Dingho wings

[DJE]

Keep your feet apart. Trapeze boats tend to accelerate and decelerate fast. So you find yourself being pushed forwards and backwards. If your feet are close together there's no way of resisting this effect and you can find yourself taking an involuntary tour of the foredeck - Or at least I did the first time I tried it in a Fireball many years ago. Grunwale edges need to be rough and grippy for the same reason. Front leg straight and rear leg bent seemed to work for adjusting the leverage.

 

[dunedin]

I never quite understood why water-jackets aren't a good way of increasing crew-weight.

I would have supposed that as long as the additional weight rests at the end of the trapeze wire, the wearer's spine and musculature needn't suffer much.

I'm not going to test it though - although an old-fashioned diver's helmet might help prepare for a serious dunking.

As AntartucPilot said, racers started wearing heavy wooden jumpers and getting them wet. Then water jackets started appearing. Then people started getting hurt with back problems and the rules were changed to limit the wet weight of sailing gear - a smart rule change.

Incidentally, as you know an Osprey is designed to be sailed two up, with crew on trapeze and helm on toe straps. Would need a few other changes, including long carbon tiller extension to trapeze single handed.
More importantly, it is quite possible to get trapped underneath in a sudden capsize - with no second person to help you it is imperative to carry a safety knife to cut free if trapped underneath (eg the yellow handled ones with hook end to the blade).
I know of very competent racers who have been trapped underneath trapeze dinghies and catamarans, two of whom only survived due to the quick actions of other crew (freeing and rescucitation) plus helicopters to hospital. Rare but it does happen. Hence try to be prepared

 

[Greenheart]

Keep your feet apart. Trapeze boats tend to accelerate and decelerate fast. Front leg straight and rear leg bent seemed to work for adjusting the leverage.

Thanks, I'll remember that...although for the foreseeable future, I doubt I'll be trapezing in hard accelerating weather!

Would need a few other changes, including long carbon tiller extension to trapeze single handed...carry a safety knife to cut free if trapped underneath. Rare but it does happen. Hence try to be prepared

Thanks Dunedin. My tiller extension is a £5.99 Wickes telescopic shower-curtain pole. Very effective, and 4ft - 7ft long.

The Keyball trapeze connector eliminates wearing any hooks which might snag stray lines. It's also very quick to disconnect the harness from the trap wire when required, and the plastic 'belly unit' won't punch holes in the hull as one rights the boat, like the hooked harnesses can.

I do keep a sharp knife handy though.

 

[TangaraToo]

Simple clip on wings shouldn't be hard to produce like those on the ISO.
My lad hanging on the wire, I was at full chat in the rib trying to stay with them.

 

[Greenheart]

I was at full chat in the rib trying to stay with them.

Great photo.

I've done RIB support lately. It always surprises me, how much noise and fuss the motorboat has to exert, to overtake the graceful silent sailing boats.

 

[ex-Gladys]

The comment about feet apart needs to be qualified... If you are trapezing aft of the shroud, then your front leg needs to be straight, and your aft leg bent, otherwise at some point you will disappear around the forestay... The secret with helming (used to sail a twin trapeze cat) is to walk aft a bit before you swing in or out as that effecitvely raises your trapeze ring. WHen you are out on the wire, forward and lower is more comfortable and stable.

On twin trapeze cats upwind, then the crew is generally trapezing forward of the shroud upwind and it's aft leg straight front leg bent... A few years since I've done it, and the knees probably wouldn't stand it these days...

 

[Greenheart]

Points taken about which leg to bend. My instinct as helmsman, is to stay well back in the cockpit...

...but trapezing, I'll want to be further forward at the beamiest point (and at less of an angle on the trap-wire, which draws one forward, anyway).

Does anybody favour the 'foot-loops' I've seen on Int14s and catamarans? They seem to be quite soft and pliable, not rigid ankle-twisting deathtraps.

 

[Medway Matt]

I think foot loops are best avoided, not many trapeze class sailors use them because of the risk of injury should the foot fail to release.

Sound advice from Dunedin regarding entrapment but I think you'll have a reasonable amount of airspace under an inverted Osprey given it has side tanks and no false floor (I assume), it would be worth testing in a controlled manner to find out.

You're quite right that there's no need for a carbon tiller extension and they tend to snap when landed upon. I used and ally extension on my contender and a length of plastic conduit when singlehanding my Hornet, both got bent on occasions but they never broke!

Regarding wings; I've sailed two boats with wings, a Laser 4000 and a Blaze, and another with pronounced winglets - the 59er.

The 4000 seemed to have the unpleasant characteristic of slowing abruptly in a capsize as the wing digs in to the water, I think i briefly dislocated my right shoulder capsizing in one as crew when I landed in the jib.

