http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_uAlyTYqcg&mode=related&search= 

I am assuming you have to take out additional health insurance to sail a 49er, some of these capsizes are quite insane. The boats look uncontrollable. Anyone have experience of sailing one of these?

Yeah they are easier to sail then the 14 i carew in now, 2 sail reaching is the hardest thing in them and keeping the nose out of the water in chop due to the short bowsprit, upwind they are VERY quick, although i have o sail downhill we can take loads out of them in the 14

They're not too bad really. I never even capsized mine once. 

Real arm chair sailing to be honest.

You'd be mad to even get in one...?

I want 1!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Those of us who have done this can vouch for the fact that when it goes wrong, it really goes wrong spectacularly!!!!! But it really is a different type of sailing to the rockets.  Goes nicely with skydiving, BASE jumping and other mad crazy adrenaline junky passtimes ... We love it RAA!!  ... Oh and yes the insurance is a little different too!!

I sail a 14 (and a merlin!!!!!) and that can hurt when you fall off it but the 49er looks like a different, more painful, beasty altogether.

Well The 9er is slightly slower downhill then our Morrison 12 14 but cripples it upwind the difference is you swim more in the 14 but less downwind due to t-foil 2 sail reaching is the dangerous part.

Arrggghhhhhhhh

Dont mention the t-f word!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We got mixed up in a Belgian Champs 'open' skiff race with a fleet of about 50 boats a few weeks ago on our local lake. It was windy; they were good, very fast, and for me unpredictable since the downwind course was much further off the obvious direction than you would ever get in a 'straight' dinghy. We had some difficulty just staying out of their way, let alone caching them.

I have another question. Anytime I have sailed trapeze boats and you capsize mostly you get pulled by your wire ontop of the sail, but the guys in this video seem to manage to un-hook so go over backwards. Is there some sort of quick release mechanism on the wires with these boats?

chatting to Mark Lee (from 'Craftinsure' - one of the Merlin Nationals Sponsors), and a Contender sailor - he says there is a quick release version of a trapeeze harness & he can see it being made compulsory following recent events. I don't know who makes this.

Quick release hooks for harnesses have been around for a while but you don't use them during any old capsize as they entail the complete hook being released from the harness, with the resultant risk of the loss of the hook. Obviously the risk of loss of life is slightly more important! I sail both a Contender and a 14 and I can assure you that you learn very quickly to knock your trapeze line off if you're going into the water! Still being hooked on when under the boat or under the sail is disturbing. Many of the capsizes on the 9er link are at manoevre times when you're not hooked in anyway. It's not as bad as you might think! The worst thing about capsizing a 14 is not the pain of landing on the mast, it's the pain of having to right the damned thing with all that sail in the water!

it isnt hadr to right at all the hard thing is when you go through sails or carbon bits, and the insuance premium is up for renewel

it isnt hadr to right at all the hard thing is when you go through sails or carbon bits, and the insuance premium is up for renewel

When you dunk a 14 with the kite up it takes more than 30 seconds to get it up again! But isn't it nice to be able to sail away with no water in the boat! Now if only the Merlin could have a double skin and no transom!

Thats true but we can get it back up with kite up/ drop in water in 1min 45 secs now !!!!  We have had that much practice

Wow - that's impressive! I've never timed ours but I know I'm always out of breath and relieved to be sailing away - just glad I don't have to bail out!

well i say that but it often depends on where i landed after the capsize swimming 20 yards back to the boat takes a while, and recovering from being winded slows my in water kite drop a little

one of our 49 boys felt unwell, came of the water and found that he had gashed his leg on the board.
they took him off in an ambulance to sew him up.

I have a similar story my rother had an accident in a Boss, his helm parked it in a wave the boat stopped and he kept going, straight into the adjustable rigging and shroud, he had to go to hospital and after months of not healing he may have to have some skin taken from his arse and put on his leg!!!

HI sailed most skiffs and most of the time the wipeouts are not painfull unless you hit the mast or forestay which happens 1 - 2% of the time. The worst wipeouts are when an upwind boat T bones a downwind boat (usually due to blind spots). Had one nasty experience in a Laser 5000 in 1995, whilst leading a Eurocup race at Hayling. 2 boats sailing beyond the layline, us having rounded the spacer and up to full speed on starboard and them on port (did not see them anyway) hit just off head on so impact speed probably more than 30 knots (combined). Result I bartflied into their mast, my crew, Charlie Campion cut his knees landing in our boat and both sets of racks tore off in the collison but the locating bolts remained intact. Boat was back on the water the next day with a full set of new racks but our bodies were broken and our regatta blown.
Sailing 49ers and B14s, you tend to land fairly comfortably and not do to much damage other than sometimes breaking the trapeze elastic on a trapezing skiff. A lot of fun and adrenalin rush.
Bye for now

Skiffs are great fun, even the wipe outs are whats its all about. 

I had a fun experience years ago in a Topper ISO that had been on display at the Scottish boat show. 

Trying to trapeze with the kite up in a blow when a boat is covered in polish is very interesting, every wave we bore off down i slid along the gunnels till i hit the shroud. 
I then had to jump in the boat, run back to the stern and jump back out on the wire and keep her on the plane. A lot to be said for a sit out boat when its windy.