Hey Drew,

I think righting practice is extremely important for safety.  I started with Hobie Cats and now I'm on my Eastport Pram.  The key is to finding some nice, shallow, warm water.  It's very tiring and takes a lot out of you.  The good news is that it removes the fear of the unknown.  Once you've done it, you can file it under "No Big Deal".

Like my EP, the NE Dory has flotation tanks built in under the thwarts.  From my experience, that keeps the boat floating with the gunwales at the waterline if she gets swamped.  I use two Opti buoyancy bags by Holt whenever I go out in anything other than the small local lake to offset my weight.

http://www.westmarine.com/buy/holt--opti-buoyancy-bag--5359534

The first thing is to make sure you can climb back in, so tip her over, let her settle down and try to get back in.  Some do it over the side, some over the end with the most flotation.  Your results may vary.  While doing this, keep an eye on how much water you're reintroducing into the boat.  Maybe none if she's totally swamped.  While in my EP with no additional flotation, the sheer dips under the water, so bailing does me no good.  Bailing before I get back in also does me no good since I swamp her climbing aboard.  Hence the additional buoyancy.  It takes a surprising amount of upper body strength to pull yourself back in, so make sure you can swim/tow the boat back to the shoals if you need to.  I hope it's obvious, but wearing a PFD will save your strength for the exercise and not having to tread water.

I hope this helps.  I had an "incident" on Lake Union a few weeks ago, which taught me a lot.  Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Disclaimer:  I work for West Marine.

   CaptainSkully, 

I'd like to find a floatation device that also can double as a beach roller for my NE dory.

Can the buoyancy bags also be used as beach rollers?

(like this:http://www.duckworksbbs.com/gear/beachroller/index.htm)

I guess the advantage of the bags you illustrate is that they are short enough that can be tied off athwart ship under the seat lips, providing the most floatation when swamped, dont know if the beach rollers could be placed to also provide a lot of floatation?

How do you tie off your bounancy bags?

Curt

Hey Curt,

Even though the Holt bags are sturdily built, I don't think they could act as beach rollers.  The ones from your link are structurally heavy duty.  My bags tuck into the "galleries" that lighten the amidships thwart and when fully inflated fit snugly in place.  There are no lashing points on them.  Now that you mention it, if I was to secure them, I'd adhese some web loops on each end and lash the ends together fore and aft so that they'd be captive around the daggerboard trunk, under the amidships thwart.  Hmmm...

With that being said, they are built pretty heavy duty since they're for kids' Optis so they could probably handle just about any boat on this site other than the PocketShip...

   Captain Skully, thanks for your recommendation.  I wonder if a queen size air mattress placed under hull would raise boat enough to bail.  These can easily inflated and can serve as seat cushion or mattress if boat/ camping. I was thinking getting In the boat might be accomplished by putting the mast and boom , lashed to opposite side you want to climb in , might work as an off setting weight. 

Also, interested I your opinion of sailing NE Dory from Middle River to Tilghman Island and then on to Cambridge. Given average sailing skills and eye to the weather would you say a safe trip?

Thanks for all comments!

Drew

Hey Drew,

I think you'd possibly expire trying to manually inflate a queen sized mattress under a boat while treading water.  It would probably take an hour and hypothermia might become an issue.

As far as climbing back in and using the mast as a counterweight, you'd be better off lashing it athwartships so that it hung mostly overboard on the opposite side you'd climb in on with a bucket on the end.  Give me a long enough lever and I can move the world.  I once got a charter boat off the sand in the BVI by climbing out on the boom that was let all the way out against the shrouds.

Your trip sounds very adventurous.  Much like my dream of exploring the San Juans some day on a Passagemaker.  If Google Maps is correct, that's over 30 miles across open water.  The boat can certainly handle it, but at the theoretical hull speed (discussed elsewhere on this forum with even JH chiming in) at around 5 knots, even in a straight line that's a really long day, the kind of day that could make you not love your boat anymore.  If you have intermediate destinations in mind, then no worries.  You'll be in handheld VHF range (about 1 nm per Watt of transmission power) the whole way too. 

