Resurrecting a capsized catamaran

In the last lesson of our introductory sailing course （12 hours, 1980 RMB), our students learn how to resurrect the catamaran sailboat after it capsizes. It has never happened to me unintentionally, but it's good to know what to do if it does.
It's surprisingly easy to bring the boat back up, even when it's totally inverted (also called turtled), unless the mast is in the mud, that makes it a bit more difficult, especially with receding tide. That's why we always practice with high tide. Even then, it sometimes happens that the mast hits the bottom, the sea is not very deep here.
This time it was Audrey from Belgium who went for a second try, after she failed to bring it up a day earlier. I went out in the dingy with another of our students, Boris from Germany, to film the exercise.
The sea was calm, with almost no wind, and a sunny sky, excellent conditions for this exercise. To help the boat capsizing, you just hang out, holding on to the main stay as long as possible, until the boat tilts over far enough that it capsizes. You usually end up under the boat or under the sail, so you have to quickly swim out and get back to the boat to not lose it. If it's very windy or in strong current this is even more important. You can not outswim a capsized boat drifting away in strong wind or tidal current.
Once you have climbed onboard the reversed boat, you can take a rest and make sure all passengers are there and calm down any panic. It can be a scary moment when it happens unexpectedly. Boris can attest to that...
The procedure for resurrection is as follows: first take the halyard(s) out of the pockets in which they are stored, and work them up along the deck around the hull on the wind side (you might have to go underwater for this), and pull it around the hull. The halyards are attached to the lower part of the mast, so by hanging on to the halyards when they are looped around the hull, you create enough momentum to bring the boat back up. The trick is to not let go of the lines too quickly, and walk up the hull as the boat slowly comes back up. It can take quite a while before you reach the tipping point, where the boat resurrects itself in normal upright position.
This time Audrey and Paul managed to do it on the first try. Good job!



Side note: During the Xiamen boat show, I saw a Hobie cat with a floatation bubble at the top of its mast, which will prevent turtling after capsizing, and therefore makes it a lot easier (and much quicker) to bring the boat back up. Smart!