Turtling (sailing)

Definition and prevention

When a boat is "turned over completely" it has turned turtle. Some sources treat the term "turtle" as synonymous with "capsize" or "keel over". but most others make a distinction.Compare, "Turn Turtle. To turn over completely, with keel uppermost." "Capsize. To overturn or upset. Said to be derived from words meaning 'to move a barrel by turning it on head and bilge alternatively'." Carrying too much sail or loss of control can lead to broachingthe boat heels too far to one side, or capsizes. While all turtlings involve a capsize, the converse is untrue. Prevention is the first priority."A seaman laboring under an undue sense of security becomes at once worth hardly half his salt." Joseph Conrad. cited in Rousmaniere at p. 19.

With the exception of self-righting watercraft, vessels have an angle of vanishing stability (AVS). External forces aside, if they are tilted at an angle less than the AVS, they will pop back upright. If they are tilted at an angle greater than the AVS, they will turn turtle and stay there. In other words, non-self-righting vessels are stable when turtled. Their primary stability and secondary stability are greater than zero, tending to right them, but their tertiary or inverted stability is less than zero, and tends to keep them upside-down.

Capsizing (but not necessarily turtling) is an inherent part of dinghy sailing, and is considered to be "routine". It is not a question of "if" but a question of "when".

For those who prefer to avoid the experience, a keelboat monohull has physics on its side. (See limit of positive stability.) But even yachts can capsize and turtle in extraordinary conditions, so design considerations and suitability for particular tasks, locations, weather, duration and situations are essential queries. "Such events can overcome skill and experience"; boats need to be appropriate for foreseeable conditions. It is a fundamental question of seaworthiness.

Turtling commonly occurs when a boat capsizes and is not righted or attended to in time, allowing it to roll through the approximately 90 degrees of a capsize through to 180 degrees from upright.

Prevention and delay of turtling in dinghies is the highest priorityturtling can be catastrophic in consequencesbut it depends on skill, ability and athleticism, which vary greatly. As John Rousmaniere wrote: Testing confirms the Royal Yachting Association's conclusion that "a decisive way to address entrapment is to immediately right the boat by putting weight on the centerboard", daggerboard, (or bilgeboard in a scow). His 2012 report advises that "US Sailing and other organizations should consider establishing this as doctrine." Thus, reliance on boat handling and seamanship may be misplaced.

Sealing masts and attaching flotation are effective preventatives for turtling of dinghies, but not widely utilized. More certain preventatives for this includes various forms of flotation added to the tip of the mast or top of the mainsail.Intended for "rough weather or novice racers". Distances, obstacles and the likelihood of rescue are other factors that should be considered in deciding whether to prepare for the worst. As Franz Kafka, Larry McMurtry in Lonesome Dove, and Huey Lewis and the News have written: "It is better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it." These include floats (e.g., one that looks like a streamlined blimp used on Hobie 16s)"Easily removed for trailering or racing." or a "sail patch"a sleeve with built in flotation that fits over the top of the sail, available for example as option on the Wayfarer (dinghy) Mark IV. Another alternative is to seal the mast, thereby increasing its buoyancy.

As an emergency palliative, putting flotation (i.e., a spare life vest or other personal flotation device), onto the end of the mast straight away after a capsize and without delay, can forestall a turtle. Conversely, climbing onto the side of a knocked down boat can increase the likelihood of turtling, as it moves weight higher over the center of gravity, may also increase windage, and thus can effectively drive the mast downward.

Several devices have been patented to prevent turtling.{{cite patent

The use of a trapeze, harness, jackline or other tether can cause injury or death due to entrapment if a boat turtles.

Practice and cure

Righting a turtled dinghy is one of the most difficult maneuvers. Recovery in a monohull requires releasing the main sheet and jib sheet, lowering the spinnaker if it is deployed, standing on the bottom of the boat and levering on the centerboard, or standing on the centerboard (there may be weight and placement restrictions). It is important that other members of the crew not be on top the boat, as this can drastically increase resistance to righting the craft. The use of "righting ropes" materially aids the process. Standing on the centerboard and "piggybacking" of crew members can be highly effective to right a turtled dinghy, as it increases both the weight and leverage being applied. Use of powerboats to aid is problematical, and depending on the technique usedthere are severalmay or may not succeed. See Capsize. Rigging righting lines depends upon proper placement, and critically should be done in advance of the need to use them.

Multihulls

In yacht sailing, multihulls are deemed to be more prone to turtling than keeled monohulls, and there is essentially no way to right them if they overturn. The juxtaposition of the hulls and sail when turtledit makes them inherently stable when invertedmakes them especially resistant to righting. Consequently, some larger multihulls are built with a turtle emergency escape hatch beneath the hull. Indeed, some locales require such safety hatches. There are, however, those who feel that the likelihood of a capsize of a large multihull is overrated. There are others who state that a self-righting multihull is the answer, along with designing in safety and proper operation. A patent has been issued specifically concerning righting of turtled large multihulls. It is intended to avoid the necessity to use divers and special equipment in a recovery.