Later,

Chris

   Yesterday I trailered the Dory down to the public launch in Cambridge on the Choptank River. Good launch and headed for Hyatt where my son and family was staying. Very short trip but several large Motor craft passed me creating some large wakes and surprising to me the Dory handled them well. So good. 

On the trip back, all good until trying to get into the launch with the winds directly blowing towards me. In tacked and tacked but just couldn't make any progress. Actually moved away from launch. After about an hour I gave up and put up the boom, pulled the rudder and dagger board and rowed laboriously back. Whew!  I am sure an experienced sailor good have gone right into port against that wind. Blowing between 10-15 knots.  

I would love to hear from somebody who has successfully done this with the Dory. And what is the trick. I thought I had it down on the lake, but this large tidal River did me in. 

   >>but this large tidal River did me in. 

What was the tide doing? That could have been your problem.

Laszlo

   I intentionally capsized my NE Dory once as a test.  In smooth water, with no additional flotation other than what's built in under the thwarts, and no mast stepped or sail up, it floated with the gunwales a few inches out of the water with no people in it.   As soon as someone climbed in, the gunwales were barely above water and it was actually prone to roll over again.  What we found was that with 2 people, we placed one on each side of the boat in the water, and one guy stabilized the boat by hanging onto the gunwale while the guy on the other side bailed with a bucket while hanging on the other gunwale, we could get a lot of water out, before climbing in. 

After that test, and before doing a cruise in Maine where the boat was going to be loaded with camping gear and the water is really cold, I decided that more flotation was needed.  My solution: I installed wooden padeyes low in the boat (bottom of garboards and top of garboards) and use webbing straps to strap down snugly two things:

1) big inflatable fenders, which serve quadruple duty as comfy seats, beach rollers, fenders and flotation, and

2) Packed drybags, which seem heavy when you're carrying them down to the boat but are way less dense than the water they will displace when you capsize

I haven't tried to capsize it with this load, but I suspect it will be a lot more stable when full of water, and also have a lot less water in it to bail out and therefore float a lot higher.

   Laszlo, the tide was moving out which I really felt as I got close to dock. At one point I would row and not move the boat. So does this mean if winds are 10-15 knots with a tide pushing you out you should just wait it out or plan better ?

   Laszlo, the tide was moving out which I really felt as I got close to dock. At one point I would row and not move the boat. So does this mean if winds are 10-15 knots with a tide pushing you out you should just wait it out or plan better ?

Absolutely, Drew. The boat has to develop enough power to be able to move faster than the waterflow. It sounds to me that you got into a situation where with all the tacking your motion in the direction that the water was coming from was slower than the water, so away from shore you went.

That kind of situation is a result of using natural power against natural forces, not a result of inexperience. Every sailor will, at some point, get into that trap. It's been that way for thousands of years. That's why engines became so popular.

When the wind and tide are against you, no amount of experience will get you ashore. What experience does is let you know that it's hopeless and time to switch to oars much sooner than you did. Depending on the conditions, you may even have to just anchor and wait for the tide and/or wind to change.

Welcome to the club,

Laszlo

   Good to hear. I tend to be very tenacious about using sail only.  But your words rang true. I am going out Tuesday with projected winds of 16 knots. This will be a lake. Practice my skills and will use the oars sooner than later. 

Must also point out that the Dory really took some direct hits on piers on the Choptank that left the pier more damaged than the boat. These little boats are mini tanks. 

Hey Clark,

Laszlo is correct.  When all of the forces acting against you overpower your propulsion method(s), then drop an anchor or choose another direction.  Remember those trigonometry problems?  Anyway, it's a classic sailboat racing tactic here on the Strait of Juan de Fuca during the Swiftsure Race.  It took me a long minute to metabolize the idea of the fastest way to move forward is to not move backward. It's really amusing to be relaxing at anchor while another boat near you is working very hard to sail backwards...

Chris 

Love that image Chris, thanks for sharing it.

Laszlo

   Makes sense in hindsight. I guess you take what Mother Nature gives you and not try to fight it. All these comments are extremely helpful and keeps me in the game.  Thank you.  

Drew

���Might be a good idea to do self rescues with a buddy boat along side. It keeps the Douro us away and provides assistance if you can't get back in.