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Help Me Barnacles!
Dan Mayhew
10/27/19 #25608
It took me four attempts to remount a V-10 in the backlash next to the drydock caused by the sudden west wind that white-capped the bay today. I learned that V-10's are like remounting a log in serious chop! All attempts to remount were beam to the waves due to my ankle leash. I am going to build a Barnacle-styled waist lease so I can remount into the seas instead of beam to the waves. Mike M has shared his tips. His approach looks pretty solid, but some designs I've seen I would not trust my life to. Please give me all your design thoughts about this so I can build one that has 100% of my confidence. I will write up what I learn and put it in the Surfski.wiki. If you prefer, you can put it directly in the wiki and we all can edit it. I don't care how we get there, I just want a permanent place with this info that can evolve with time.
I was perfectly safe today as I had on a 3/4 wet suit and had many more remounts in me as well as an easy swim to shore. I never felt cold. Matt, if you are reading this, your boat was safe. Ryan saw that I was getting pushed closer and closer to the giant metal wall and he told me he had pledged to save the boat if I had to swim.
Being safety-minded for the hour-plus paddle, we were keeping an eye on Duncan as he was solo paddling ahead of us. Well, the tables flipped and he was watching us. When I emerged from the bay like a wet dog he greeted us with a big smile asking us how it went. I was a bit light-headed and he looked just like Dumbledore.
So Barnacles, please share your magic so I and others can make awesome waist leashes!
Reivers Dustin
10/27/19 #25609
I'll just throw down on this. sorta.
A couple of considerations on waist leash or stern type leash. The leash strain is huge on regular mid-point leash. In really big wind the leash will pull tight as a fiddle string. The point being you won't have to make the stern leash nearly as heavy duty. Except if you do a system where there is no “give” or stretch. For example if you just do spectra then when the leash reaches end-of-travel, there is a shock-load. Shock load can be surprisingly high.
Also on Dynema or spectra, these materials have high linear strength, but doesn't like sharp bends. So if you tie a knot in it, the strength goes way down. Knots and splices in these are considered very special and there's folks who take classes and get registered for it. There are special knots, unknown to me. My solution is to oversize the crap out of it. My stern leash runner rope is rated 4,000 pounds, but since I follow the old saying, “if you can't tie a knot, tie a lot”, I've probably got it down to about 100 pounds strength.
For anchor points I use river-raft adhesive type “D-ring” mounts. Make sure you use Stainless steel. LFS and West Marine has these. I put one anchor point near as practical to the tail of the boat, and another a couple feet away from the back of the cockpit. I attach using 3M MarineTek 5600. Deano told me about this stuff and it's great, but maybe too great. I still have some on the pants I was wearing when I did this job. I make a runner line between the anchor points using Spectra of about 1/4 inch thickness. I got real jiggy with the first few I did and used a splice-eye and did a fancy splice with heat-shrink, yadda, yadda. It looked all pimped out for a week, then I discovered that I had used carbon steel splice eye and it has rusted. I'm too lazy to fix it. See note about using stainless steel. Just take the running line and use a trucker-hitch so you can re-set the tension when it gets saggy. Oh, and I like having a one-inch brass ring on this running line to clip my waist leash to. I use a normal leg leash coil, but built a waist belt out of one-inch webbing with the clips and stuff. It took a bit of needle work to sew the end buckle up good. You can find all the waist leash stuff at Hardware Sales, it's all straight ahead of you when you get to the top of the stairs. I also put a D-ring on the waist belt so the leash could travel around. The idea being to avoid getting wrapped. Sounds good, not sure it matters. If you don't see the stuff, ask Randy Olsen. He seems to be upstairs at Hardware Sales whenever I'm up there crawling around.
A note on the tail mounted attachment point. There's a good chance the boat will roll when you are not in the seat. This means the leash will want to wrap the boat. If the attachment is close to the stern, then it's easier to pull any loops off over the end of the boat. If your attachment point is ahead of the rudder, then it might be more fiddly to clear a wrap or two.
