What would you have done differently?

As others say, easy to be perfect from one's comfy chair...

I do think it was a case of concentrating on racing rather than seamanship.

To quote an aviation example ( again, I know ) I remember a poster in the pilot's office showing a pilot staring at a glowing warning light, with the caption " Your No.1 Priority: Fly The Aircraft ".

This bloke ( and I always feel for anyone undergoing a trauma so publicly ) forgot to sail his boat and be in charge.

He was also rather lucky the spin sheets round the bum of the boat didn't meet the prop', or he'd really have had to do some quick thinking !

I think the lesson is, know when to forget racing and be a general seamanlike boat skipper, including checking for lines over the side before engine in gear, let alone keeping an eye on position.
 
flaming said:
As others have said the first error was not strapping the kite down.

That said, the original crash was driver error. Simply put he was nervous and let the boat take charge.

However once the crash happened and it was clear that they couldn't just gybe back out of it, they only eased the kite halyard, it should have been blown. That would have got the kite back in the boat much quicker, and also the boat would have just popped back upright.

T.
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Not sure they could have blown the kite ..the clews were too far out and high as soon as the pole went.
 
Ricd said:
Not sure they could have blown the kite ..the clews were too far out and high as soon as the pole went.
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The term "blow the kite" to me means get it down - ie let the halyard go and pull it in on the sheet as Ken suggests - tis good practice to always have the halyard coiled ready when racing to be "blown" just in case.
 
Seajet said:
I do think it was a case of concentrating on racing rather than seamanship.

To quote an aviation example ( again, I know ) I remember a poster in the pilot's office showing a pilot staring at a glowing warning light, with the caption " Your No.1 Priority: Fly The Aircraft ".
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"Aviate, navigate, communicate" - in that order, 'tho I guess for us, "marinate" doesn't quite sound as good...
 
SAWDOC said:
Really?
They made a better recovery but they had still got themselves in a similar pickle.
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Canute thought he could command the sea.
We use the forces of nature and things can and do go wrong. Sometimes we make mistakes or the wind catches us out - it's how you cope shows your skills.
 
Canute thought he could command the sea.

The story as I was told it was that Canute was fed up with flatterering toadies, so did a demonstration at the tideline showing he couldn't command the tides & sea.

Thought to have happened ( if at all ) at Itchenor in Chichester Harbour; his daughter is possibly buried at nearby Bosham.

So Canute wasn't the prat...

Interestingly, Canutes' real name is an anagram of a naughty word, and the forum auto censor wouldn't let me say his proper name !
 
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Seajet said:
Canute thought he could command the sea.

The story as I was told it was that Canute was fed up with flatterering toadies, so did a demonstration at the tideline showing he couldn't command the tides & sea.

Thought to have happened ( if at all ) at Itchenor in Chichester Harbour; his daughter is possibly buried at nearby Bosham.

So Canute wasn't the prat...

Interestingly, Canutes' real name is an anagram of a naughty word, and the forum auto censor wouldn't let me say his proper name !
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Suppose if I had said time and tide wait for no man I would still have received some comment.
 
tigr said:
Heres how it's done

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sd513xQzV4&feature=related

Wish I was that good!
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Well no not really. He got into what is known as the death rolls. It is a rhythmical swinging to windward and leeward of the boat pulled by the spinacker. The fix is to tighten the sheet and pull down on the brace. In other words strap that spin down.
The death roll took the spin and mast to windward or at least the opposite side to the boom. The huge heel then caused the boat to swing to leeward (Boom side) which turns the boat in this case into a gybe of the mainsail. The helmsman or the rudder failed to catch the turn caused by the heel.
When helming under spin(and overpowered) you really need to be able to anticipate what the boat will try and do and catch it first.
I am not sure he did the right thing by letting the spin halyard go. I think better in this situation is that when the boat rights itself try to go back to original course (possibly requiring a gybe of the main again) with spin set then retrieve if you wish in a normal manner.
easy of course to criticise from a computer keyboard. As I said earlier I have done this a few times even lost men overboard twice doing it (both recovered OK). Not so much recently as, could it be I am learning (the hard way) to control the boat under spin overpowered. Yes it is still very scary. I have a tiny spin about the size of the mainsail which of course is more manageable.
The golden rule is keep the boat under the spin. And of course make sure you have plenty of sea room and of course make sure the boat is happy lying on its side. (front hatch locked).
olewill the mad one
 
William_H said:
Well no not really. He got into what is known as the death rolls. It is a rhythmical swinging to windward and leeward of the boat pulled by the spinacker.
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The exact cause is the fact that the boat is sailing too low, and the direction of the flow over the kite is oscilating first left right, then right left.

The best way of stopping it is to not let it start... But once they do start - pole forwards, grind on the sheet and come up 10 degrees or more to get the flow back to unidirectional. Then once you're settled try and soak down again.
 
flaming said:
The exact cause is the fact that the boat is sailing too low, and the direction of the flow over the kite is oscilating first left right, then right left.

The best way of stopping it is to not let it start... But once they do start - pole forwards, grind on the sheet and come up 10 degrees or more to get the flow back to unidirectional. Then once you're settled try and soak down again.
Click to expand...

Each boat is different, but they have an oscillation frequency such that if rolls continue at that frequency they increase in amplitude. Crews will know how many rolls they can get away with before the terminal roll. You have to break the oscillation before the death roll arrives. You do it, as Flaming describes, by throttling the kite and changing the wind angle. Then you can ease the sheet, wind back the guy and set off dead downwind again until the rolls set in again. Repeat ad infinitum - or at least until the bottom mark.

Also, watch for a 'different' wave - bigger or from a different angle - which can accelerate the process.
 
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