Righting a Getaway

I recently intentionally capsized my Getaway to ensure I could right it as a solo sailor, if I ever had the need. I was concerned to have great difficulty and ultimately had to get the assistance of my son. I am 230lbs. My getaway is equipped with the benches and I believe they hinder bringing the boat upright. Before I invest in a better righting system I thought I would check here to see what other owners have used.

Thanks.

What righting system do you have. I just got a getaway, It came with a righting line, I've had a 16, 14 and 17 and the 16 was the hardest so far, but I've never flipped my getaway.

While sailing solo recently, I flipped my Getaway. I am 6' tall, 235lbs and 64 years old. I was able to get the boat upright by myself using the righting line supplied by Hobie. It took 3 attempts due to errors on my part.
1 I didn't practice this first
2 I didn't release the sheets
3 I didn't release the down haul
4 I didn't face the boat into the wind, to get some lift under the sail

Being in a hurry, I first tried to right the boat with the sails sheeted hard, this allowed the sails to act like a sea anchor. I then furled the jib and tried again, ha ha. I now decided to drop the main (never thinking to release the main sheet first and trying to right the boat). I thought dropping the main would get the weight of the sail and the resistance of the water away from the top of the mast. In order to get the halyard free at the tip of the mast, I had to swim out to the "Bob" and place my feet against it for leverage (see #3 above) With the halyard free, I then pulled about 60% of the main out of the track. With the jib furled and about half of the main pulled out of the track, the boat came up very fast and easy.

In retrospect, I don't believe I needed to drop the main, I think the boat would have come up with the jib furled and the main sheet released. I am glad that the boat didn't come up with the sheets in tight, because it probably would have sailed away from me. If this were to happen again in strong wind conditions and no other boats around, I think I would drop the main anyway, so that it would act like a sea anchor and keep the boat from leaving me.

There are some good posts on this forum about righting a Getaway, you may want to search for them. One other thought in regards to righting your boat that I don't think I've ever seen. I drain my hulls every time I go out, never much water but I do it. If you had 2 or 3 gallons of water in the skyward hull when you flip it and a few 6 packs and a bag of ice in the storage box, it would offset some of your body weight and make it harder to right the boat. While I only had a couple of bottles of water and no ice on board, I do have a 2hp Yamaha and a fairly heavy stainless steel mounting bracket and the boat still came over easy. I would have loved to have had a picture of the boat on it's side and the motor about 4ft. out of the water.

I flipped my new Getaway last summer shortly after I bought it and learned some lessons the hard way. First and foremost read the manual! If I had, at the very least, known to release the main before trying to right the boat, it would have made a huge difference (and saved me some embarrassment). Not only did the fire department and water patrol respond, I made the local paper!

No harm was done to me or my non-sailing anymore wife, but my Getaway did suffer a couple of twisted parts. Thanks for reminding to review my righting procedures!

I flip my getaway regularly just for fun (kids I sail with like the capsizing and righting), and also sometimes it happens unintentionally when I let inexperienced people handle the sheet in high winds. I try to do it in places where if I'm not able to get it up, I'll safely drift into shore. I'm 165, and I haven't been able to right it by myself yet (have tried a couple of times only). I have heard positive comments about the righting bag to increase righting weight filling it with water.
As said in other posts, the first thing to do is to release the sheets.
Then, putting the boat in the "power righting" position is very important (wind coming at 45°, right in between the bows and the mast). Pointing into to wind also works, but in power righting the wind helps you. Don't even bother trying to get it up if you are not in the right position(you'll just lose energy). I got a line in the bow which helps me getting the bow into the wind and/or power righting position. Then just hang from the line until it comes up, and when it's coming watch your head, go in the water between hulls, and hold the other side of the line as you are getting in the water to prevent the boat from going over to the other side.

Flipping my Getaway scares the dickens out of me! I never had a problem with righting my 16, but even with my 220lb. hulkiness I can't get it up(sorry). I also discovered by accident (see one of my older posts) that with the boat up I can not get back on board while in the water, (very embarrassing). I have purchased a small aluminum boarding ladder and I will try it out this summer.

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06 getaway -- always remember, man with both feet in mouth have no leg to stand on.

Roy, per my post above. While it's a pain, I furled the jib and dropped the main, this got the weight of the sail away from the top of the mast. This also eliminates the resistance of the sails in the water. Doing the above allowed me to right the boat by myself. I would leave at least a few feet of the sail in the track, to facilitate raising it when you get the boat back up. This method also keeps the boat from sailing away, or flipping over to the other side. This may not be the quickest or the macho way to do it, but it worked for me.

