sunfish assisted capsize recovery

sailors at the North Shore Yacht Club on Lake Michigan in Highland Park, Illinois have developed some new techniques to help Sunfish sailors assist nearby sailors that have capsized their Sunfish sailboat and are having difficulty righting the boat or getting back out of the water into the boat.  Alan Cohen is an American Canoe Association certified Level 2 Sea Kayak Instructor, an experienced Sunfish sailor, and former Commodore of the North Shore Yacht Club, and he prepared an article discussing these methods and helped with the re-enactment to make the video below to help explain the methods.  Alan’s article can be found here or here (.pdf file).

a few of the reasons this method might be beneficial are highlighted in the article and video, including the following:

• Sunfish has capsized and/or fully turtled
• the daggerboard has fallen out, or won’t stay in the daggerboard slot to assist with flipping the Sunfish back over
• sailor fatigue
• help getting in the boat

there’s often discussions over on the Sunfish Forum about various ways to help with one or several of the above list, but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen them summarized so nicely in a written article, and now a video demonstration as well.  the article and video highlight (4) basic techniques to help a nearby Sunfish sailor recover from a capsize:

• getting a fallen daggerboard back into the boat
• helping to right a capsized boat
• using a rope foot sling to assist with reboarding
• steadying a Sunfish to assist during reboarding

North Shore Yacht Club has been a leader in putting together great videos to help Sunfish sailors, I’ve highlighted some of their previous videos on my blog already:

• • rigging a Sunfish sailboat
  • rigging a Sunfish sailboat – part 2
  • tack your Sunfish step by step

today’s tunes: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds “Galleon Ship”

for today’s tunes, a selection from the latest album “Ghosteen” from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.

For we are not alone, it seems, so many riders in the sky
The winds of longing in their sails, searching for the other side

if you don’t know some of the back story about Nick Cave in recent years, look into it a little bit (his teenage son died in an accident in 2015).  you can feel the raw emotion in a lot of his songs on this album.

here’s an album review from Pitchfork that gives some background on it: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/nick-cave-and-the-bad-seeds-ghosteen/

 

a Sunfish upgrade?

a random photo sent from my mom, with Dad standing next to a beautiful little sailboat, with just the following text:

Dad is negotiating…..

she’s likely just pulling my leg, but I suppose it’s never too late for Opa to start sailing!

my2fish blog’s birthday: 10 years gone

ten years gone.  the length of time I’ve been blogging about Sunfish sailing.

ten years gone. also a fantastic Led Zeppelin song.

Then as it was, then again it will be
And though the course may change sometimes
Rivers always reach the sea

anyway, thanks again to all of you who follow along and pretend to read my posts, and extra special thanks to those of you brave enough to make a comment or two. [once upon a time, Baydog used to comment a lot… maybe Zeppelin will bring him out of hiding?]

I’ve had fun blogging, sailing, and blogging about sailing, and hope to keep doing it for the near future!

cheers,

my2fish

do you like sailing? a test

here is a simple test to determine if you would enjoy sailing:

1. rig up a rope swing in your back yard tree.
2. get two friends to come over.
3. have one swing you back and forth.
4. have the other spray you in the face with a cold hose.
5. rip up a couple $100 bills while you are enjoying the spray.

any questions?!

Cypress Gardens Sunfish Regatta

a great video showing off an old Sunfish regatta.

h/t: Small Boat Restoration posted this on the Sunfish Forum.

sail repair with mini Sunfish logos

a Sunfish sailor Breeze Bender over at the Sunfish Forum came up with a very clever way to repair small holes and tears in their older Sunfish sail using insignia cloth instead of just normal sail repair tape.

I love the random pattern and that they orientation used – it looks like a school of baby Sunfish floating randomly along, following the Mother Sunfish but each little ‘Fish is exploring a bit as they go, driven by the normal curiosity of youth.

I’ve blogged before about making your own Sunfish logo, and I still have a plethora of leftover sail insignia cloth, so I’ll have to replicate this concept on some of my older Sunfish sails.

after all, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.