Well that was fun

[Stillraining]

yep...way to much fun for me.. we almost lost it...the mast was sticking straight down and an air bubble caught in the bow in the only thing that kept her from a watery grave..got towed in by that ski boat.

[Little Otter]

whose boat?

[cal40john]

Most small boats manufactured after a certain date are required to have floatation built in to keep them from sinking (in the U.S. anyway). Look around on your boat for blocks of foam under the seat or in the bow. Here is a Victory 21 showing that she is unsinkable, but not self-rescuing. Pictures are about 1/3 of the way down the page. Foam was added forward after this incident so that it would float in such a manner as to be possible to bail it out if the waves weren't too large.

Victory 21 Floatation Page

John

[Stillraining]

Originally Posted by Little Otter

whose boat?

I went out and bought a small boat ..feeling guilty that I owned a big one...wanting to get along with everyone..so now Im twice as cool..

[Starbuck]

Well, don't leave us hanging, Man!

You start with the outcome of the story: there's an interesting, entertaining, and educational tale that wants to be told.

"It was a dark and stormy night…" has already been used, so you will have to start some other way.

[Inthewind]

Come on, you really just launched the boat and forgot to put the plug in or you took a serious wave. Maybe you hit a submerged rock. Did you capsize? What is it, how did it happen? I promise I won't laugh.LOL... Kidding

[delmarrey]

This might be of interest to small boat owners!

Sec. 183.101—Applicability

This subpart applies to monohull inboard boats, inboard/outdrive boats, and airboats less than 20 feet in length, except sailboats, canoes, kayaks, inflatable boats, submersibles, surface effect vessels, amphibious vessels, and raceboats.

[CGD 75-168, 42 FR 20243, Apr. 18, 1977, as amended by USCG-1999-5832, 64 FR 34716, June 29, 1999]

Boatbuilder's Handbook - Flotation

[cal40john]

Originally Posted by delmarrey

This might be of interest to small boat owners!

Sec. 183.101—Applicability

This subpart applies to monohull inboard boats, inboard/outdrive boats, and airboats less than 20 feet in length, except sailboats, canoes, kayaks, inflatable boats, submersibles, surface effect vessels, amphibious vessels, and raceboats.

[CGD 75-168, 42 FR 20243, Apr. 18, 1977, as amended by USCG-1999-5832, 64 FR 34716, June 29, 1999]

Boatbuilder's Handbook - Flotation

Interesting, I'd never actually seen the law. Several people have pointed at the floatation in most of the dinghies and daysailors that we have worked on and said it was there due to regulation. Admittedly, boats like Lasers and Flying Juniors, it's nothing more than a few capped plastic gallon jugs filled with air as the backup for when you leave the plugs out so the boat doesn't go to the bottom. So it's fairly impressive to me the number of different boats I've seen that have positive floatation in them and it actually isn't required.

John

[James S]

Stillraining
We're waiting.....lets hear it???

[Stillraining]

LOL...OK..OK..

First off..I told Little Otter in a PM to keep the secret ..It is not my boat...that was a pun intended for the anti big boat crowd..So Please forgive me and my wayward ways..


OK here we go...It was two years ago

There we were minding or own buisness.. ( am I Doing this right ?)


It was one of thoes sultry muggy days in one of Eastern Washington's desert type lakes which experience some pretty violent Micro burst winds from time to time..Sailing with the boats owner and Pastor of our church I was on the tiller and he on the main sheet when all of a sudden one of thoes winds hit the lake..we both were on the high side with our backs to it so we did not see it comming..but it knocked us so hard and fast I did not even have time to think about pushing the tiller to leeward but rather instinct just had me pulling on everything..not that any corect tiller movement would have helped anyway as Im sure it was out of the water by then anyhow...the result we were both quickly and effectively catapulted from the boat .

Once I surfaced and verified my fellow crew was alive and well... I noticed in our predicament and my quick scan around to see whom might be in the vicinity to help that Dome tents were being riped from there tent stakes and "Tumbleweeding" all across the camp areas across the lake on shore as we desperately went to work to right the boat.

At first I was able to manage to keep the mast just barely below the waters surface as he worked to release the sheets by hanging off the swing keel with all the weight of my body that I could pull up onto it..I could hear water flooding the hull and knew we had very limited time..after he succeeded in releasing the sheets he joined me at the keel and we managed to right the boat... but the companionway hatches were out and with the narrow beam she had immediately started taking on a lot of water .. With its now internally loaded water ballast its momentum on our righting arm pulling on the keel just flopped it over on the other side and we both found ourselves trapped under water under the sail canvas...
Diving and swimming fee we surfaced to find the swing keel now retracted in the hull...I was able to dig it out with clawing fingers and several mangled and broken nails but it was to no avail...in short order the amount of water flooding the boat overpowered both our weight on the keel and she starter to turn turtle..

I told my friend we were going to loose her and he assured me there was enough internal flotation he though to keep her afloat..She ended up 180 in a total turn turtle position as she slipped further and further beneath the surface..By the time we were noticed by a ski boat there was a section of the bottom of the hull and bow the size of a bath tub barely above the water.

We tied a tow line from the ski boat to the bow eye and he slowly applied power..as we made our way the 3/4 mile across the lake very very slowly the mast acted like a hydrofoil and started lifting itself from vertical..we were able to once again togather pry out the swing keel and gradually she continue rotating to within almost 90 angel to the water with both of us standing on her keel..

Once into the shallows of shore and quite the commotion of people had gathered including the Park Rangers to make sure everyone was accounted for and we got plenty of help to grab hold of the mast and lift walk her into a righted position much like the raising of the flag image in your mind on Iwo Jima...My wife arrived just moments after this and snapped the few pictures we have of the ordeal.

Iv been in knock downs before but non acting as this one did..As Shared with Litter Otter in my PM the scary thing is a few weeks before the owner had soloed the boat across one of our straights here in Puget Sound...Had he had this experiance there I am sure he would have left his wife widowed and been his tragic end.

Hope you enjoyed.

Scott

[Stillraining]

Here we are vanquished hero's.. leaving the throngs and cheers from shore...Hats and sunglasses intact...but with a missing rudder which we never found...What a couple dweebs..

[Starbuck]

Still, you're a good sport. Reminds me of my many of my own "dinghy flips" when learning the ropes…

[Ex-Calif]

If you have never capsized a boat get out there and do it.

[Little Otter]

Hi guys, hey Ex about the capsizing I wouldn't if I were you, I did a couple times on lake lanier and nearly wet my pants when the capsize drill went wrong and in stead of having to help right the sail boat we nearly lost our instructor and one of the students because the keel bolts came out on the inside and capsized without warning with the guys inside, luckily some one had left 2 sets of goggles onboard and me and my partner got the guys out before she went down but the only thing I can think of is that God must really like us sailors because it wasn't more than 30 seconds after we got the guys out that the boat went down even with all of it's foam and air pockets to make it unsinkable.

[No Survivors]

Looks like one of the little lakes near where I live in Eastern WA. We live next to Medical Lake which is in the Spokane Area. Which lake is that?