I am in Costa Rica and sometimes I sail along a deserted coast and it gives me a great peace of mind, knowing that I can right the boat solo and not worry about needing to wait for help.

If you launch your boat in a protected area, you could leave your main on the trailer and flip the boat in shallow water to see if you are able to right it by yourself.

One other important thing, make sure you have the factory righting line and that it is the correct length and correctly installed. I am positive, that if I didn't have the correct line with the elastic cover, I would not have been able to right the boat. The elastic line allowed me to really get my weight outward and as I said the boat righted very easy.

Maybe one of the lighter guys on this forum could try this method and let us know if he was succsesfull and how much he weighed.

First time I flipped my Getaway, I thought I'd be able to right it on my own no problem. I released the main sheet and the jib sheet and just hung off the righting line. I'm 6'1" and 245 and I couldn't do it. Then I remembered the book suggesting swimming the mast into the wind. Once I did that, it popped up without a problem. With the mast into the wind the sail catches the wind as soon as you pop the mast float out of the water and it pops it up quite easily. If you don't put the mast into the wind, the tramps will act as a sail and resist your attempts to right it.

If you can swim the mast into the wind, I'm sure that a much lighter person would be able to right it solo.

for anyone, I suggest grabbing some friends and practicing at least once to make sure you can do it before it happens by accident and you realize that you can't.

I too had trouble righting the Getaway.
It is true you can try to turn it into the wind and right it that way, but generally windy conditions are increasingly choppy, and swimming the mast around can be difficult, and standing on the bow of the hull is ineffective. This can be a long and tiring process.

I just bought a water bag from murrys.com and it worked great. I can eventually right the getaway with the help of wind, but was not too confident. The water bag lets me right it fairly quickly in any conditions.

So going back to my other post, am I the only one that has trouble getting back on the boat from in the water? Do you normally come up the back, side, or the front?

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06 getaway -- always remember, man with both feet in mouth have no leg to stand on.

I usually climb up from the side of the boat. The stern end will have less free board so it might be easier there. If you can grab the hiking strap on the tramp, that may help you to pull yourself up.

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2002 Getaway - SOLD in 2018 "Cheshire Cat"
2016 AI - Bought used 3.18.23 "Crabby Puppy"

I've got wings on mine, so I grab hold of the wing, one hand on each side. Then I swing my legs up and hook them around the wing strut and then roll over onto the hull. It doesn't sound pretty, but it works for me.

Hi everyone,
I bought a new Getaway in 2009. I flipped it the second time sailing it. As a long time sailor, I was astonished that I could not right the thing myself using the righting line (the Hobie video that came with my boat shows a single thin-ish guy righting it - bull !!).

1st capsize, 20 minutes into my second sail. Another sailor dove in and swam to right the boat with me.

2nd capsize, with a failed home-made righting-bag (made from a watertight MEC camping bag), a keel boat threw me a line to right me.

3rd capsize, with a purchased "Murrays Cat Righting Bag". What a waste of money. My 165lbs could not right my Hobie Getaway. Again, I needed a rescue.

4th capsize, my home-made 2.5m righting pole version 1, let me right my boat myself right away, but it bent. Pole was a simple galvanized fence top rail from Home Depot. I attached with a home-modified commercial bracket to the base of my mast. I can send you a diagram of my bracket to whomever wants one. I bought thick angle bracket at a local store and drilled holes in it.

5th capsize, my home-made 2.5m righting pole version 2, worked like a charm. I was able to right my boat easily. It was a 2.5 metre fence top rail from Home Depot, lined with an 8 foot section of copper pipe, lined with a 6 foot doweling. Yes, yes, I simply walked the store putting stuff together. Wrapped again with grip tape from Canadian Tire. Worked great, but I felt that I could improve upon it. It is quite heavy when wet, and I felt that it added a lot of weight to my boat when I was pulling it single hand up my club's boat ramp after a sail.

6th capsize, my home made 2.3m(?) righting pole version 3, worked so-so. It is made from a broken windsurfer mast that I bought at a local windsurfer store. I was able to right my boat, but maybe not as easily as with my heavy pole. I am not sure. Of course, it could have been cause by my main sail being stuck in the mud. In hind sight, maybe the pole sticking out a bit past the stern spreader bar is better than having shortened it from 2.5m to 2.3m(ish). On the plus side, it is way lighter than the metal/copper/wood version 2 righting pole.

Here are three pictures of my righting pole version 3. It lets me sail in heavy winds, knowing that I can right my Getaway by myself if I have to.







Cheers,
...Dave

How about this?:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rm5FIkmx ... re=related

Or this? ("There's more than one way to skin... or right... a cat!")
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCbihZsX ... re=related