This Pats Weekend's Sailing...

[SpcAlan1]

Here in Georgia we have great wind all weekend long ( started on Wednesday ).

I have a Catalina 25 with a roller furling 150.

The wind was coming NE about 13-15 mph with big waves ( I say big because when I went over then the front of my boat smashed the water and my prop came out EVERY time i went over a wave. )

So I am trying to go NE ( go figure ) to get to the main channel..

After 2 hours of sailing.. I had gone no where.. I could have motored 3x as much in half the time.

Basically I was going side to side, instead of diagonal.

In this case,, should I have reefed the main and still kept my 150 extended?

What is the best setup in this situation..
kinda frustrating when I want to go 'there' but the wind and waves are basically blowing me back.

Thanks.

[jephotog]

If you are getting overpowered you want to reduce some sail, but which is best to reduce first depends on the boat. You might want to hang out on the catalina web site to see what they say about the various sail plans in different conditions.

Not sure how your boat is rigged but there are also things you can do it terms of sail shape to get better performance in such conditions. I would venture a guess at them am a bit rusty and do not want to steer you wrong. Also steering the boat through the chop in such a way can help make better performance to windward. You might want to get a book on racing to get some ideas on how to make your boat perform better in different conditions. I will check out my library when I get home and make some suggestions.

[GeorgeB]

Unfortunately, you might not have all the sail controls on your C25 to make it go to windward with your 150% genoa in stronger breezes. Your “flat” tacking angle is the result of your 150 overpowering your mainsail giving you a slight leeward helm problem (pulling the center of effort forward of the center of balance). To overcome, you need to move the boom to windward by adjusting the traveler. Unfortunately, I believe you have a pretty short traveler that isn’t going to do the trick. The next thing you could do is hoisting a smaller, lapper type jib. In your case, roller furl your genoa until it is barely over lapping the mast. Move your fair lead blocks forward to round out the jib and give it the acceleration and “punch” you need to get through the waves. You will notice that the center part of the furled jib’s luff isn’t taught which unfortunately adds to the heeling moment of the boat. You will have to live with it until you buy a smaller jib for those windy days. If you have a backstay adjuster, pull on full backstay which will help (but not take away) the heeling problem.

[jephotog]

My suggestions were along the lines George said but was not sure. I glanced through my racing library last night and could not find the article I read for sailing through bigger waves in heavy wind. My guess that I read in in the Best of Sail Trim or the BOST II.

One other factor you are probably suffering from is the Roller furling. While it is nice to be able to pull a line in the cockpit and reduce sail, it is not very affective in all conditions. As you shorten the 150 Genny it will keep its shape probably to about 120% then will not have the proper sail shape to drive the boat to windward much below that.

Unless your C25 was rigged to race you probably do not have the sail tweaking ability to handle these conditions. You would be better off firing up the iron genny in such conditions. The other suggestion is to start your day heading into the wind, so you can run home.

[AdamLein]

I've had similar problems in the past in my C27 but with more experience at helming and planning trips, it's been less of a problem. Some things to think about:

1) In addition to the above advice on sail trim, how does the tiller feel? Does it require much force on the tiller to keep the boat on course? If you're putting the tiller hard over because the boat has a tendency to head up into the wind or bear away, then the rudder will act as a break and kill your speed. This will also make it hard for you to tack. If you feel like you have to push the tiller to leeward, then your genoa may be overpowered; if you need to pull the tiller to windward, your main may be overpowered.

2) We've had the most trouble making headway upwind in a wind-against-tide situation. Around here the currents are pretty strong even in open waters and as a result we often see steep seas closely packed. Like you described, motoring in these conditions means the prop (I'm guessing you also have an outboard?) is often surfacing. We learned the hard way to be sure we knew what the tides were doing before setting out.

3) You might want to consider changing your roller furling jib for a set of hank-on sails. We have several of different sizes and weights of fabric, but we typically use the 135%. It's very effective in winds from 15 - 30 kt, always takes a great shape, and the boat will self-steer under jib and main with the tiller tied about 5 degrees to windward. On a boat your size it's an easy sail to handle on your own, so it's hard to justify the inefficiency of roller furling. I also don't see a significant performance boost from the 150%.