Re: [Paddlewise] Cowboy Scramble Rescue

At 01:40 PM 7/29/02 -0700, Shawn Baker wrote:
>John Fereira wrote:
> >In each instance it became pretty clear that a "cowboy" self-rescue is
>
>pretty unreliable in windy/wavy conditions.
>
>"Steve Holtzman" <sh_at_actglobal.net> wrote:
> >John, I agree with you about the Cowboy Rescue. I can get my but into
>the cockpit, but then either I'm to big, or the cockpit's too small,
>but I just sit there with my feet still in the water thinking "Ok, now
>what am I going to do."
>
>I would say it's only as unreliable as your level of practice in the
>rescue.

I've practiced it quite a bit on flat water conditions when doing rolling 
practice.  I hadn't really tried to do a cowboy rescue in rough conditions 
so you might be right.  My main point is that one can learn a lot from 
failed self rescue attempts and that when I decided to do a paddlefloat 
rescue instead I was back in the boat very quickly.

>It is, however, impeded by short cockpits, tall back decks,
>tight hip pads, stiff hips, or really sloshy water.  I've done it in 2'
>waves and winds to Force 5 or 6 with no problem.

I was doing it in my Outer Island so the tall back deck certainly wasn't a 
problem. Sloshy water probably contributed to failing to get back in as 
much as anything.  The lesson learned was I may need to work on the 
outfitting a bit or practice a paddlefloat assisted procedure for emptying 
the cockpit.



>Low aft decks lower your center of gravity, making things much easier.
>The CD Squall/Solstice GTS have high back decks and shortish cockpits.
>They're 10x tougher than a Romany Explorer or VCP Avocet.  It was
>somewhat easy with the Sea Spirit and its 5" depth behind the cockpit,
>even though the one I paddled has an ocean cockpit.  (I had to lie
>prone on the back deck, but I did it.  Probably not doable for me in
>any seas)

That's why I figured a cowboy rescue would be fairly easy in my Outer 
Island because the depth behind the cockpit is only 7" (if I recall 
correctly) and rather than use an ocean cockpit as suggested in the plans I 
just used the cockpit template from my Northbay. It's not a long keyhole, 
but at least I can sit in the cockpit before putting in my legs.

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