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Randy’s Thistle
Resources
Despite it's
high-performance billing, the Thistle is actually quite forgiving and easy to
sail. The hull shape give the boat considerable stability as it heels, and the
rudder rarely stalls until the boat is heeled way over. You have fair warning -
and time to forestall - a capsize. Fortunately,
righting the Thistle is easy, and you can be on your way, back in the race,
rather quickly.
First the obvious - you should have a life
jacket on. It is not much use stowed up forward is it? Find a comfortable
lifejacket that does not constrain your movements, and does not have too much
bulk in the shoulders (you do not want to make getting underneath the boom more
difficult). If the water is cold, you should be wearing a wetsuit, or in
extreme cold, a drysuit.
Basically, you either
capsize to leeward, or to windward. A typical leeward capsize is being blown
over by a gust while going upwind, or having the boom hit the water due to rake
and vang on a reach. A typical windward capsize happens when you are going on a
reach, downwind, or while trying to gybe. Remember that due to the speed, the
first control for balance is steering (put the bow under the falling mast) due
to the centrifugal force on the mast. Pulling the tiller toward you will
flatten the boat or capsize it to windward if done excessively. Conversely,
pushing the tiller at speed will heel the boat or cause a leeward capsize if
excessive. These responses are immediate, regardless of sail trim or sail
angle. To maintain control sail trim must them be adjusted correctly but at
speed, the tiller is the initial balance control.
In either case, you want to get some
weight on the centerboard without climbing over the boat to get to it.
Once the mast hits the
water you must immediately get off of the windward gunwale, otherwise
your weight will drive the boat over further, possibly breaking the mast if it
gets stuck in the bottom. Another factor causing a turtle is wind pressure on
the bottom of the boat causing the boat to drift over the mast driving it down.
In really bad conditions an extra person on the bow helps here. The Thistle
will float on its side for some time if left alone (unlike some other designs
that turn turtle very quickly, except in high wind where a turtle will
occur relatively quickly due the amount of hull acting as a sail. Having a hull
float high means little water inside but a big sail driving for turtle on a
leeward capsize.
If you are trying to climb up the inside
to the high side, so you can step onto the board, you will be turning the boat
turtle while doing so. If you are on the high rail when the mast hits the
water, stepping over the rail onto the centerboard is OK, otherwise, fall into
the water and swim around the transom to get to the centerboard. In a leeward
capsize, the crew often can sense it coming. As you approach perpendicular and before
you are pulled over, squat and straddle the rail. You were so high that you
weren't helping to right the boat, and sitting down is much easier than leaping
or being pulled over into the sail/mast. The skipper can usually get a leg over
the rail onto the centerboard before leaving the rail on a leeward capsize
also. Nobody wet, time to get it up before turtle etc. In any case, try to get
one person onto the centerboard.
If you cannot climb on to the centerboard,
hold onto the tip of the centerboard and put your feet on the (underside of
the) rail and pull down on the centerboard. This should gradually bring the
boat back to lying on its side, with the centerboard close to water level. It
is worth ensuring that the sheets are uncleated before you try to get the boat
up the rest of the way. Uncleating the vang may help as well.
In a race, we try to bring the boat up as
quickly as possible so we lose the least distance. We do not try to swim the
bow around, we just get on the centerboard. If the spinnaker was up, we try to
bring the boat up with the spinnaker, and only stop to stow the spinnaker if
things are a real mess.
A windward capsize is
usually messy, i.e. both people are on the wrong side of the boat. If you are
trying to climb up the inside to the high side so you can step onto the board,
you will be turning the boat turtle while doing so. If you are on the high rail
when the mast hits the water, stepping over the rail onto the centerboard is
OK. Don't even try to go over the boat, get one person around the back of the
hull to the centerboard, and proceed as for a leeward capsize. Wind pressure
will eventually force the gybe, so the boom and sail are in the water as with
the leeward capsize.
If you do not get the boat
up right away, the hull will eventually drift downwind of the mast, whichever
way you capsized. When you right the boat, it may try to go over the other way.
