British Hobie Cat Class Association

hobie 14

Message #444 by:

Posted on:

Tuesday 25th of February 2003 at 1:27 pm

Hello,

You will need to establish a few things first about the boat. These will make it much easier to right if you stick it in.

1 - Do the hulls leak? If they do, the water will slosh from one end to the other and you will find it very hard to keep the boat level enough to right it.

2 - Does the mast leak? It should be a sealed unit, it it fills up with water (which it will do very quickly), you will have a hard time bringing her back as it will be like someone holding the end of the mast down!

There are two ways to right the boat. The boar will either be on it's side, or upside down.

If you pitch pole - end over end, the boat will probably end up on it's side with the mast pointing into the wind. This is the easiest way to right it.

Simply swim to the underside of the tramp, climb onto the hull by the dolphin striker (the metal rod under the front beam). You should have a righting line secured by one end to the base of the mast. If not, get a piece of rope with no knots in it which is long enough to go from the mast base to one side of the boat and back to the other side of the boat. This can also be doubled up as a towing line which can go through the bridle on the forestay.

Got that? Now throw the line over the top hull (the one in the air) and catch it on the other side. You now need to make sure that all the sails are not cleated. They may well be as you were probably just about to break the Hobie 14 world speed record jut before you found the slowest point of sailing! You will need to uncleat both the main and the main traveller. If your boat is a Turbo, you will also need to dump the jib as this can flip you over again once righted. Furl it up if you have time.

Now lean back on that line and the boat should come up. How much do you weigh? If you are over 68Kg's it should come up fine, otherwise you may need a little wind assistance. If there are 2 of you on board, try to keep one of you in the water or it will be too wobbly on the hull.

As the mast comes up, you will find that there will be a point where the boat becomes stable again and comes back on it's own. When you reach this point and if it is windy, you will need to hold on to the hull/dolphin sriker wgere your feet were. This will stop the boat flipping over again - well worth doing.

If you just went over sideways or backwards, you will probably find that the boat has gone turtle - 180 degrees. Do the same with your sheets - release them all, get the righting line, but now go and sit on the back corner of one of the hulls - the one that is to leward of the other.

You will find that the boat will start to come up and once you get a little wind under the tramp it should come onto it's side. You then just need to do the bit's we have already covered.

When the boat does come up - should be 3-4 mins after the wipeout, MAKE SURE YOU HANG ONTO IT. When you get back onto the boat, bring back in that righting line (this is where you will be pleased that there are no knots in the line, or they will get stuck between the rudder and the hull.

And away you go.

I hope that helps. If you find the boat is always sticking it's nose in, there are things you can do to stop that.

Remember, the best thing to do is not capsize in the first place.

Mark