Re: [Paddlewise] securing gear in kayak && bulkheads?

In a message dated 6/24/99 1:27:50 AM Pacific Daylight Time, mkayaks_at_oz.net 
writes:

<< Could someone who has successfully done a T-rescue with a fully loaded sea
 kayak please advise me just how it is accomplished. I have been unable to
 lift the bow out of the water at all from a kayak. Does the victim push the
 stern down? Do two people lift the bow between them?
 Matt Broze
  >>
Sure, Matt -- I'll try,

Although I tell my students that it's better to do a reenter and pump 
scenario with loaded boats, I *have* done tees with moderately loaded boats 
in moderate conditions when time was of the essence.

Having the swimmer push down on the stern helps, but it does put them in 
danger of getting sliced and diced on ruddered boats, or of becoming 
disconnected from the raft if the boat doesn't have perimeter lines.  Having 
a taller (and very poised) swimmer reach over your deck just forward of the 
cockpit can get the job done also.  I would *not* recommend  having the 
swimmer try to help on the side of the swimmer's boat - more chance of them 
capsizing the rescuer and/or getting the boat dropped on their heads.  
Overall, I think the safest way is to raft, reenter and pump.

By-the-way, one of my fellow instructors - Jeff Edwards, taught me a sweet 
trick which makes lifting the bow easier.  I had always just leaned away from 
the tee'd boat and lifted, with one or two hands, while twisting just a bit 
to burp the cockpit.  He leans heavily on the keel of the boat with his 
near-side hand, reaches down and grabs the bow with his opposite hand, then 
bounces downward onto the boat before throwing his head and shoulders away 
from the boat.  The weight shift submerges the bow further and its buoyancy 
makes it literally jump up into your lap.  I didn't believe what I'd seen him 
do until I tried it myself.  In fact, the first time I tried it, I gave it 
all I had and almost capsized myself away from the boat -- the bow came up 
that easily.  I haven't tried it with a loaded or extremely flooded kayak yet.

Now, were you just fishing, or what?8^)

Harold 
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