You can prevent that by having one of you floating in the water holding onto the
lower shroud, with the other person on the centerboard. When the boat comes up,
try to be "scooped up" by the boat. Keep your weight on that side so
as to stop the boat coming up and going over the other way in one motion. The
person on the board can - if feeling adventurous - hold onto the board, and let
it take you to the windward side as the boat comes up.
Another way is to make haste slowly, with
the wind really blowing (that is why you capsized, right) and the mast about to
clear the water, dive forward as if to push the mast back under water. With the
mast on or slightly under the water, the sail will begin to fill enough to blow
the boat head to wind. When it is head to wind rather than mast to wind,
complete the righting. It's not magic, it does work.
If you turtle in deep water, everything
will be fine. You can climb onto the hull, stand on one rail (grab the board
where it emerges from the bottom of the boat, step onto the rail and either
pull yourself up, or pull the boat part way up from turtled until you can stand
on the rail holding the centerboard, or climb onto the upturned hull from the
stern, which should be low enough for you to climb onto, once you put some
weight on it), hold onto the tip of the board, and lean back. If for some
reason the centerboard has fallen all the way back into the centerboard trunk
(a proper centerboard up and down control should prevent this), you need to get
your fingers through the slot gaskets at the back of the centerboard trunk,
find the tip of the centerboard and pull the centeboard all the way out. A
risky alternative is to go underneath the upside down boat (there is usually a
large airpocket between the seat tanks), and pull the CB out of the centerboard
trunk using the control lines.
Give the boat time to respond once you are
standing on the rail. You will gradually bring the boat up to its side. As this
happens, get on the centerboard, and right it normally. If you capsized in
shallow water and turtled the boat, you may have the mast stuck in the bottom
(I told you not to try and climb up the inside of the boat, didn't I!). Get one
person on the centerboard, and see if you can work the mast loose with the
weight. As long as the mast is not too deep in the bottom, the pressure of the
wind on the hull will gradually rotate the boat to leeward of the rig, possibly
working the mast free at the same time. If that doesn't work, a gentle tow from
a powerboat (in the direction that pulls along the length of the mast, pulling
the tip away from the bottom), with a line around the bottom of the forestay
should work.
If you are cold, tired, or
hurt, your safety is more important than the boat. Hypothermia is not a joke,
it can kill. You can get it in 80 degree air and water temperature - just wear
cotton and no windbreaker. If your lips are blue, you are slurring your speech
or can't seem to talk, don't make sense can't seem to think, you need out. Now!!!!!!!!!!!!.
The boat will probably be fine even if it spends hours capsized. Even is
shallow water, a broken mast is probably the worst damage you could expect from
leaving a capsized boat.
When the boat comes up you
have to figure out the best way for you to get back into it. The person on the
centerboard should be able to step from the centerboard over the rail, back
into the boat. The other person may be able to be "scooped up", or
can come over the side or transom (some Thistle sailors crawl in over the
transom because it is the lowest part of the boat). You may also be able to
reach in, grab something like the traveler and haul yourself in.
Even if you have brought
the boat up completely full of water, you are still in the race! You need to
bail out some water with your buckets (required by the class rules). It also helps to open both bailers, and open
the transom doors (if they are just taped, blow the tape - you don't need to
close them on a windy day). Point the boat at the next mark, and get going. You
do not need to reach off below closehauled if you are on a beat. Much of the
water will simply flow over the transom and over the seat tanks at the back.
The boat will pick up speed, and the suction bailers will get the rest of the
water out very quickly. The one maneuver you may wish to postpone is a gybe. A
heavy air gybe when full of water may result in another capsize. You can
probably get the boat dry in a few minutes.
This may sound complicated
to those who have not done it. It is not. Righting a Thistle is actually quite
easy. If you are not sure exactly how to handle a capsize, an unscheduled swim
in early spring during a race is not the best way to learn! Practice
this under controlled conditions with someone ready to provide assistance. Go
practice in smooth water on a nice warm day so that you know what to expect. -
No joke.
The Thistle is more stable
and easier to sail than you may think. It will capsize, but is easy to right.
You will be able to get back into the race.
If you are having trouble:
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