It is, however, possible (and often successfully) to right a capsized small multihull, e.g., a Beachcat and Hobie 16. The process begins with positioning ropes so that the crew can get leverage (acting together is key). Righting Beach catamarans that are turtled can be extremely difficult. Loss of sails, rigging, masts and boats can occur, not to mention sailors. A singled-handed self-rescue can be assisted by filling a garbage bag (called in this context a "righting bag") with water, and throwing it over the rescuer's shoulder. See Hobie 16 which suggests sitting on the rear of one sponson, which will upturn a turtled Hobie.

Even some large multihulls can be righted at seait is a long shotprovided that the skipper is well prepared, knows what they are doing, and has appropriate devices, tools, skills, a workable plan, cooperative waves, weather and wind, and some luck.

Notable events

The Fastnet race, and particularly the 1979 Fastnet race (the disastrous race that changed yacht racing for all time), has been the occasion for many sailboat capsizes, turtlings and fatalities. In the 1979 race, "15 sailors died, five boats sank, and at least 75 boats flipped upside down." In any event, adopting heaving to as a storm tactic proved to be a good preventive of capsize during the race. Not one of the hove to yachts were capsized or suffered any serious damage. See also Capsize of Drum (1985) and Capsize of Rambler (2011), both of which involved large Maxi yachts that lost their keels.Compare 1993 and 1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race.

In December 2008, the high speed experimental sailing hydrofoil trimaran Hydroptère set a world speed record, then pitchpoled while going over 60 knots. The turtled yacht had to be towed back to port for being turned right side up.

In the 2011 Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac, the high performance monohull sportsyacht WingNuts, a Kiwi 35, turtled in an extreme storm, killing the captain and one crew member. Later inquiry determined the boatspecifically its high performance extremely wide low displacement hullwas unfit for the location, weather, and the lengthy multiday race format, and urged race officials to change ratings and revoke privileges for similar boats to enter the race.On the other hand, one meteorologist suggested: Veteran Chicago-Mac racers have encountered similar conditions during previous races and understand that coping with severe weather is part of the challenge. Skippers must prepare their boats, train their crew, maintain a watchful eye for approaching storms and "the dearest friend (and most menacing foe) of all sailorsthe wind. The waves were not all that unusual, although the wind was. The boat may have buried one of its hiking wings into a wave, causing it to 'trip', and had the other lifted by the wind. It is rare but not unheard of for keelboats to turtle and remain upside down, particularly if its keel is intact. However, this boat's unique hull form, which made it very fast, also rendered it more stable upside down than right side up. This was a recipe for the disaster. This loss was occasioned despite a competent and experienced crew which was as well equipped and prepared as thought to be necessary. WingNuts met then current offshore stability standards, which failed to adequately take into account the dynamic effect of the "radical" winged hull."On paper, WingNuts met all stability requirements for the Chicago-Mac race. The race required that all boats have an Offshore Racing Rule (ORR) handicap measurement certificate, a document that includes two measures of stability: Limit of Positive Stability (LPS) and the Stability Index (SI). However, after the accident, the US Sailing panel found that the ORR formulas did not adequately penalize the Kiwi 35's extreme flare, the difference between the waterline beam and the maximum beam. When the panel eliminated a fixed lower limit for the "capsize increment"one of the factors used in the calculating stability indexWingNuts' index of 100.7 plummeted to 74.4. No other boat in the race had the same drastic reduction in its stability index when the same math was applied. In addition, the panel noted that the Right Arm Curve (GZ Curve)—a graphic representation of the boat's stability—revealed WingNuts to be just as stable inverted as it was right side up, sharply reducing any chance of recovery from a full capsize."

On 13 June 2012, in the trials leading to the America's Cup, Oracle Team USA on an AC45 spectacularly capsized the boat, and it was righted with minimal damage ("there's a little rip there") ten minutes later. Skipper Russell Coutts dismissed it as "a learning experience". This was an epilogue to earlier similar incidents by other teams in Australia.

On 9 May 2013, the 2013 America's Cup challenger Artemis broke apart, broached, capsized, and turtled destroying its wing/sail and trapping two crew members under its hull. The AC72 wing-sail catamaran was sailed on behalf of the Royal Swedish Yacht Club, sponsoring Team Artemis. Andrew "Bart" Simpson, an Olympic-gold medal-winning British sailor, died as a result.

Legal implications

Capsize and turtling can result in legal liability for damages due to negligence.

References

Footnotes

Endnotes

Sources

• at Internet Archive
• {{cite book|last=George|first=M. B. |title=Basic Sailing: A Practical Course in Sailboat Handling|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2mcqnQEACAAJ|series= Motor Boating and Sailing Books |pages=112 |publisher=Hearst Marine |edition=First |date=22 June 1984
• including a picture of the turtled Lugnuts

References

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