Tyler Irwin
10/27/19 #25610
The foilers have come up with this:
https://www.armstrongfoils.com/waist-leash/
Paul Reavley
10/27/19 #25611
There are a number of quick release waist belts for SUP leashes. Many seem to use Velcro for the main belt closure which I don't really care for. NRS used to sell (does not seem available now) a waist belt with a strong quick release front buckle and ring in back for leash attachment that Denise and I are using modified versions of. Here is a somewhat similar one:
Waterman Larry
10/28/19 #25612
For shore break waves I use a surf leash with the cuff around the straps on my lifejacket. I installed a cable loop on the rudder quadrant to connect the leash to the rudder post. This is a very strong part of the boat. When In surf above head high I find that the leash pulls about the same as a surfboard and the boat pulls through the breaking wave pretty well.
I noticed in your post that you try to mount the boat facing with the bow into or downwind? In the gorge and in shorebreak surf conditions, the boat must be mounted in any direction. Most of my hatchery remounts are with the boat sideways to the wave on purpose as the waves jack up a little steep for a downwind mount on big days.
In the surf break you only have seconds to remount before the next wave crushes you so the angle is completely random. You jump on fast and sometimes get caught anyway.
The surf leash really helps absorb the shock in the surf break, but gorge waves are so polite that a lesser bungee would work fine.
If you put a little surfwax on the ski just behind the bucket, you can climb up on your stomach and with the paddle blade in the bucket under you chest. In the prone position, you can hand paddle the ski to safety 100 feet or so if a metal wall is threatening. Then you can take your time and remount completely.
I took my boat out on a 15-20 mile an hour day at the hatch this summer without my paddle and practised many paddleless techniques for rescue. Trust me, you need wax on the back of the boat to paddle it prone.
I look forward to the combined knowledge on this one.
Larry Goodson
Duncan Howat
10/28/19 #25613
Dan, If you own a antique Huki, well I quess any Huki, which does not provide a handle or hard point to attach the runner line to, and rudder post cover, (I believe required by other countries, ) owning a Huki requires you to go into a full engineering design by a stamped and licensed engineer in the state of washington, however the stern leash system we use , as designed by JD Walker of Gorge fame, is simple and easy. You just need to be able to tie a bowline knot. $7.00 total max for parts at Hardware Sales. Look at mine on my Epics. Better yet take a Picture. It also uses a bungie to keep it snug. Very trick on JD's part. D
Dan Mayhew
10/28/19 #25614
What great info! A lot to digest. I will make a leash and put a first draft of leash options up on the wiki soon. Of course, if anyone is inclined they are welcome to beat me to it!
Larry - thank you for the additional thoughts on safety. I love the idea of practicing moving the boat without a paddle. I have practiced with half a paddle, but it would be good to know how to navigate without it. Also, I would like to try paddling with someone on the back deck as a means of rescue. Have you done that? Is it possible in big water?
Thanks for your thoughts.
Dan
Waterman Larry
10/29/19 #25615
I have only practiced with a person on the back in 3’ or smaller. I instructed the passenger to lie on the back with legs and arms deep in the water until I started paddling. Then they grip with their hips and arms high on the boat. Easy. I think spec boat Australian Lifeguards have developed some techniques for bigger water. I’ll look into that.
Larry Goodson
John Rybczyk
10/29/19 #25616
While the “dragging a person on the back of your surf ski” method might be a useful tool to have in the kit for some situations, I don't think that there is much practical application for such a rescue endeavor here in Bellingham Bay. I may be forgetting something, but I can't think of a single rescue that went down that way around here (i.e…dragging someone back to shore on the back of your ski). I could see it working if a person was very near to shore and was unable to swim for it for some reason (that is, in fact, the case for those mythical life guards in Australia who are largely performing beach rescues). In every situation that I can recall, or heard of in B'bay, when it got that bad, the Coast Guard was summoned…even when Marine Park was within sight.
See you on the water (but not in it hopefully!)
johnr
P.S. Props to Dan for wearing a bombproof, warm-in-the-water wetsuit. That's the ticket in the winter if you think you're going to fall in and that it might take you four tries to get back in.
Waterman Larry
10/29/19 #25617
Jim Schulz just sent this video of a back seat rider rescue from a couple of days ago.
Larry
Jeff Hegedus
10/31/19 #25623
Great discussion. Just as an aside, it seems also worth adding a note about maintaining good leeway from the shipyard. Especially on a westerly, the clapotis from the floating dock is challenging, and especially on a flood tide, the current can sweep under the pier and dock. too close and even a good quick remount might not be enough.
