Heavy Weather Sailing

[genieskip]

At a Safety at Sea seminar in Boston a few years ago (required for offshore racers) one of the instructors cut through a hefty piece of rod rigging in seconds with a metal cutting grinding wheel on a battery powered skill saw. I don't think a good dose of green water would be any help to the saw, to say nothing of a flat battery, but it is an interesting concept.

[sailingdog]

Another thing that can help get rid of a rig quickly is a drift punch and 3 lb. sledge. If you have the clevis pins setup so that you can punch them out, this is a pretty good solution and often faster than trying to cut the cable.

[smackdaddy]

Originally Posted by s.runals

Have been out in winds 60+ going to St Thomas about 5 yrs ago. Lost the main sail - ripped from foot to head on a Janeau 41. We also last the steering and had to use the emergency tiller - very fun night. Also spent 24 hrs hove-to on the way to Bermuda on my Pacific Seacraft 34 3 years ago. In both cases we were successful in getting thru the wx and into port. We found that you and the boat have to be prepared for just about anything when going off shore. In the first case we were on a delivery and the sail was very old - it just could not take the wind speed. On the trip to Bermuda, after we got the boat settled down we spent a very comfortable night watching DVD's and talking to Bermuda radion on the SSB. One thing that you should definately do is learn how to heave to. Very useful for a wide variety of things and generally good - depending on the boat - up to the point you start to have breaking waves.

Steve
PSC 34 Norfolk

Holy crap! How did I miss this post????

Runals are you still around? How about some more detail on that St. Thomas sail? I'm particularly interested in the emergency tiller and how you set up the boat (sails, running/hove to, drogues, etc.) to ride that out. What was the sea state?

Those PSCs seem to be serious tanks in HW.

[smackdaddy]

Drogue or para-anchor? Bow to waves or stern to waves?

[trisstan87]

Pretty sick sailing right there... though without sails!

[tweitz]

Looks to me like breakers near the beach, not a rogue wave. Look at the surfers hanging about waiting for the next breaking wave. On almost any given day, big breaking waves on the beach would be somewhere a boat like that would not belong.

[St Anna]

Originally Posted by smackdaddy

Drogue or para-anchor? Bow to waves or stern to waves?

This guy is in surf. So Never any thought of drogues or para anchors - just bow straight it and motor as if your life depended on it. Get out of the breaking waves into deep water.

The title of the vid is wrong - that is not rogue waves. He looks like he is in an entrance to somewhere and the tide is falling.

[smackdaddy]

You're right St. No one should ever be in that situation. And, you're also right that these are not "rogue waves" but simply breaking surf in A FAMOUS SURFING AREA!!!!

That said, what's interesting to me is seeing a sailboat in those violent conditions. You typically don't see a boat taking on that much breaking water. This would be the equivalent of a seriously nasty storm. So it's interesting to see how the boat behaves in such conditions - even if the dudes on board are stoned out of their minds.

[cruisingdream]

Originally Posted by smackdaddy

Drogue or para-anchor? Bow to waves or stern to waves?

2 notes
one - there is a green bouy in the shot (thats one hell of a channel)
two - wind is blowing left to right wouldn't some head sail help plow thru the surf

[legarots]

The description says

"Captain Raf and Duke are taking out a group of tourists on their 40' sailboat for an ash scattering ceremony" !

Also goes on to say that this huge set rolled into the channel outside of Waikiki harbor as the boat was leaving, and had no time to avoid the waves.