occasional stable conditions when you need a free hand to grab a cup or something to eat.

As you found out, the DS isn't easier to sail with the jib down, just the contrary. But in time you'll learn or re-learn all the tricks.

[tomodda]

What GL wrote...

Glad you survived your maiden voyage, though and not too many "scratches." Generally speaking, the mainsheet should NEVER be cleated off and should always be in your hand. Well, lesson learned. If, by whatever happenstance, you are caught with the main cleated off in a gust or otherwise stuck in - HEAD UP! Also known as luffing... Immediately push the tiller over and hike your bodyweight out, the DS is very responsive. Doesn't take much to get the pressure off your main and out of a capsize situation. For my first year learning the "feel" of the DS, my favorite sailing companion would call me "Iron Tom." Wasn't a compliment!

And yes, you want a completely different set of moves to avoid a capsize downwind - loose the mainsheet. Or according to my wife - leave the spinnaker at home. But I'm assuming that wasn't your issue on maiden trip. Luff up and you'll be fine. Another (maybe uncalled for?) observation - inland sailing on a low-wind day is about the trickiest sailing you can do! As you found out, you can go from no wind to a blow-down in seconds. No matter how large your lake (well, let's say anything where you can still see the shorelines). So, don't be to hard on yourself about not "getting it" right away, but do choose your wind days more carefully. If you are just starting out, see if you can get a day with nice 8-10mph breezes, and watch out for hills near the lake!

Tom

[BBSailor]

Green Lake, thanks for the suggestion. My mainsheet is a center boom style. I looked up a ratchet block and think I can add one.

Tommoda, Thanks for the advice. It was definitely too small a lake.

[GreenLake]

Look at the various forecast models that you can get on sites like Windy. Some will be more aggressive in the strength of the gusts they forecast. I've found them to be more correct in my sailing area, but definitely take a few days of checking the various forecasts against actuals to help you get a sense how each translates to local conditions.

On any lake you can get a lake breeze, where on a hot day, the wind will blow from the center out (land heating up, air rising, being backfilled from the lake). If your lake is small enough to look across, there's not enough air there to sustain the lake breeze all day. It may falter after as short as 20min, collapse and restart.

Or you may have such strong weather system winds that they overpower it, or you can get the effect that the wind oscillates between a lake breeze and the weather system wind with wildly changing speeds and directions in the process.

All sorts of fun things (and there are a number of good books on the subject, for when your boat is on the hard).