14 foot plywood dinghy sailplan

Foostrap idea

The idea of a foot-strap is that I could loop it over the centreboard when the boat is lying on it's side.
I can then put a foot in the strap to enable me to climb on the centreboard and then quickly remove the strap.
I have found with boats in the past, that when standing on the board, you can pretty much control when the mast is lifted out of the water. This is sometimes necessary if the mast is pointing into the wind. If the mast is pointing the wrong way you have to be lightning fast to get to the weather rail.
With a laser pointing the wrong way and you are in the water, I would bring it up, let it flip while holding onto the board, and the you end up on the right side with the wind behind you.
The difference with a laser, is that it is stable enough to give you time to climb aboard from the water.
The penalty for having a tender boat.
Tender = fast = unstable = handful.
Wali

 

Wali, it still sounds better than mowing the lawns and weeding gardens for the wife!

With my boat, though more stable at rest than yours seems to be, I have difficulty reaching the centreboard from the water. This is due to the bouancy in the side decks.
I did two things to help with this:
1. Threaded a line under each gunwhale on the outside (facing down to the water) between two eyes with a stopper knot at each end. The rope is about 2" longer that the distance between the eyes, and one end has a bungee line to hold it tight against the boat when not in use. When in the water i can use the lower one to hook my toe in when pulling down on the centreboard, then grab the upper one as the boat starts to come over.
This is of use most of the time, though I try to avoid canning out more than a couple of times a season. (If this sounds useful I could take a photo and post it)

2. Ran the other tail of the line about 1m long aft to a free end retained by a bungee line. This was to help pull myself up to the centreboard. This was a waste of time so I cut it off.

I find that I never actually stand on the board when righting it. Once the mast is coming up the rig is so light I can pull it up by dragging down on the centreboard.

Can I suggest you install a grab line inside the cockpit on each side where you can reach it from the water. You may also look at pulling yourself back into the boat further aft where there should be more stability.
Also make sure you can get hold of the mainsheet when you are about to climb in. This can be used to trim the boat a little as you put weight on the side.

 

The rail-mounted righting loop for the lower foot is how I've solved this problem as well. Rather than a "retractable" one like mentioned above, mine is a permanent loop covered with medical tubing that it also used as a trapeze foot loop.

No one has mentioned a roll (called California roll or Eskimo roll) when the mast is upwind. If your mast is upwind, rather than pointlessly climbing in after the mast starts to break out of the water, you slip under the daggerboard and get lifted out of the water when the boat capsizes with the daggerboard now to windward. Basically a windward mast is going to result in a second capsize, so go with it and let the boat pick you up. This is one of the fastest ways to recover from a windward mast capsize - and it saves a lot of energy climbing out of the water to the board. This is a lot easier than trying to get up on the board of a high floating boat.

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CutOnce