A terrible thing to do to a sweet little boat

[William_H]

Or another way to do maintenance on mast top
or checking self righting all possible titles to photo.
Yachting Australia seem to have tightened up on safety requirements for our estuarine night (evening) races.
One requirement is to prove self righting ability. The easiest way to prove on old boats was pull down test.
The mast is pulled down to horizontal and you test the force trying to lift the mast measured at the hounds.
Howzat showed 38Kg upward force. She is a lift ballasted keel trailer sailer. YA give a formular which comes out at 29kg as a requirement so easily meets requirements. It takes a lot more force around the 45 degree mark to get it down.
We tested 4 boats. A heavy 24fter with diesel was pretty hard to pull down and gave something like 60kg force. All owners were surprised how high the boats floated with no crew. With crew the small boats sit a lot lower. In my boats case I know from several experiences.water will flow into cockpit with 4 people on board but she is still quite positive in recovery. NB the bow and stern were tethered to the posts before pull down
Not your average cruisy stuff but i hope of interest. olewill
http://www.ybw.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=21402&stc=1&d=1350262947

 

[Lakesailor]

Seems like a pleasant day down at the marina

Anyone's boat fill up and sink?

 

[Talulah]

I hope they emptied the Heads before they did that.

 

[DanTribe]

I hope they remembered to empty the Porta Potti first!
Do you have to do that for every boat or just for each class?

 

[single]

Tried doing that on mine to fix anchor light and even with 5 of us pulling we couldn't get it over more than a few ft.

 

[DanTribe]

I hope they emptied the Heads before they did that.

Doh!
Strange how great minds identify the really important things

 

[William_H]

Potties

No none of the boats had porta potties in them . No, none of the boats got water inside.
Re "single" even for my light weight it took 3 people to pull it down. The 24fter was a real struggle however once you get them over the force needed to hold it down is much less.
One lesson learnt is that I will never try to climb my mast. I drop the mast for any work needed.
yes it was a pleasant day at the marina but for the stress of brutalising the poor boat. Will it ever forgive me? It has been our baby for 30 years. olewill

 

[stevebrassett]

I'm sure she will forgive you. Everyone likes a little lie down sometimes.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

I once tried to heel my Moody 31 using a halliard (I forget why!). I got her over about 20-30 degrees before the force required to tilt her any further became too large for me to apply using the winches.

I suspect heeling her to 90 degrees using force at the masthead would be liable to break things!

That fits my experience of sailing her ; she goes so far, and then no further, but the helm becomes increasingly heavy.

 

[aquaplane]

I had tipped Carousel earlier in the year to clean her bottom and strugled to get to the middle bit so when we did it again in September I tried something a bit different.

I wound the keel all the way up to make the righting moment less. It was so easy to get het to tip I was fightened she would get so far and turn turtle. I wound the keel half way down and it was better. It was easier to pull her over but there was a reasuring ammount of righting effect. I could get her over this far on my own:



We had spectators but I didn't realise it at the time.

 

[Even Chance]

I pulled my E-Boat over by about 25 degrees the same as Aquaplanes pic to clean her erse last year. It took a lot of force to get it that far by myself on the winches. I wouldnt like to pull it over to 90 degrees tho for fear of over-stressing the rig. You can see his mast bending in the pic. Not for me. I'd tell em where to stuff their idea If I was asked to do that....

 

[Lakesailor]

Warps are a bit tight. I'd slacken them if I was you.

 

[aquaplane]

Warps are a bit tight. I'd slacken them if I was you.

I tried that but when I took up the slack on the halyard I was back to square 1.

 

[CreakyDecks]

I wound the keel all the way up to make the righting moment less. It was so easy to get het to tip I was fightened she would get so far and turn turtle.

I think, in the interest of science, you need to perform this experiment. Then let me know if it is safe to roll my boat over while the tide is out to scrub the parts I can't normally reach. Although I suspect rubbing the ground keeps those parts clear it would be nice to have a look

 

[aquaplane]

I think, in the interest of science, you need to perform this experiment. Then let me know if it is safe to roll my boat over while the tide is out to scrub the parts I can't normally reach. Although I suspect rubbing the ground keeps those parts clear it would be nice to have a look

Doing it dried out is less frought with hazard.
At least the boat isn't going to sink if the keel decides it's had enough and wants to get intimate with the roof!
And you can always go to the other side and roll the thing back, not an option if you are afloat.

Let me know how you get on drying out

 

[William_H]

Rolling boats

The initial stiffness can be hard to overcome. As i said there were 4 or 5 of us pulling in various ways to overcome what you would call the "form" stiffness. This is the effort to lift the boat up onto its chines.
A bit like the initial stiffness of a catamaran. However a bit like a catamaran again after about 45 degrees the righting power gets less until at 90 degrees the righting moment comes from the mass of the keel about 2 metres to centre of buoyancy and the mass of the boat now about 1 metre from centre of buoyancy. This latter moves closer at greater angles of heel. Until in my case as said about 40kg of downward pressure at the hounds was enough to hold it down. Compared to about 150kg to get it down past 45 degrees.
To all those who were concerned about the strength of the rig you should not worry. It can get that sort of abuse in a blow especially if you use spinackers. Rigs have to be strong. Far better to get a failure on test than in a storm. good luck olewill

 

[Searush]

I had tipped Carousel earlier in the year to clean her bottom and strugled to get to the middle bit so when we did it again in September I tried something a bit different.

I wound the keel all the way up to make the righting moment less. It was so easy to get het to tip I was fightened she would get so far and turn turtle. I wound the keel half way down and it was better. It was easier to pull her over but there was a reasuring ammount of righting effect. I could get her over this far on my own:



We had spectators but I didn't realise it at the time.

We were very impressed, SWMBO & I eating our sarnies & soup in the cafe. Just a shame neither of us had our Scuttlebutt Burgees flying!