Flipping a Boat

[crokett]

My first summer in Minnesota, two guys rolled a little sailboat about 30' from our dock. Myself and my wife's cousin swam out and helped them right it - we just all hung on one side. Yesterday my FIL called to say that the wind had flipped the shore stations of two of his neighbors - boat and all and the shore stations were floating in the lake on the upside down boats. Now a 20' speed boat is considerably bigger than a daysailer - exactly how would you right one? Only thing I can think of is some sort of airbag. I don't see a floating crane big enough to do anything getting in there.

[smorris]

You can call SeaTow our other appropriate water tow and have it hauled to a lift out facility. That's what we would do here. Hopefully they have insurance both on the boat and for the likely oil/fuel spill.

[crokett]

This is a smallish (well by Minnesota standards anyway) lake so unless they can park a portable lift out at the boat ramp I don't see that happening.

[Wood_workur]

ping pong balls? Call the mythbusters in.

[dkerfoot]

I'm picturing 10 - 15 guys with ropes, all standing on one side and leaning back until she flips back over.

[Uncle Cracker]

Had one flip here a couple of years ago... They put floats on it to stabilize, then towed it to the dock, where a tow truck was used to flip it upright, then pumped it out and loaded it on a trailer.

[Kristofor]

Yeah, there were a few tornadoes and lots of 70mph plus straight line winds in the last couple storms.

The vast majority of the lakes around here won't have a marina with a crane or lift and some wouldn't even have the launch facilities needed to put one in.

For something like an Alumacraft or Ranger which isn't that heavy tossing a rope or two over the "top" and a couple more to the other side underneath then pull in opposite directions. Not sure how well that would scale to a cabin cruiser or the like though.

[jonmulzer]

Pump air into it until the load is reduced, sometimes they will right themselves.