'60s Widgeon Ballast/Righting when Swamped

[BrentK]

I sail an inherited '60s Widgeon, and I recently capsized it for the first time. I knew that in general small dinghies can be righted by jumping on the centerboard or keel while hauling on a line attached to the mast. However, this quickly proved impossible as the boat didn't stay level in the water--the stern sank until the boat was vertical, nose poking out of 10' of water. Needless to say we weren't able to right it without assistance.

My question is twofold: First, has anyone else had experience swamping/capsizing a widgeon? Were you able to right it without assistance, and if so how?

My second question is more specific. The wood transom on the boat is deteriorating, and the fiberglass in the cockpit is beginning to pull away from the rotting wood. I can hear and feel air escaping through this gap when I sit on the stern compartment, and I suspect that this might have something to do with the fact that the boat sank stern first. Does this sound plausible? I hope to replace the transom sooner rather than later, but would like to give it a band-aid fix for the present if I can as I'm away from home for the summer and have been sailing regularly.

Also, much of the Styrofoam under the gunwales has either deteriorated or fallen out completely. I wondered how much help it would have been in the event of a total capsize; the failure of the stern compartment as ballast seemed more likely to cause it to sink, but I'm still not sure.

I'll have pictures posted tomorrow. Thanks for your help!

 

[Sunbird22358]

The foam around the underside of the gunwales would have helped float the boat upright once righted, the air and foam in hte aft tank should have kept the stern from sinking. However, my 1969 WIDGEON had obviously cracked at the point where the inside of the transom and that aft flotation tank met (thabkfully the wood core of the transom was intact!) since there was evidence of a repair..... well, actually, the seller was fixing it the evening that I came to look at her..... I bought her anyway...... what is it they say about love at first sight?

Anyway, I only capsized once, at the mooring with the sails down...... advice: NEVER stand on the seats and reach up! She rolled over on her side dumping me in the water. Good news, she then rolled back upright ready for me to bail out the water that half-filled her. Previous owner DID capsize once, but I think it was due to his slower, 80-year-old reflexes.

Anyway, the easiest way to recover from a capsize is to never go over in the first place. The later (1971 and newer) models were "self-rescuing" due to their smaller cockpits and deck designs that trapped more air inside the boat, one of the reasons for the re-design I suspect. Those models could (I assume?) be righted using the "standing on the CB" method.

When sailing any small boat like a WIDGEON, ALWAYS, and I mean ALWAYS, keep the mainsheet in your hand, use the camcleat (if your boat is new enough to have one) provided to hold the tension, but keep the line in hand so that if you get hit by a gust, you can instantly release the sheet and spill hte wind from hte mainsail, preventing a capsize 99.9999% of the time. Adding a tiller extension to allow sitting on the side deck on windy days also helps as does sailing without the jib (just raise the CB a bit to restore balance between sails and center of CB area.) As I say, doing this allowed me to sail my boat for 7 seasons on windy Buzzards Bay (near Cape Cod) with never a capsize while sailing. I did have a couple of close calls, including one while preparing to set the spinnaker with my Sister at the helm...... but even that time, as soon as I released the mainsheet.... she came back up and we hardly even took water over the leeward rail.

I wouldn't add any ballast, it really won't help and would require adding more flotation than originally used in order to support the extra weight if the boat ever did swamp.

The easiest way to replace the foam under the side decks (gunwales) might be to stuff a few "pool noodles" up in there. Marine-type expanding urethane "pour-in" foam would be the "BEST" way, but pool noodles are easier to obtain, less $$, and less messy to install. A good quality insulating exapnding foam could be used to help the noodles stay in place.

 

[BrentK]

Thanks! That really helps put my mind at ease. We totally capsized though; she rolled right over on her side and stayed there, then sank stern down. It was entirely my fault, and it was exactly that rookie mistake: I cleated the mainsheet and lost hold of it when I switched sides as we jibed in strong wind. Couldn't release it in time and got dumped overboard. Shouldn't have cleated it at all, and should have kept a hold of it.

She's still seaworthy, but I think this will be her last cruise before we rip that old wood core out and replace it. I think when we do that I'm going to install inspection ports in the fore and aft flotation tanks, and look into flotation bags that I've seen mentioned elsewhere. That way it will be easy to replace when the bags deteriorate, instead of having to pull the deck up again and scrape out deteriorating foam.

I've heard of people using pool noodles before. I think I'll scrape the old foam out from under the gunwales and use the expanding foam insulation to affix the noodles.

Yeah, ballast wasn't what I meant. I should have said extra flotation. Don't know why I said ballast.