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. 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. Having to sit on the back deck to enter your kayak also makes the cowboy scramble difficult. If you have a long keyhole cockpit, it's much easier. 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) Having an empty cockpit helps to minimize the free surface (slosh) effect, but that also means you need to do it quickly before the waves refill the boat. It's definitely not for everybody, but it's not unreliable for everybody, either. Shawn Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better http://health.yahoo.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Paddlewisers, Last February, I had to do the only rough water reentry that was not for practice that I have done. At the end of a 10 mile paddle, we were seeing swells of 6-8 foot plus 2 foot breaking wind waves coming from a different direction. The winds were 25-30 knots. All of a sudden, I felt my boat stating to broach from one of the large swells coming from my starboard rear quarter. I quickly leaned into it and started a rear rudder stroke to straighten the boat out. Just as this happened, I was hit by a breaking wind wave from the port rear quarter. Before I could even shift my paddle to the other side and brace, I was upside down and out of air. Another paddlewiser who is an extremely good paddler and one who has practiced re-entries and rescues with me a lot, came over to start a T rescue. We got my boat emptied, and then found it was extremely difficult for me to get onto my back deck. There was a lot of glass against glass and things weren't working. We then took my paddlefloat and I used that as an assist to get onto my deck and back in the boat. Although my partner and I not only practice together frequently, we also help others--but rough water (when you need these skills) is a totally different story. I don't know of anyone who could have done a cowboy scramble in these conditions. By the time I got my skirt on, my boat had 2 inches of water in the bilge and it was feeling really shaky. Normally, I would have pumped with my skirt on, but since I was only about 1/2 mile from the harbor breakwater, I opted to just paddle there and then rest. Trying a for real rescue in these conditions was a real eye opener. Steve Holtzman ----- Original Message ----- From: "Shawn Baker" <shawnkayak_at_yahoo.com> > I would say it's only as unreliable as your level of practice in the > rescue. 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. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
--- John Fereira <jaf30_at_cornell.edu> wrote: > 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. Which is an excellent point--don't keep failing. Try something different! Our weekly skills class did a fun relay race last year at our last session. We had to paddle about 1/8 mile out and 1/8 back, blow bubbles into a floating hula hoop, paddle around another buoy, wet exit, perform a rescue, and then "harpoon" a "seal" (black balloon). I won with a cowboy scramble, but the guy who would have come in 2nd got 4th, since he missed 3 cowboy scrambles in a row. If he'd have tried one, failed, then immediately switched to a paddlefloat or re-enter and roll, he would have finished a lot better. In bigger conditions, and a real rescue scenario, if something didn't work the first time, the chances are it won't work the second time either. Shawn Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better http://health.yahoo.com *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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