This would be a giant balloon that is housed in the mast of a yacht, below deck there would be several tanks of helium, when the yacht capsizes the same motor/rope that is used to pull the mainsail up can be swiched so it pulls the baloon up to the top of the mast, once there it can be inflated to the desired size, this should right the boat and then make it lighter for the crew to right once it is parralell to the water line. For people trapped inside the boat it will make escape easier and for people on the outside there would be a tap on the outside of the hull/keel/stern to turn on the helium and start pumping up the baloon.
-- Gulherme, Sep 02 2002

Paddle Float http://www.seakayak...m/feb97/foster1.htm
This is an interesting expansion of the principle behind a "paddle float", an inflatable bag that one sticks over one's paddle as a makeshift "third leg" when stabilizing a capsized kayak. [jutta, Sep 06 2002]

Once righted the baloon floats off by itself carrying with it some sort of gps thingy that maps its progress once it has left the yacht, the information can be picked up by a signal and the course of the balloon can then be used to find the possible location of the distressed yacht.
-- Gulherme, Sep 02 2002


[sp: parallel]
-- jutta, Sep 06 2002


[also: balloon]
-- DrCurry, Sep 06 2002


Would be kinda handy in righting dad's catamaran. When sailing without someone beefier than I to right the thing, it gets a little tricky sometimes.
-- RayfordSteele, Sep 06 2002


Not so much a prevention balloon as a 'make it better after'...

Yachts have keels that weigh tons, in some cases. I don't know how much use this would be...
-- StarChaser, Sep 07 2002



random, halfbakery