You make it sound very easy
and if you can do it as easily as you describe it, I take my hat off to you and wish you could show me how to do it.
Running whitewater in an open boat, I frequently stand in an eddy and empty the boat out by lifting it inverted over my head. I know what force is required to lift the boat free from the water and flip it over.
And I have tried the “Capstrano Flip” in water too deep to stand in. I have found that I can’t get a swamped boat clear of the surface and flip it over with the strongest scissors kick I can muster.
Yeah, that’s "the real world"
I spent quite a bit of time trying to re-enter my bagged-out Supernova a couple years ago (after quite a number of failed roll attempts), and though I did get the feeling it might be do-able, I never once succeeded. I even got a tremendous blow to the face one time when I didn’t quite grip the boat as planned while trying to scissor-kick over the side and it immediately rolled with murderous intent. Why didn’t I think of heaving it up over my head and plopping it down completely empty of bilgewater? Because it weighs at least 70 pounds when there’s no water at all inside if equipped with bags and if there’s even a minimal amount of day-trip gear lashed to the floor. It probably weighs at least 150 pounds during those first few seconds of pouring out the minimum of 3 or 4 inches of water that are on the floor after a capsize, and that water can’t be removed with just a toss and flip (not by me anyway). I’m sure there are a lot more canoes out there with a dry weight that’s pushing 50 or 60 pounds than those that are under 35. In any case, re-entering a canoe solo would be impressive enough under the best circumstances, and probably a miracle if done in the kind of water conditions that might flip a person in the first place.
pb, i greatly oversimplified my post.
I find it very difficult to reenter and can not accomplish it early in the season. Practice, practice, practice gets me there by mid-summer. It seems that somebody should invent a simple mechinsim.
Lots of nuances
Lighter boats help, but be sure to flip them into the wind so it carries the hull back towards you.
I find it easier to enter over a bow quarter to I’m pointing in the right direction when I arrive amidships. A smooth fronted PFD is a huge help, one og by Astrals has such a bulge I cannot clear the rail with it. The key to this entry is enough strength to weight to do a one armed pushup. The hand pushing down on the far rail must be able to apply ~ half your bodyweight on that rail. I can only do this with right arm.
Alternate strategy includes a paddlefloat on a bent paddle lashed to the forward thwart. It helps to have the bent, the float and two secure straps in place before the capsize.
And, to echo everyone else, practice in warm, deep, water with a close shore so this isn’t a heuristic problem in cold water with wind and waves.
why not use an outrigger?
Assuming the canoe has some floatation, why not lash the paddle to the thwart with a paddle float on the end? Will that work?
sure
It works. It’s a little harder to get up over the gunwales of most canoes than it is to get up on the deck of a kayak. A stirrup of nylon webbing can be used to help.
I carry a paddle float a double blade
and a stirrup and a bailer.
It works in a solo boat…Key is pausing to bail before you get in. I have never been able to get all the water out of the boat.
I cant vouch for every one elses technique and for sure there are other ways. I do what I do because I have the stuff with me anyway. I am required to carry a bailer, I am required to carry a throw rope and the paddle float makes a good pillow and the double blade I use on windy days.
Oh if we were all five years old. My grandson can reenter several times in a row…if the boat is empty.
I heartily advise practice at AFS. Swimming is not allowed on the beach. However boat rescues are allowed just off the beach…nice sand bottom and warm water. So if you want to swim just say you are practicing “solo reentry”
Good question and …
alot of good answers and tips.
I regularly climb in and out of my Penobscot 16 to swim. I usually go to one end and basically do something similar to a kayak cowboy rescue.
However, I’ve never even tried it in my Voyager and Classic XL. I’ll have to try some of the ideas here and see what works.
Swim-Fins
And I thought it was just me …guideboatguy clarifies much. I am big on practicing technique, but I have never managed to get back into my flipped Mad River Traveler. After an afternoon of effort (and several offers of rescue for the weird guy who for hours just couldn’t manage to stop thrashing about in the water about a hundred feet offshore) I came to the conclusion that a set of swim-fins was the ticket for me. I can get them on fast, and quickly swim-drag the boat to shore. I figure it may also minimize exposure time in colder water situations.
