Aquarius Sail Owners

But how do you climb back up onto one of these things after righting it?

I (finally) turned the 19 over last summer - I wrote about it on beachcats, and I think it's a pretty funny story,
especially if you're Jewish. The bottom line is that I was staggered by how well the righting system works -
you pull that second pin and the damn thing just about rights itself. Hope it's that easy with the 20, though
I think the chances of my flipping it are a little lower.

Thing is, of all the boats I've owned, nothing has been as rounded and as buoyant (i.e. high off the water) as the
SC, which is great - right up until you're trying to pull yourself up and there's nothing to grab. The choice I always
avoid, of course, is climbing up over the aft beam, because I have no interest in bending the tiller crosstube.

So what do all-y'all do?

This method requires a quick release pin, on lanyard, on at least one of your tiller crossbar to tiller connections.
Swim around aft and position yourself in the corner of the hull and crossbeam.
Disconnect one end of the crossbar and toss it well forward.
With a hand on top of the crossbeam and a hand on the top of the hull push up while kicking.
If you do this while facing aft you avoid scraping things up with the trap harness hook.
Credit: SC15Av8or related this to me while I struggled to right my 15 while we were sailing the Potomac.
Good luck with it.

Cool, thanks for the tip - it's a little counterintuitive to be taking more things apart when you're trying to get it (and yourself) back together, but I'll give it a shot. Plus, that just reminded me that I need to inventory my Avibank pin needs across various boats and get the required parts en route asap.

Hope it works as well for the 19/20 as for the 15.

First off I would be very careful removing or disconnecting the tiller crossbar. Years ago I rolled the 22 over and after we got it back up my crew undid one end of the tiller crossbar to get back on. This resulted in the two rudders acting independently, causing the boat head down wind at an extremely high rate of speed and roll over again. We're fortunate we didn't hit any other boats...


Getting back on can be difficult. In the past I've either pulled myself up over the outside of the hull near the transom (becareful your trapeze buckle doesn't damage the hull) or I've climbed on in the inside corner where the front beam meets the hull. The later is pretty tough on the 20 & 22 due to the freeboard and if it's a 22 with the front tramp I wouldn't even try.

I've also heard of some people carrying a rope ladder, never tried it but feel that it would be difficult to use.

When the water is a bit warmer anchor the boat in 5' of water and try a few different approaches to see what works for you.

Yeah, I can see the risk in having the rudders out of control, even for a short time. In my first years cat sailing (>40 ago), I once had the boat come up with the sheets snarled and it quickly left me, heading for the nearest rocky shore. There was little risk to me - that reservoir is small and usually well-populated - but the boat didn't fare well.

I was thinking about rope ladders too, and they're invariably much harder to use than they appear (in various configurations i.e. rigid vs. soft rungs; free-hanging vs. draped over something). Even rigid rungs would probably be hard to climb the hull with, and would carry significant risk of hull damage - they'd be sure to bang around in times and places where they're least welcome.

So I'm getting the picture that there isn't any magic trick, and I'm sure you're right about just having to experiment in controlled conditions.

If independent rudders are an issue you could raise the disconnected one.

Could try - but you'll probably be doing the lower one while the boat's still on its side - not the kind of thing you'd want to be struggling with from the water after the boat's upright again.

A couple of weeks ago a local NACRA guy showed me what he'd done on his boat - it's simple and low-risk
and I think it's worth a try. He strung a section of tubular webbing (a climbing thing) between the ends of his
fore and aft crossbeams, one on each side of the boat, on the outside of the hull. Through each he threaded
a piece of shock cord to crumple it to keep it from being sloppy and dragging in the water. The length of the
webbing is such that when you're in the water alongside the righted boat, it'll stretch down to give you a "step"
to get your foot onto in order to climb up. I haven't tried it yet, but will do so once I've made it over to MEC to
get a piece of the stuff. Obviously it represents a snagging possibility, but still worth a go.