Regarding open dinghies - some lessons.

[CapnK]

Regarding the WB8 - or IMO *any* open dinghy - and capsizing.

It is *very* difficult to recover fully from a capsize, due to the interior volume of the boat. I flipped my WB8 maybe three weeks ago at sunset, less then 1/2 mile from the marina, and it took me 2 hours of hard work before I could get back into the marina. I am of average size (5' 9", 165#), and in fairly good physical shape. If your physical condition isn't at least that, you may not get back in at all.

I probably could have gotten back sooner, knowing what I know now, but it still would have been a serious workout. My main problem stemmed from the fact that I only had a "ThirstyMate" brand bilge pump. Trust me on this - Bring A Bucket! :) The ThirstyMate pump is only good for getting a few inches of rain out of the boat, and almost worthless as a true bilge pump in flooding conditions. I know this because I pumped in excess of 1,200 strokes on the ThirstyMate (I was counting). The interior volume of the WB8 (or any similar open dinghy) is such that it'll hold a lot more water than you think - or want.

The WB8 won't sink, but it'll settle so close to the gunwales that even a 4-6" chop will wash into the boat. With that much water inside the hull, it becomes very unstable as well, which makes staying inside difficult, and bailing from inside almost impossible. You will have to bail a lot of water out ***while floating next to the boat in the water yourself*** before climbing back in, and the process of climbing back in will tend to refill most of what you have bailed.

To first bail enough water out to get back into the boat without flooding it back to a submerged state, think 1/2 the water, or more, needs to be removed. Then, to get back in, you will have to come in over the stern ***VERY*** quickly, or you will completely reflood the boat (I did that twice  ::)). After you are back in the boat, bail the rest ASAP.

If it is windy and choppy, it really helps to drop the sail while you bail, reboard, and rebail.

You might even want to practice this at a beach before you sail out into deeper/farther waters.

It is a serious-enough consideration that I have been trying to think of some way to reduce the interior volume of the boat before sailing her again. Had it been winter or cold water, I could have been in big trouble pretty quickly, and abandoning the boat to swim to shore would have been the best and most-viable option...

As an aside, where I flipped was almost directly off the end of the Coast Guard dock, well within 300 yards of it. Shortly after flipping, while I was swimming next to the boat, the CG left the dock, and I was afraid that someone had called them out on me. They shined their spotlight my way for several seconds, but then took off downriver.

I was glad for that, knowing that I was in no danger, not wanting them to waste time or tax dollars on me while I learned a lesson that I wanted to learn anyway (how to recover in this type of situation).

They returned to their dock as I was finishing my bailing and prepping to get under way again, but didn't shine their light my way, so I tried 'sneaksailing' back in. :D

Somewhat unluckily for me, their dock is a baseball-throw from my marina, and one of the guys spotted something out there in the dark (me), and then spotlighted it (me again), when I was only 50 feet away from being hidden from their view by boats in our marina. :( Since I had no lights on and it was nearly 10:30, they came over as I was tying up to my dock. (They were cool about it (no tickets), but did give me a whistle. :D ;) )

However, the reason to relate this part was to tell you that when they initially had the spotlight on me - and these are young guys who are part of the S&R teams - they *could not* see me or the boat, even though she was upright, and still had the sails up. One guy of the 3 said he thought he might have seen something, and that was why he initially shone the spotlight my direction. Even so, we were not a visible enough target for him to pick us out at under 300 yards using a Mark 1 Eyeball and spotlight.

So take all this into consideration before you venture out too far in an open dinghy. :)

[AdriftAtSea]

Thanks for the post... :D  Sounds like a very good learning experience. 

BTW, a large laundry detergent bottle with the bottom cut off and the top glued on makes an excellent bailer.

I also recommend having a whistle, strobe and retro-reflective patches on the PFDs you use in your dinghy. 

[CapnK]

Similar to what you describe, Dan, I've a modified bleach bottle with a bungee string and 'biner attached that I usually carry attached to the dink (along with the usual req'd gear - VHF, lights, flare, whistle, etc...), but this time - *this time* - I was just going out for a 30-minute-sunset sail staying close to the dock, and so just grabbed the TM pump and PFD...  ::) :-X

Isn't that how it always happens? DOH!!! ;)

The only part of my plan that worked out was the "staying close to the dock" part. :D

Another rec I had was to put reflective tape onto the mast and boat - a good idea, that. Besides making it easier for rescuers if need be, it would go a long way towards making a small boat like a dink more visible to boat traffic in general.

And from now on, I've had reinforcement that it is smart to always take your gear. I usually feel like I am "overpacked" or overprepared, but this just goes to show that basically, you can't be...

[AdriftAtSea]

LOL.... and my friends say I'm paranoid for packing loaded for bear.... :)