preventing turtle on Jn18

[Floris van Vugt]

Dear Johnson-18 friends,

I am wondering if people have recommendations on how to set up mast flotation without impairing performance too much. 

I read about mast floats in several threads but I'm not sure what kind I would need or how to acquire it.

The reason I'm asking: I have recently acquired a Jn18 and I'm having a blast with it on Cayuga lake NY. However, this weekend we had thunderstorm come on very suddenly, with wind going from virtually nil to 40 kts in a matter of seconds. We broached, waves knocked us over, and went turtle before we knew what was happening. Mast caught in the mud on the bottom, and pounding waves pushed her deeper. Could not dislodge her so we had to abandon ship, luckily picked up by a kind motor boat also fleeing the lake at full speed. Returned a couple of hours later when thunder had subsided and we were able to pull her loose with a motor boat, using the textbook approach of towing on a line connected to the mast and pulled over the upturned beam. Remarkably apart from mud in the mast and a broken batten the boat seems to be intact. We were lucky but I want to avoid this in the future. I'd like to have a setup where I know we can get her back upright from capsize unassisted.

Any thoughts and suggestions welcome. 

Good winds and safe sailing to you all

Floris

[Rick Paullin]

That's been our experience -- the turtle happens so fast that it's really hard to prevent.  You can try to flip your legs over onto the centerboard as the boat tips over, but if you miss, it's usually too late.  The key is slowing down the turtle after you tip over -- one of the local crew would dive into the water and swim for the end of the mast so he could use his life jacket to give the end of the mast some flotation while the skipper got his weight on the board.  If you do turtle in deep water, it helps to have a short line (large diameter) tied around the chain plate at the base of the shrouds -- one person can hang on that line while the other stands on the board.  We always needed a motor boat to help whenever we turtled in shallow water.

For preventative measures, you could try a flotation device at the top of the mast that would slow down a turtle.

The classic Hobie Cat solution was a float on top of the mast:

Or there's a more streamlined float for sale here: Melges Sailing Supply

Good luck!

  - Rick