Heavy Weather Sailing

[cormeum]

Originally Posted by imagine2frolic

In theory while standing on my old mono. My eyes were approximently 10-11ft. off the water. While rounding Point Conception under a handkerchief. I was standing at the mast.
I was completely overwhelmed in the beauty of being swallowed by waves, and looking nearly directly up to see the sky. Within a moment being up on top of the world with mountains in the distance.

When I noticed at one point I was looking at the bottom half of the waves when I was in the bottom of the trough. This gives me a rough idea of the wave heigth, but not exactly. This was in 50+ mph of wind near shore.

I am not saying Omatako is right, or wrong. I do agree with him that the video does not show me 90ft. waves. What the pilot saw I have no idea. I was not there. I do believe the overwhelm factor does tend to exxaggerate height.........i2f

Waves always look 50% smaller on video and 80% larger on deck.

Hence the common Youtube critique: "Those waves aren't that big! Why'd they abandon ship?- bunch of pussies!"
I'm lousy at guessing heights but my test is if the sail goes slack in the trough and it's screaming on the crest, it's a big wave.

[captbillc]

Valiente---i was a gun trainer in the armed guard on a merchant cargo-passenger vessel. we took two torpedoes & went down in a blow 50 miles off cape hatteras in march 1942. after that they said our gun crew was to go on a ship to murmansk. i was transfered to the sub chaser fleet instead & was happy about that.

[smackdaddy]

billc, I've got one thing to say...

Respect.

[closehauled14]

A while back in this thread someone had suggested securing a fender or something to the running end of the jsd for easier retrieval, and was imediately shot down due to defeating the purpose of the equiptment. This, however, can be accomplished if done correctly, and can make retieval fairly easy. Before you deploy the jsd secure an anchor bouy to the end of the jsd via a 50-75ft piece of small diameter cord. If this is done correctly the bouy will not impede the opperation of the jsd. When you are ready to retrieve just secure a fender directly to the bridle if depth requires(optional), and let overboard, circle around to the trailer bouy, secure it, and then retrieve the jsd with minimal backache. Just make sure that you see your trailer bouy before you toss the bridle, unless, of course, you want to make a donation to the locker. I haven't tried this method in "the big stink" as some would say, but I have experimented with it in 40-45kt and 15-18ft seas, and it worked like a champ. As to the question of weather to heave to, lay ahull, run before, chute, or drogue; this is a debate that we could have for forever due to all of the involved variables,but to me all of these are the "upside" of heavy weather because you are alredy conceding that you have the depth and the sea room to do these things. The not so fun and all to often case is everyone's favorite lee shore, or worse, a lee shoal. So, go below, hit the head, and fill your thermos with coffee because, it doesn't matter how you feel about chutes vs drouges because you're about to be beating into it weather you want to or not.

[twinsdad]

For the ignorant among us, is the JSD a drogue? Thanks

[closehauled14]

Yes, JSD= Jordan Series Drogue.

[smackdaddy]

Oh lord twins, you'll awaken the Dog.

Close - THAT'S a great thing to read. Retrieval is the achilles heel of the JSD. BUT, I've got a question...

If you're going to have to beat into the storm, won't the JSD be on the wrong end?

BTW - I'm kind of digging the JSD, but I like the Galerider from the standpoint of it being deployable from either end.

[closehauled14]

What I was trying to convey is that you run the jsd off the stern if you have the luxury of sea room. If you have a lee shore, shoal, reef, ect, you will have to activly sail close to the wind to scratch away. Also you would typicaly wait 'till the weather improves to go about retrieving the jsd as to continue avoiding a beat down once you come about to weather.

[sailingdog]

Only an idiot would try and beat into a storm with a JSD deployed... oh...I forgot who was talking...

IF you're on a lee shore, you're going to have to claw your way to windward, and generally, getting caught on a lee shore means you weren't paying attention...

Originally Posted by smackdaddy

Oh lord twins, you'll awaken the Dog.

Close - THAT'S a great thing to read. Retrieval is the achilles heel of the JSD. BUT, I've got a question...

If you're going to have to beat into the storm, won't the JSD be on the wrong end?

BTW - I'm kind of digging the JSD, but I like the Galerider from the standpoint of it being deployable from either end.

[sailingdog]

You obviously don't have a clue about how the JSD is supposed to work. Buoying the end of it will effectively stop it from working properly because it will introduce slack into the JSD where the JSD curves up to meet the buoy. Most JSDs are 170'+ long, and are designed to hang almost straight down from the transom of the boat under certain storm conditions, and as the boat gets pushed by the waves, it straightens out and progressively loads up the cones... having a big catenary curve in the JSD will prevent this from working properly. Also, you run the risk of having the JSD foul itself or the buoy line....

Originally Posted by closehauled14

A while back in this thread someone had suggested securing a fender or something to the running end of the jsd for easier retrieval, and was imediately shot down due to defeating the purpose of the equiptment. This, however, can be accomplished if done correctly, and can make retieval fairly easy. Before you deploy the jsd secure an anchor bouy to the end of the jsd via a 50-75ft piece of small diameter cord. If this is done correctly the bouy will not impede the opperation of the jsd. When you are ready to retrieve just secure a fender directly to the bridle if depth requires(optional), and let overboard, circle around to the trailer bouy, secure it, and then retrieve the jsd with minimal backache. Just make sure that you see your trailer bouy before you toss the bridle, unless, of course, you want to make a donation to the locker. I haven't tried this method in "the big stink" as some would say, but I have experimented with it in 40-45kt and 15-18ft seas, and it worked like a champ. As to the question of weather to heave to, lay ahull, run before, chute, or drogue; this is a debate that we could have for forever due to all of the involved variables,but to me all of these are the "upside" of heavy weather because you are alredy conceding that you have the depth and the sea room to do these things. The not so fun and all to often case is everyone's favorite lee shore, or worse, a lee shoal. So, go below, hit the head, and fill your thermos with coffee because, it doesn't matter how you feel about chutes vs drouges because you're about to be beating into it weather you want to or not.