How To Right An Upturned Sailing Dinghy.

You never know when you will need this survival technique but as with all of the weapons in the red blooded male’s armoury righting the upturned sailing dinghy should be one of them.

The first thing to remember when you capsize is not to lose contact with the craft. Keep a hold and hang on until you can reorganise your wits. In a sail boat the wind will push your sail onto the water surface, do not hang on or lie on the sail as once it goes under the water it will be extremely difficult to right the craft. When you can, manoeuvre yourself so that your back is to the prevailing wind at the rear of your craft with the sail laid in front of you. If there are two or more of you then one person, who knows how to sail, needs to be at the front, in a position ready to be scooped up when the boat is righted. The rest, if any, should help right the boat. One person should climb on to the daggerboard keeping as close as possible to where the hull meets the daggerboard to avoid excess pressure. Grab the boat rail with both hands making sure that your buddy has one leg in the boat and is holding on, ready to be scooped up. Now stand up, placing your feet firmly on the daggerboard or on the hull if there isn’t one, and lean back. The weight of your body will be enough to get the sail to leave the water surface. It will leave the water slowly at first, but once it clears the water the process becomes much easier. As the sail comes up it will orientate itself in the lee of the wind and as such the boat will not be sailing. On occasions the sail sheets (ropes) will be tangled in the rigging and can in fact start to sail away. The coxswain should be ready to release the sheets to stop this happening and then begin to bail out the water before bringing on board the rest of the sailors.