Thread: Sailing my GIS

Originally Posted by SamMilo

I hope the links work.

I can't to see of them

Wow! What a tale! I'm glad it was you and your young fit self and not me and my old, always-tired, overweight self!

I hope you were wearing a life jacket, btw. What was the water temperature?

The pics and videos I've seen of MIK recovering from a capsize show him coming over the side which is a good bit lower than the transom. At summer camp when I was a teen we were taught how to climb back into a canoe without sinking her and there's a little trick to it that might help with the Goat. With a narrow canoe you reach across to the far side with one hand then lunge and pull. Your weight is centered pretty quickly. On the Goat you wouldn't be able to reach the far side but you could use the centercase for a hand-hold. One hand on the gunwale, the other on the centercase, push down on the gunwale and pull in all in one swift motion. You take on a little water but not very much.

Great story !

Could easy happen to me too. I also like to push sailing to the limit single handed, but I am 52 and certainly less fit than you.

I am still building, but already decided to get:
a "boxed" closed middle seat to have more flotation and less to bail out ( and keep things dry ) after a capsize.
two 2-3 inch stern tubes through the aft compartment, to get rid of the bulk of water after righting
two 2 inch tubes through this boxed middle seat, to get water from front part of the cockpit to these stern tubes.
and perhaps a few "leaky" dinghy selfbailers too ?

I was surprized to hear you were bailing from outside GIS? Couldn't you be inside, f.e. on your knees or was it not stable enough? I think it's easier to climb in GIS full of water ?

Ralph

Originally Posted by Watermaat

I was surprized to hear you were bailing from outside GIS? Couldn't you be inside, f.e. on your knees or was it not stable enough? I think it's easier to climb in GIS full of water ?

Ralph

I couldn't climb in while there was much water in the boat. In fact as I bailed I was trying to keep the gunwale up and above the swells. I think this is really what tied me out. I was swimming up and pushing on the boat as I bailed.

Originally Posted by MiddleAgesMan

I hope you were wearing a life jacket, btw. What was the water temperature?

The pics and videos I've seen of MIK recovering from a capsize show him coming over the side which is a good bit lower than the transom. At summer camp when I was a teen we were taught how to climb back into a canoe without sinking her and there's a little trick to it that might help with the Goat. With a narrow canoe you reach across to the far side with one hand then lunge and pull. Your weight is centered pretty quickly. On the Goat you wouldn't be able to reach the far side but you could use the centercase for a hand-hold. One hand on the gunwale, the other on the centercase, push down on the gunwale and pull in all in one swift motion. You take on a little water but not very much.

I was wearing a lifejacket (always do when dinghy sailing). I'm not sure about the water temp but it felt kind of cold. This week I'll wear my wetsuit to.

Good tips about getting back aboard. During the event the boat felt sooooo unstable that i was really worried that even the slightest tug on the side would send it rolling over and all of my bailing would be ruined. This is probably due to the fact that my "dry" compartments were flooded. When I did try to climb in from the side I was further aft than the centerboard case. Using that as a lever to keep the boat upright as you enter is a really good idea. Last Friday though the swells were so tall and the wind felt so strong I think any small thing would have just tipped the boat again.

Originally Posted by robhosailor

I can't to see of them

Hmmm. I love these pics. They work for me on my home computer and my office computer. Any tips guys?

Sam, I can understand your frustration, but there is a technique you can try to right your boat in a strong wind with the sail up.

The most important thing is not to have the wind coming from the side the sail is on in the water. If you right the boat like that, the wind will immediately catch the sail and flip the boat back over toward you. I've found it's usually best to do this on purpose as it's quicker than swimming the bow around to the correct position, and then have a proper 2nd go at righting it while standing on the centreboard with the wind at my back, and the sail on the "correct" side. Rather than swimming all the way around the boat, grab the gunwale under the water and pull yourself under the hull so you pop out the other side. It’s only scary the first time! Before you did the "duck" manouvre you did remember to check that the centreboard was fully down didn't you?

The idea is to bring the boat up gradually with some pressure in the sail to act as a counter-balance. This will happen naturally because the boom will be in the water. Adjust your weight on the board until the tip of the mast just comes clear of the water, and then hold it there. What will happen is that the tip of the sail will catch the wind and the boat will begin to pivot and swing nose to wind. As the nose swings around but before it comes head to wind, you will feel the pressure ease on the sail and the boat will start coming up quicker.

The temptation is to rush it (especially if you have a panicking crew member!), but take it slowly and success will be guaranteed.

OK, so the nose is coming around to the wind and the mast and sail are easing upward as the pressure on the sail is decreasing. You will feel the right moment to swing a leg over and step into the cockpit as it comes up. Remember, it’s slowly, so it’s not like you have to move like a cat! If you have a crew member, have them stay in the water holding the bow and making like a sea anchor . The boat will stay head to wind while you bail furiously!

Then all you have to do when you've bailed enough is get your crew back on board and continue on your way. But that's another story.......!!

Woodeneye makes a good point about getting aboard from the side. I have gotten aboard when the boat is full of water still and then bailed her out. I think your waves must have been higher than mine because the boat was not too unstable while bailing.

Another person aboard will help a lot as the weather conditions get more difficult. Not only in terms of adding more stability but also that one can focus on getting the water out of the boat and the other can just balance.

Reefing will make a big difference too. But it is easy to be tempted to keep going with full sail because it is fun.

Main thing is to conserve energy and judge the conditions. If the boat goes over again more than twice it is probably a good idea to go straight to dropping the sail. Carry a couple of ties to allow you to put a reef in the sail before rehoisting. You just need to tie down the front and back - you don't really need the intermediate reefs. If I was getting tired might make sense to go straight to the maximum reef as the boat will still move very well with only that small sail area.

