Thomas:
When you buy the shroud extender kit, you also receive a wire extension about 30" long that goes through the cleats at the bottom of the mast, then around the dolphin striker extension pole. I found this system very difficult to use, so I use a righting pole instead.
Since I like to play around a lot when the water goes over seventy degrees, I usually flip the 18 a few times a year. I found the righting pole allows me to get the boat back over by myself and I weigh 170 lbs. However, you'll have to either tie a pole on yourself or adapt the righting pole kit, since they want you to rivet the pole axis to the underside of your crossbar, right through your tramp; not a good thing.
Last year I was in a race in Rochester when I flipped the boat in higher winds. I thought it would be easy to get it back, but the boat was carried downwind because of a severe current and turtled. The problem with the righting pole is that you need a righting line to get the boat back up from a turtle position. I've since added a mast float to help prevent this. I'll have to remove the float from the mast for racing, though; I've been told that it is not race legal. This seems kind of odd because you would think that HCA would want everyone to be safety concious.
Good luck,
Wyatt
_________________ Sails off Angola, NY, Lake Erie.
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