Recovery from 180 degree capsize

[Noklin]

I was looking at the swallowboats web page from the UK and saw an interesting feature on their boats. From the write up and the video, it helps one person recover the boat from a 90 or 180 degree capsize. I was wondering how it worked and if it could be back fitted to a boat like the Core Sound 20.

Below is info from their web page on this feature: (Hopefully I am not violating any copyright by posting this without their permission)

"Once fully inverted another big safety feature automatically kicks in. Her Asymmetric Capsize Buoyancy (ACB) is a real life saver. Boats that will self right from 90 degrees are usually also very stable upside down. Two or more crew have enough weight to right her from a full inversion, but ACB makes this possible even for one relatively small crew member. It works by flooding one side buoyancy tank when inverted, which destablizes the boat and in about 60 seconds, gives her a noticeable upside down heel angle. The skipper should wait on top of the up turned hull and right the boat by leaning on the centreboard, helping the boat heel to the same side as that induced by the ACB. Once righted, the water in the buoyancy tank floods out though the outboard well via the self draining cockpit floor. "

I have read that many people figure that about 20 feet is the largest boat that one person can hope to self right from a 90 degree capsize and that to recover this size of boat from a 180 degree capsize would require outside help.

[boatmik]

I have read that many people figure that about 20 feet is the largest boat that one person can hope to self right from a 90 degree capsize and that to recover this size of boat from a 180 degree capsize would require outside help.

Howdy!

It probably is the same person many times - it is the way of the web - someone says something with a number in it and it gets passed round as legitimate from that point on.

I know 12 footers that can't be raised after a capsize and many much bigger boats don't need any help at all.

And maybe it is a good point to meditate apon ... Voss's Tillikum, Slocum's spray, Cooks Endeavour all were not self righting from much past 90 degrees.

Anything that can help a boat recover can be useful if fairly foolproof and non-cumbersome and simple to use by ordinary people in non stressful difficult circumstances.

These have been the problems of other systems in the past - maybe this one is better?

Best wishes

Michael Storer.

[JeffM]

I don't know where else the idea may have come from, but I got it directly from Graham Byrnes in a phone conversation when I was building the cs20 he designed.  I suggested I'd like to solo sail the boat in blue water, and wondered what I should be worried about.  He suggested that the most important safety consideration if I were single-handing far from help, was whether I could right the boat alone.  He guessed that 20ft was about the limit of boat size that could be righted by one person.  That led me to test it (albeit in shallow water in calm conditions) where I found I could get my boat back on her feet if I got to the cb fairly quickly and hung on to it patiently for a minute.