Glad you made it a learning experience rather than something not so pleasant.

Best wishes
Michael

Originally Posted by woodeneye

Sam, I can understand your frustration, but there is a technique you can try to right your boat in a strong wind with the sail up.

Thanks for the detailed tip. I'll give it some more thought and try that next time. I have capsized many many times in little dinghies and feel pretty comfortable righting them and sailing on (often without even getting wet). In this case it seemed like either side that I righted from as soon as the mast came up to about 11 o'clock it swung quickly into an irreversible roll over. This happened the first few times when I tried to climb in (so maybe my fault at not balancing correctly) and also when I just tried to roll it up and keep it up while I bailed. The only thing that worked was dropping the sail.

The boat on its side was being blown pretty hard and the water was pretty rough.

I'm really not frustrated now. Like I said above, after it got sorted out I still had an hour or so to sail back and I had a blast. I quickly got over my capsize and just had fun with the boat. I suspect a majority of people wouldn't ever be in this situation. The simplest way to avoid it is just not to go out when the lake has lots of white horses and big waves.

Originally Posted by Boatmik

Another person aboard will help a lot as the weather conditions get more difficult. Not only in terms of adding more stability but also that one can focus on getting the water out of the boat and the other can just balance.


.......

Glad you made it a learning experience rather than something not so pleasant.

Definitely. I realized very quickly how much an extra set of hands would help. I suspect that if I had some sensible crew with me (1) we probably wouldn't have capsized and (2) if we did I could have righted it and climbed in right away. In light to moderate winds the boat is a dream for a single handed sailor but as the winds increase the extra weight and balance provided by another person is really good.

Definitely a learning experience. I feel really confident now that I can handle anything this boat throws at me (famous last words?)

Originally Posted by woodeneye

The boat will stay head to wind while you bail furiously!

I'm not totally convinced of this. Before I capsized I tried a few things to go head to wind. The waves were such that the flat bottom was taking a pretty good beating. As I pointed into the wind the boat would stall but within a few minutes the boat would bear off and the sails would power up again. I counteracted this for an extended break by lashing the tiller in the opposite direction. I was pleased at how well this worked, but I think with as wobbly as the boat was when full of water if I tried this while bailing it would have gone over again as soon as the sails got any power.

Some boats in strong wind will point directly at the wind and stay there (I think? mostly sailed dinghies so not real sure.) My GIS doesn't like trying that. What is the reason?

Quote '' This is probably due to the fact that my "dry" compartments were flooded."

This certainly makes a huge difference in stability when flooded after capsizing!

Did you sort out why that happened? I am interested since I am building now and would like to avoid things like this.

I'm sure it is due to my rushed build. One of the things I did was order the access panels for the dry boxes from Duckworks too late. I wanted to cut the holes in the panels before I glued them in place. Being impatient and in a hurry I used the diagram from the Duckworks webpage to size my holes. I guess I made some big blunder because after the panels arrived the holes were (tragically) too big. The panels still fit over the hole but if I lined up one or two of the screw holes with the wood then some of the others were floating in midair. The actual panel covered the hole though.

Did I mention that I really rushed the build of my boat?

So I placed some small blocks of wood behind the plywood that protruded into the hole I cut for the access hatch and set the screws into these blocks of wood. I did get a good seal (maybe) with silicone all around the edge of the access hatches but the actual screw holes had 1/4" of air between the plastic and the wood they were screwed into. So as a result my panels leak. I have some ideas to fix it (mostly removing the hatches, cutting a new piece of ply to size and gluing it in place resulting in a doubled up bulkead). I can't imagine that anyone else would make this same mistake.

I could write pages and pages about the folly of setting a deadline on finishing your boat (especially a 6-7 week deadline). Maybe for some seriously competent woodworkers without a full time job this would be reasonable, but for me it was too rushed. I did love building the boat though and would recommend it to anybody.

Originally Posted by SamMilo

I'm not totally convinced of this. Before I capsized I tried a few things to go head to wind. The waves were such that the flat bottom was taking a pretty good beating. As I pointed into the wind the boat would stall but within a few minutes the boat would bear off and the sails would power up again. I counteracted this for an extended break by lashing the tiller in the opposite direction. I was pleased at how well this worked, but I think with as wobbly as the boat was when full of water if I tried this while bailing it would have gone over again as soon as the sails got any power.

Some boats in strong wind will point directly at the wind and stay there (I think? mostly sailed dinghies so not real sure.) My GIS doesn't like trying that. What is the reason?

Hello SamMilo,

Nice reading and an interesting story!

I have experienced the same with my GIS, well not the capsizing bit: I just don’t go there (not yet anyway). Another way of putting it, I am probably too much of a coward and tend to reef in time . And if truly overpowered I usually just tack rather than jibe (yes, I know, I should show some courage and just go for it).

My experience is that the GIS will point directly at the wind when you let go of the tiller as you would expect a small open boat to do if the sail is set correctly. Then however, if not sheeting in hard, the boat bears off until the boat is on a 90 degree angle to the wind (it seems to remain there). You would expect that the boat shows this behavior due to a force on the forward end of the boat which forces it to turn. I can think of the following:
- Waves pushing the bow aside
- Wind catching the bow
- Wind catching the part of the sail forward of the mast (which is my guess what is happening)

But I am not sure at all. I would love to hear other people’s opinions, especially from those who have years of experience sailing with a balanced lug rig (I am very much used to Marconi rigged dinghies and gaff sloop keelboats until I started sailing my GIS this spring).

Best regards,


P.S. Perhaps an easy solution might be to carry a second bucket onboard lashed to the bow to act as a drogue?