PeteCress wrote:
UKTI wrote:
Another area that concerns me is that if I do go overboard with the sheet cleated, the TI will not wait around. I'm considering how best to rig a 'kill' line between me (somewhere) and a quick release shackle on the rear mainsheet block.
Anybody tried this without strangling themselves?
I have been obsessing about this for almost a year now.
My current practice is a tether of 1/2" braided line attached to the rear X-bar and snap-shackled to my PFD/Harness. .... The snap-shackle has a lanyard connected to the release pin that I am pretty sure I can pull if/when I have to.
But I would very much like to add your "Kill" line.
...
Hi PeteCress & UKTI,
I posted over on this thread (
http://www.hobiecat.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=59796) about my tether experiments, but I am adding it here, too, as it seems relevant:
TetherThere I was, out on the lake at family camp this summer with my wife. We had a pretty decent wind, with whitecaps, and I had my micro-hakas in place so I could hike out on the tramp and balance it a little. I was piloting from the rear seat, and I wanted to hike out onto the port haka. As I placed my feet on the tramp and sat back, I missed the haka… and suddenly I was going over backwards, head-over-heels, implementing an impromptu test of my self-inflating PFD! As I bobbed to the surface, there was my wife, with no sailing experience, disappearing into the sunset!
Naturally, she yelled, “What do I do!”, and I yelled back, “Steer toward me!” She actually did a good job steering the boat back. I managed to grab an ama and crawl back aboard. Sailing the rest of the way back to the launch point (a beach) was slightly uncomfortable with the inflatable PFD up tight around my ears. My wife, ever concerned for my safety, suggested I look into implementing a tether to prevent the boat from sailing off without me in the future. Thus this post.
I read up on this forum about what I could regarding tethers. I couldn’t find anything that was based on real-world experience. Someone expressed hesitation regarding “skiing” behind the boat as it continued to sail, and being unable to swim or keep ones head above the water. Various attachment points have been discussed, including foot, wrist, and waist. With all that swirling in my head, I determined to do a little experimentation. I started with 50 feet of 1/8” paracord, because that is what I had for spare line in my boat at the time. Someone had suggested tying the tether to the bow so you would work as a sea anchor and keep the bow pointed into the wind. That seemed like a reasonable idea, so I tied the far end of the line first to the front aka crossbar, then up through the bow shackle, then back to the rear seat, where it would connect to me. I didn’t really like the idea of having a rope around my ankle, or my wrist for that matter. So I tied the line to the lowest latch on my PFD. For this test, I didn’t want to waste another $30 refill of the inflatable PFD, so I used a normal, vest-type PFD I always carry as a spare. The line ended up tied about at my belly-button.
I implemented the test in two phases, as so:
1. STATIC PHASETo begin the test, I stopped the boat in the middle of the lake and furled the sail. The boat was drifting a little bit with the wind, but not too bad. I then just jumped in the water. No big deal so far, the boat was not drifting so fast I couldn't catch up with it, even with my pathetic swimming skills. So, I swam backwards as fast as I could until I ran out of line… and bump, I felt a gentle tug. I stopped, and the boat stopped. I could almost pull the boat behind me. At no point did I feel like it was going to pull me under, or make it awkward to swim. I had full control of my attitude and position at all times. All I had to do was pull myself along the line back to the boat. In fact, as I pulled, the boat moved towards me slightly, as I moved in its direction.
2. DYNAMIC PHASEEmboldened by the success and lack of drama of the first phase, I immediately determined to go all-out. I set the sail, got up some speed, and dropped overboard. Just like the static test, this was impressively drama-free. As the line ran out, I felt a gentle tug, and I picked up a little motion, and the boat slowed down considerably. I was easily able to pull myself back to the boat. I didn’t really act like much of a sea-anchor, pointing the bow into the wind, but that didn’t matter, because the boat was pretty much dead in the water anyway, and there just wasn’t much motion. After returning to the boat, I managed to slide around to where the mainsheet was cleated and uncleat it. After that, the most annoying part was the sail flapping loudly overhead, until I could get back aboard and furl it.
Based, then, upon this limited but real-world test, I am much less worried about the tether causing any kind of issues when in the water. After thinking about the physics, I decided that the difference between the weight of the boat and my weight was relatively small, in proportion. I weigh maybe 150 lb soaking wet, and the boat is maybe 250 lb, fully loaded. So the difference was vastly less than that between me and a fully loaded bass boat at 2500 lb. I affected the motion of the boat nearly as much as it affected me. There was no way it would ever be going fast enough to drag me very far before it slowed down to a snail’s pace.
I still have the tether on the boat, just as I originally rigged it. Just to reduce the amount of line laying around the boat, I might shorten it and tie it to the rear aka crossbar for the next sailing season. Trying to leave it on the bow shackle is kind of pointless, because it just doesn’t have the intended affect.
Just to repeat and summarize, even with the sail fully loaded and the sheet cleated, the boat was unable to drag much at all, and I had no issues whatever pulling myself back to the boat.
An enhancement I plan to add next season is to create loops in the tether line to assist in righting the boat from a capsize. See more about righting an AI/TI here:
http://www.hobiecat.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=71&t=59480
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) and if the probability of the particular scenario actually happening is lower than (say) getting bitten by a snake, or getting run over on the way to the shops, I tend not to fret about it too much.