Solo Canoe Self Rescue
Hello:
Perhaps you posters will find the canoe pictures very helpful on www.sponsonguy.com Other posters regarding kayaks, not canoes seemed to be genuinely interested in the details, and may benefit from the diagrams and pictures on www.sponsonguy.com I hope that this is helpful. A SAR team actually made a rescue craft with foam sponsons (noodles etc.) and a 12 foot Old Town Recreational kayak for specialized rocky, surf rescues near cliffs where helicopters can’t operate. The below post was to a forum topic where some posters seemed not interested in very simple foolproof safety, although most geneuinely were:
Hello:
Please read www.sponsonguy.com and see any judge, jury, or any 10 year old kids rescue themselves within 5 seconds. It is pretty simple.
Most of you do not want any neighbours or their children to be hurt. Some bullies however believe that canoes and kayaks are so complicated as to be always deadly, forgetting sponson crossings of Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
No bully can rescue theirself in 5 seconds with 50 cent sponsons like any 10 year old child, nor rescue other victims in the water: www.sponsonguy.com
Take care. Thanks, Tim Ingram
Solo Canoe Self Rescue
Hello:
Perhaps you posters will find the canoe pictures very helpful on www.sponsonguy.com Other posters regarding kayaks, not canoes seemed to be genuinely interested in the details, and may benefit from the diagrams and pictures on www.sponsonguy.com I hope that this is helpful. A SAR team actually made a rescue craft with foam sponsons (noodles etc.) and a 12 foot Old Town Recreational kayak for specialized rocky, surf rescues near cliffs where helicopters can’t operate. The below post was to a forum topic where some posters seemed not interested in very simple foolproof safety, although most genuinely were:
Hello:
Please read www.sponsonguy.com and see any judge, jury, or any 10 year old kids rescue themselves within 5 seconds. It is pretty simple.
Most of you do not want any neighbours or their children to be hurt. Some bullies however believe that canoes and kayaks are so complicated as to be always deadly, forgetting sponson crossings of Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
No bully can rescue theirself in 5 seconds with 50 cent sponsons like any 10 year old child, nor rescue other victims in the water: www.sponsonguy.com
Take care. Thanks, Tim Ingram
solo reentry
When the weather is hot and the water is warm on the Green River in Utah, we are in and out of our canoes frequently to cool off: an Old Town Penobscot 16 and a Mad River Explorer 16. Like the contributor I just read, we climb in near the end of the boat (after warning our tandem partner.) And I’m 63. Just try not to get the PFD and its attachments caught as you’re pulling yourself across the gunwale. I haven’t tried it yet running solo in the Penobscot, by my 40-year-old, in-good-shape buddy makes it look easy. I would think it would be even easier in a swamped canoe.
A new way to save yourself
– Last Updated: Jul-12-11 7:36 AM EST –
I have a 17' Dagger Venture, 85 lbs. I can empty and reenter easily on a lake. Use a rope, pole and dry-bags.
Clip two (inflated) dry bags to one end of the center thwart. Tie a rope with a stirrup on the end, to the other end of the thwart. With the canoe belly-up, pull on the rope and push with your feet on the gunwales where the bags are. Bags should be sticking outside the hull. The canoe will ride up on the bags and the water will empty out. Pull it over the rest of the way. Voila! No water.
Reenter using the pole and bags like a paddle float, pole lashed to the thwart with the rope. Step in the stirrup and climb aboard. I can climb in without belly flopping or rolling, and even can stand on the gunwale.
I do this alone, and I am 62 and overweight.
You need 2 bags, not too big, not too small.
self rescue in a Pack Canoe
I just tried to swamp and self rescue in my 12’ Old Town Pack. I can get it turned over and I can get in the swamped canoe, but it sinks with my weight. My options are going to be swimming or swimming and pushing the canoe until I can stand. I guess I’ll have to be more careful in 50 degree and less water.