In the first video a young sailor of about 60 kilos does a capsize recovery on an Aero that has turned turtle. He first tries to right the boat with the mast coming up to windward of the boat and it blows over on top of him, which is not unusual even in a Laser. He then swims around to the daggerboard, being careful to maintain contact with the boat all the way. On his second attempt to right the boat he briefly loses contact with the boat but does manage to swim after it and catch it before it drifts too far away. He succeeds in righting the boat on his third attempt. The grab rail nearest to him was used to help him pull himself into a position where he could grab the hiking strap and pull himself in. Nice job!
In the second video, the whole recovery goes much more smoothly. This sailor also looks to be a lot lighter than me and the boat does heel towards him as he pulls himself into the boat. But with his lower weight and a little bit of pressure in the mainsail he succeeds in climbing into the boat amidships, a feat that I never managed in my three attempts.
My take-away from these videos is that entering over the side of the boat in a capsize recovery looks to be easier for lighter sailors than it was for me. But I suspect that with some more time to experiment and practice, especially at positioning the boat across the wind and sheeting in the sail to provide some force to counteract act my weight, I might be able to do as well as these two youngsters.
It also reinforces my suggestion that potential Aero buyers should spend some time practicing capsize recoveries to make sure that they can find a technique that works for their size, strength and agility.
Thanks to Peter Barton for posting these videos and also to "jimmy kneewrecker" for bringing them to my attention on the Dinghy Anarchy RS Aero thread.
Update: There is a more detailed blow by blow of these capsize recoveries (and a third one) at the RS Aero Forum.
3 comments:
I wonder what all the Finn sailors made of the Laser when it came out? Shame Google doesn't go that far back. I can image that they said similar things that Laser sailors are saying about the Aero.
The Aero did seem to move away quickly from the poor chap in the first video. I would be interested to see what happens in a blow with a swell rolling under it too.
The solution. Don't capsize. HA HA. Actually the video is very helpful by showing how light the boat really is. It seems rot me the Aero folks have had enough time to figure this out. Why don't they put out an instructional video for us bigger people.They can entitle it "How the Senior Fatties right the Aero."
Good point R1. Every boat has its quirks and I regret now not having had another session with the Aero in Minorca to try and work on my capsize recovery technique. Clearly a lighter boat needs a somewhat different technique and with time I think I would have probably figured it out.
Judith - that suggestion of an instructional video for "senior fatties" is a great idea. Perhaps RS Sailing will get round to this. If not, when we finally get an RS Aero demo in the US we could make one ourselves (with me in the starring role of course - ha ha.) If someone had filmed my attempts in Minorca it would have been good for a laugh, if nothing else.
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