Roundings

Not mark roundings, the type of rounding that typically will slow you down during a race...but that happen, particularly during a race when you are trying to sail aggressively and get everything you can out of the boat.

It is helpful to know what to do in these conditions...

Key Controls in a Crisis:
 Main sheet - boat rounding up: first release the vang completely, if that's not enough, blow the sail out.
 Spin sheet - boat rounding up: blow it out.
 Vang - boat rounding up: blow it out.
 Jib sheet - listen for guidance
 Foreguy - rounded down: blow it to let the pole up and out of the
  water (prevent damage)
 Guy - rounding up: DO NOT EASE!
  Keep tight enough so pole is at least a foot or so away
  from the headstay- it WILL stretch in puffs and waves

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In a round up

These are pretty common and it is nice to know what to do in these conditions. Worst thing that tends to happen during a round up is that the deck is a little vertical and the leeward deck is completely under water. Other than that, the boom is gently resting on the water and the kite gets wet. It is less expensive to round up than to tear your kite...These things need to happen very quickly but they can happen in succession as one might be enough to solve the problem.

1. blow the vang out and ease the spin sheet
   
2. blow the main out
3. blow the spin sheet out

Do NOT ease the guy.

Once the spinnaker is free from any load and the main is way out while the boat is effectively on a reach (even if it is on its side), the boat is not loaded up anymore and it will come back up. As soon as you regain control of the boat, put the vang back on (maybe a little less than before), bring in the main slowly and trim the spinnaker and continue on your merry way.

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In a round down

These are less common but more damaging - the boat rounds in such a way that the pole 'punctures' the water and the boom may be stuck in a high position while the deck is vertical and the windward deck is under water. The boom may take a while before it decides to slam down. So keep your head down and an eye on the boom as while it is up in the air the situation is very precarious.

Since 2006, Elise has rounded down 3 times if I remember correctly.

1. Blow the foreguy out (so the pole can be let up and rest on the surface of the water)
2. Blow the vang out
   
3. Blow the main out

Do NOT ease the guy.

The boat should recover after that (once the main decides to jibe). If that is not enough, you can very slowly release a little bit of the spin sheet. Once you do recover, remember that the boat has effectively jibed so if you pole is still in one piece, it should be pulled across. Do not bring the main in again until you know that the spinnaker pole is out of harm's way. You can also detach the pole from the sail as soon as it is out of the water to release the load on it, float the spinnaker for a short while, wait for things to stabilize again and then put the pole back up. In general, round downs happen in fairly heavy winds so it should not be difficult to keep the kite full without a pole. This may also help prevent another round down...