Capsizing - and Righting - a 505

by Peter Mignerey, Graham Alexander, and Ali Meller

Updated July 10, 2000

Despite it's high-performance billing, the 505 is actually quite forgiving and easy to sail. The flared tanks 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.

None-the-less, capsizing is easy to do, so we will focus on how to right a capsized 505. Fortunately, righting the 505 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). I liked the Musto Regatta Vest for this reason, but recently switched to a Busta bouyancy aid from the UK. Others recommend the SEDA kayak vests. I suspect the new self-inflating type PFDs may work as well, but I have not tried them (I also do not know what happens after they inflate the first time - presumably you must keep it inflated for the rest of the race). If you want a US Coast Guard approved PFD, many dinghy sailors use the Extrasport. If the water is cold, you should be wearing a wetsuit, or in extreme cold, a drysuit.

The Capsize

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.

Leeward Capsize
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 505 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 (I have occasionally gone underneath the boat, but this is risky due to the lines in the water - the last time I tried this, I had to untangle a spinnaker sheet from my foot), 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.

Windward Capsize
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.

Hull Drifting to Leeward of Rig

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.

I once saw a couple who had not learned the lesson attempt to right a boat with the mast into the wind, and they went through 21 complete turtles before they got to the leeward shore. Needless to say they were exhausted. They learned the lesson and never had that problem again.

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.

Your Safety is the Prime Concern

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.

Getting Back into the 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 505 sailors crawl in over the transom because it is the lowest part of the boat). Other good options are to grab a trapeze handle, lean back in the water, throw your feet over the gunwale and do a kip into the boat. A crew wearing a trapeze harness and possibly a weight jacket (use of weight jackets was outlawed by ISAF as of the 1996 rule changes) may have trouble getting over the side. Assuming the skipper got in the boat first, the skipper can heel the boat to windward, lowering the windward rail for the crew, or can lower the trapeze hook and have the crew hook up to it. Even if the crew cannot kip into the boat, being hooked up and outside the boat will allow them to lift themselves up on the trapeze adjuster, and then push off the rail. You may also be able to reach in, grab something like the traveler and haul yourself in.

Getting Back Into the Race

Even if you have brought the boat up completely full of water, you are still in the race! Open both Elvstrom bailers, and open the transom bailers (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 minute or so. If you are quick, you will not have lost all that much time, and may be able to get back into the race. I can remember capsizing twice in a race, and still managing to win over teams that did not capsize at all. I have also capsized in races at a World Championship and managed to fight back to close to the position we were in when we capsized.

The most spectacular 505 capsize and righting prize probably goes to Peter Mignerey and Monty Schumpert, who rolled in to weather going down a three sail reach during a Cape Code North American Championship. Somehow, a puff of wind caught the sails, they were able to sheet in, and water start the 505 just like it was a windsurfer. They were up on plane, with Monty on the wire, and with the bailer sucking the water out, in just a few moments.

Practice

This may sound complicated to those who have not done it. It is not. Righting a 505 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.

In Conclusion:

The 505 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:
The authors have had many opportunities to perfect their capsize-and-righting technique. Fortunately, unscheduled practice sessions are now few and far between.

Peter Mignerey / mignerey@wave11i.nrl.navy.mil
Graham Alexander / Graham_H_Alexander_at_~BMI9@battelle.org
Ali Meller / ameller@mcimail.com