cautious sailing

[john wilson]

I have a question for all of the sailors out there. I have been getting my sailing experiance in small winds 10 -15 knots and enjoying myself, learning the boat and winds, but every now and then a strong gust comes along and really fills out my sails. Gets my heart going and my mind thinking about the correcting move. So, this may sound completely obvious or way off the mark but here goes,: What is the quickest procedure that you as captain would perform if your boat is in trouble. For example a strong wind starts to blow unexpectedly and the boat heels up serverly. I guess what I'm asking is what is your emergency move. My wife says jump up and pull the main down, I think release the main sheet and dump the wind and the neighbour says no bring it head into the wind. But what is it? The quick move to bring the boat back to centre, when experiancing a hard wind or heel? Thanks in advance for your response. John Wilson s.v. Arvore Blues""

[Silmaril]

Well, an excellent question. For starters, are we talking about a "puff" of wind, or a steady increase in velocity? I'll assume we are talking about a "puff".

In puffy conditions, the mainsail sheet should not be cleated and should always be in the hands of the skipper, so that you may quickly release it and regulate your heeling. You will probably not need to "dump" all the wind from the sail, just enough to get you back to a comfortable heel. Then as the puff subsides, you can re-trim the sail for optimum performance.

If you round up the boat into the wind, a couple of things may happen. First, you are drastically changing your course. I hope all is clear to weather! Second, it may happen that you over-steer (a common beginner mistake) and come about by mistake, filling the sails on the other tack and risking a capsize. You will also be luffing the sails, not a lot of fun, noisy, and increased wear and tear on the sail.

Dropping the sail is usually only reserved for an emergency, in the case of a steady, building breeze that is overpowering the boat. It also is the most time consuming and labor intensive of the maneuvers.

Feathering the mainsail is the best choice in most cases.

[sailandoar]

In a gust you can:

(1) Luff or head downwind:
Luffing seems easiest/safest but is disconcerting because of the noise of violently shaking sails. Heading off is a bit more advanced and not so much for a small vessels. You need not change course to luff, just let the sail out until it begins to shake/flutter. It is possible to move along slowly and safely with the sail mostly flapping and you pull in the sheet just enough to get the power you need to move. When doing this you cannot sail into the wind nearly as closely as when the sails are drawing fully and so smaller or reefed sails are the real answer.


(2) Depower the sails by flattening them. Increase the luff and foot tension is usually how one can flatten a sail.

(3) Reef: Mainsails and sometimes jibs have provisions for reefing, either slab (reef points) or rolling.

(4) Storm sails: Put up smaller sails and just sit back and enjoy. It is wonderful to be out when it is blowing hard and you are just relaxing sailing comfortably with tiny sails.

[Sailormon6]

When the boat is heeling excessively, the sailing schools tell their entry-level students to just completely let go of all the controls (especially the tiller and the mainsheet), and the boat will head up to windward, and that will take the wind pressure off the sails, and the boat will stop heeling. That's true, but, as Silmaril, pointed out, sometimes the boat goes too far, and it flops over onto the opposite tack, and starts heeling on that tack, and scares you to death. So, the best thing to do is, let go of the mainsheet completely and don't push quite so hard on the tiller, but don't completely let go of it. That will take the pressure off the sails, and stop the boat from heeling so much.

I don't think there was ever a sailor who didn't get scared the first time a sailboat heeled excessively. You'll get over it.

[john wilson]

Thanks guys for the help. I will not cleat the main sheet and watch the over steering. This I know I'm guilty of doing, but as with everything it is just a learning curve. Hopefully I will put this into practise tomarow, if I get some fair winds and learn to relaxe a little bit more. john wilson

[nolatom]

In general, easing the mainsheet out quickly will get the boat "back on her feet". If it's really a screeching puff, you may have to ease the jib, too, 'cause if you don't, the eased main but full jib may give you lee helm, which will head you back to leeward when you didn't want to, even if you're trying to head up with the tiller.

The above is for sailing "on the wind" (beam reach or closer)--on a broad reach, may be better to bear off a little closer to a run, and put that killer puff "behind" you, and ride it out downwind til it passes.

And if these events happen too frequently, you're carrying too much sail and need to reef the main (if you have reefing) and maybe switch down to a smaller jib (or roll it up part way if you have roller furling/reefing).

[safehousemilw]

If you are anywhere near a close reach head up. You don't have to retrim the sails and you will soon learn how much to head up.

[owlmtn]

I've never heard anyone tell beginners to let go of the tiller in a puff. The best way to deal with puffs seems to be a combination of easing the mainsheet and heading up slightly. If you have your boomvang tightened, when you easeyour mainsheet your sail will maintain a good shape and will not luff quite as badly. I would reccomend that you and your wife take a learn to sail course together. I can tell you from experience that a third party to defer to will defuse may spousal arguments. Jim

[Sailormon6]

The rationale of telling a beginner to let go of the tiller is twofold. 1) The boat's weather helm will cause the boat to come up to windward all by itself, and 2) A beginner who is in a near panic won't be able to remember complicated instructions. If you tell him to just let go of all the controls, he can remember that.

[nolatom]

Originally Posted by Sailormon6

The rationale of telling a beginner to let go of the tiller is twofold. 1) The boat's weather helm will cause the boat to come up to windward all by itself, and 2) A beginner who is in a near panic won't be able to remember complicated instructions. If you tell him to just let go of all the controls, he can remember that.

In slower-reacting keelboat, maybe it'll work out well. In a smaller boat with a strong weather helm like a Flying Scot, no way, the tiller will go to leeward before the sails ease out, you'll head up too fast, involuntarily crash-tack with all the weight still on the "new" leeward side, and end up with a bigger crisis than the one you thought you were avoiding. .