The Blaze and 59er were much more benign in a capsize and in these boats the wings tend to moderate and slow down the rate at which the boat goes over without sending the crew onto the foredeck. I suspect this is because as hiking boats the crew is more firmly attached to the boat as the Blaze has wider and more pronounced wings than the 4000, although more slender tubing. The 59ers winglets are blended into the hull and I think something similar may be a good solution for you in order to reduce drag when heeled over hard.

 

[pagoda]

I think foot loops are best avoided, not many trapeze class sailors use them because of the risk of injury should the foot fail to release.

Sound advice from Dunedin regarding entrapment but I think you'll have a reasonable amount of airspace under an inverted Osprey given it has side tanks and no false floor (I assume), it would be worth testing in a controlled manner to find out.

You're quite right that there's no need for a carbon tiller extension and they tend to snap when landed upon. I used and ally extension on my contender and a length of plastic conduit when singlehanding my Hornet, both got bent on occasions but they never broke!

Regarding wings; I've sailed two boats with wings, a Laser 4000 and a Blaze, and another with pronounced winglets - the 59er.

The 4000 seemed to have the unpleasant characteristic of slowing abruptly in a capsize as the wing digs in to the water, I think i briefly dislocated my right shoulder capsizing in one as crew when I landed in the jib.

The Blaze and 59er were much more benign in a capsize and in these boats the wings tend to moderate and slow down the rate at which the boat goes over without sending the crew onto the foredeck. I suspect this is because as hiking boats the crew is more firmly attached to the boat as the Blaze has wider and more pronounced wings than the 4000, although more slender tubing. The 59ers winglets are blended into the hull and I think something similar may be a good solution for you in order to reduce drag when heeled over hard.

Of all the various capsizes I've had - entrapment never crossed my mind. I have dived a fair bit in the past , so water is not too scary. I've only once had a full inversion- I tend to be climbing towards the dagger board before the mast hits the water - aiming for a dry capsize. Getting a dinghy up from a full inversion is much harder than from flat in the water- fatigue is your enemy in those situations.
Sailing almost 9 tonnes of yacht is benign in almost any comparison..

 

[Daydream believer]

I have been trapped under dinghies on about 6 times over 60 years .On the worse occasion the safety boat was nearby & when i did not come up one of the crew dived in to help. Luckily I came up before he needed to help. But I did need to let them sail the boat back for me.
Never would there have been a chance to get to a knife or get it out & use it. It takes quite a while & 45 seconds is a long time to be trapped.
Normally it is a rope round the neck (the worse) or more usually a leg where the boat has rolled right over & dragged one under from the opposite side. The trick is not to panic, but think carefully & feel for the snag & try & work out what it is. Usually I find I have put my foot through a control line & twisted causing a half hitch. This means you have to get your hand in the loop & work it down & over your foot.
If you are lucky you can get your head into the air space under the hull so that gives you time to sort things out. Just be careful not to get a whack on the head from the mainsheet track or the centreboard top etc- it hurts if it is in rough water

 

[Daydream believer]

Dan. I know that you have spent a lot of time on your Osprey so may not want to change. However, one of the most surprisingly stable racing boats that i have sailed has been a 505. It is beamy, goes well in light airs. has facilities for all the kit you want.
So may I suggest that if you see one come up cheap- they are out there- you might give it a try. Faster & more stable than an osprey good flared hull & possibly more room.
Might be worth a look but i am not sure about your aspirations for camping in one though

 

[Greenheart]

Thanks for these thoughts, alarming and encouraging!

You may be sure I have always admired the 505, and would buy a tidy old one in a heartbeat, though not to replace the Osprey. It's almost a pity 505s age well, because like keenly raced designs generally, if they're really affordable they tend to be long past their best.

Gauging both designs by their typical competitive crew-weights and sail areas, I doubt the 505 would be much easier for me to singlehand in a breeze; the mainsail is substantially (32sq ft) bigger than the Osprey's, and 505s tend to put a chap 50% heavier than me, out on the wire. And, they aren't best known for singlehanding, though it can be done...

With a nifty twin-pole set-up and the colossal 290sq ft maximum spinnaker, the 505 might be the boat to tempt me back to symmetric territory, albeit in under ten knots of wind.

Actually, searching for a photo to illustrate that whopping 505 spinnaker, I came across a chap making a persuasive case for the class switching to asymmetric kite. Written nearly seven years ago, but I've spent at least half that long, planning and making the Osprey's asymm set-up, alas still not quite ready to photograph in use. The article is here: http://www.505tanktalk.com/2011/04/lifelong-505-sailor-looks-ahead-ethan.html