While crewing the rescue boat I've
noticed that not everyone sailing at Overy has a particularly good technique for dealing with capsizes. I don't
pretend to be expert in lots of dinghy sailing areas, but in this case I can truly say that I've had lots of
practice! The photo shows me taking an imprompu dip during an OK open meeting at South Staffs SC - there isn't
even any wind! The following notes are based on what works for me and what I've noticed posing problems for
others. Dave Cooper
Capsize Basics

The second essential is to make sure that everyone's ok, so if you're sailing a boat with more than one occupant, take a moment to check in with the rest of the crew that everyone's got their head above water and looks cheerful!
If you should wind up under the sail (it isn't common: I must have capsized hundreds of times and it's only happened to me once), your buoyancy aid will hold you up in a bubble of air: you can breath. Just duck out under the rear edge of the sail.
Simple capsizes

For a lot of helmsmen starting off as youngsters in toppers and the like, the simple capsize to leeward is a common experience. The boat gets blown flat: the helmsman swings his legs off the top of the hull onto the centreboard and pulls the boat back upright. As the boat rights (s)he steps back aboard over the gunwhale. Job done! Unfortunately as experience builds, fewer capsizes will be of this type: more will involve downwind sailing or capsizes to windward going up the beat.

Advanced capsizes!

Once you've arrived in the drink, got a grip on something solid and mutually checked the crew, it pays to just take a moment before you head off round the hull: make sure the sheets aren't cleated, push the centreboard fully down, and if the boom is still in the air like this National Twelve (lovely colour scheme!),

Darn, this capsizing lark takes longer to write about than it does to right the boat and get sailing again! Let's split the story here and continue on the next page.