The boat has balls video..

[Salty Sailor]

http://www.threesheetsnorthwest.com/2009/04/this-skippers-got-balls/

How does he get them to swing out into position? :cool:

[Concordia...41]

I don't know that my toe rail is that water tight. Even if it is, there's not enough Valiums left in the scrip... :eek:

[skuthorp]

Maybe water ballast inboard as the initiator?
The waltz from Eugene and Oniegin is one of favourite pieces of music, remembered from my child hood.

[TimH]

nice looking boat.

[willmarsh3]

That would be useful if you ran aground too and there is no wind to heel the boat with a sail. :D :D :D

I'm figuring that the um balls um bags of water are filled along side with just enough water to equal the righting moment of the boat at a given angle. I'm thinking the vertical component of force is the same at all angles. Or nearly the same if one includes the variations introduced by the change in the underwater profile of the hull as the heeling changes. It has to be finely balanced enough that the crew shifting their weight controls whether it is heeling over or righting itself. Once the bag touches the water its effective weight is diminished. This would establish a limit on how far she heels over.

Note that I'm speculating here since I havn't yet tried this. This would be something to try this summer or fall.

[CarlZog]

That's cool!

One of the racing boats donated to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (KingsPoint) did something similar last year coming out of the St. Lawrence.

But they've got a cantilevering keel, so with a flick of the switch in calm water the boat heeled over enough to clear the bridge.

Carl

[Woxbox]

Ingenious. Good for cleaning the bottom, too.

[essaunders]

just fill the bags and set the haylard length. The weight will self correct when the lower bag starts to float. As far as setup: I'd suggest the film dingy could have pulled the bags out to get things started.

[L.W. Baxter]

just fill the bags and set the haylard length. The weight will self correct when the lower bag starts to float. As far as setup: I'd suggest the film dingy could have pulled the bags out to get things started.

I would think that simply turning away from the bags then back again at the right moment would cause them to swing outboard. Reversing the procedure would then retrieve them. I couldn't really tell from the video but I would imagine that the turning could be very subtle and still have the desired effect, considering the length and leverage involved.

[Bill R]

I'm not as bright as most of you are here...

Wouldn't it create a huge stress on the rigging? Especially the port shrouds? I know at full sail, there is also a lot of stress, but the stress is distributed along the entire length of the mast and boom. This seems as if this would concentrate all the stress on the tip of the mast and along the port shrouds. Wouldn't this invite a sudden, catastrophic rig failure?

If I am wrong, could someone explain why I 'm wrong?

BTW, I am really impressed with this solution. I love unconventional methods like this...

[Peerie Maa]

That was interesting.
Willmarsh3 and Essaunders are right about dipping the bags to limit too much heel. I think that there must have been internal ballast as well, judging by the way she came upright. Also as the film started she was still increasing her heel, one of the bags started clear, but then dipped for most of the transit. That does suggest shifting weight inboard. Part of the trick is that by hanging that weight from mast head halyards is like putting the weight up there at the mast head, with all of the stability reducing effect that that causes. The reduction in stability would have made shifting weight more effective, with less strain on the rig than if the water-bags were doing all of the work.

[isla]

Whatever the physics involved it is a pretty cool stunt, and not one I would like to try.

[nedL]

Good for him on coming up with a creative solution. No more stress on things than on a nice afternoon's sail either.

[outofthenorm]

If you look carefully, you can see lines attached to the bottoms of the bags (in the final few frames). To bring her upright, he simply hauled on the lines to bring them over the boat.

- Norm

[RFNK]

What a great idea! We take our Folkboat under Tea Gardens Bridge from Port Stephens to access the Myall Lakes. This involves waiting for quite a low tide and even then the radio aerial scrapes along the underside of the bridge; this was a bit spooky the first time. I thought if we ever got caught by high water from flooding, I could take a halyard onto a bridge stanchion base to pull the mast over a bit but this water bag arrangement would be a better approach, I think. Rick

[TimH]

If he really had balls he would have sailed under :)

[Hughman]

OK, here's how it works:

Stop the boat: lower the halyards, , fill the bags. as you tighten the halyards, the weight will act on the center of axis of the hull, via the lever of the mast. (it overcomes the torque of the righting moment)

when through the bridge, haul in on the tag line (just visible under the bridge) Just make sure you have your rig right.....

[ben2go]

Awsome!That would have scared the brown stuff outta me.

[ChaseKenyon]

Is is just me or in the last shots does the helmsman look like

PALADIN?

[rkingsland]

I beleive that's a 72' Alden belonging to David Parrot, founder of Titan Salvage, who are the go-to crew whenever something really big gets in trouble anywhere in the world. See this link on saving a car carrier on the rocks south of the Aleutians. http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/16-03/ff_seacowboys?currentPage=all. Quite a story.
He started the company in the early '80's.

This is his personal boat, and I think the story was he had to clear that bridge to get to a yard where he was hauling. Routine stuff for him. Once he got the heel started he controlled it by the length of the line to the balls, and had the line marked so he knew just how far off the water the top of the mast was when heeled. When he was through the bridge, pull the balls in, pull the plugs and drain the water. He said it was a piece of cake.

Best, Bob http://www.sv-restless.com