accidental gybe

[smackdaddy]

Originally Posted by QuickMick

just dont say 'ho'!! gybe!!'

smack you kill me

YouTube - ♫ WHITE CHICKS AND GANG SIGNS ♫

As long as you commit - it will always work.

[AdamLein]

What stopped the boom? Sheet or shroud?

In the past year I have been doing a lot of single-handing and have had a couple of accidental gybes, usually while up on deck. I have lost a hat as a result.

As for signs that it's coming: typically at the moment it happens, I am thinking, "This would be a bad time to accidentally gybe".

I don't think you can accidentally gybe on purpose. Mathematically it seems impossible. I have never tried to gybe without keeping the boom on a short leash, if that's what you mean. The area I have been sailing in is 12 miles wide in the narrowest direction and there's very little traffic. I don't race, so I don't see the need to put extra strain on my gear. Really there's no rush.

[Faster]

If you're steering from behind a wheel, pay attention to the wind on your neck... in fair weather avoid bundling up and having a tall collar. If you're conscious of the breeze under one ear you'll feel the apparent wind start to come aft.

Also with no spinnaker, generally the jib/genoa will start to misbehave, collapse and get your attention before the main will slam over.

Also be prepared to anticipate and correct any veering caused by wave action or approaching wakes.

And... don't sweat it - it's happened to us all.

[rmeador]

I have (knock on wood) never accidentally gybed in my boat, but I've done it a couple times in a cape cod mercury... that experience has made me very vigilant about not doing it on my boat! I keep an eye glued to the windex. The trick about watching for the collapsing genoa is also a good one... I realized when I read it that I was watching that without even knowing I was doing it. I sail wing-and-wing, just about every time I've gone out, since usually the wind is light and directly down the Charles. This necessitates sailing by-the-lee, which I find even more nerve wracking...

[centaursailor]

4. do i owe my pal a bottle of rum?
Drink the rum yourself and forget it.
If you go out on a boat and never crash jibe have you realy sailed
My most recent was off Courtown Harbour, Irish Sea in 25 knts and I got pushed into it by a heavy cross sea. Wind was off the port beam and I was pushing to make the tide into Arklow when she crash jibed with no time to shout anything but F!!!. I needed a drink after that
Safe sailing

[cb32863]

I think it's like running aground, eventually it will happen. I had an accidental last summer. Luckily it wasn't blowing too bad and I caught it with the sheet. We were kind of doing wing on wing and the wind caught me..... Nothing busted and I was able to yell a quick "Watch out" and didn't smack any one's noggin'... Learn from it like everything else.

[rmeador]

This thread reminds me of a question... does anyone make boom end padding? I was thinking of buying some pipe insulation at home depot and wrapping the end of my boom with it so if it smacked someone in the head, it wouldn't hurt so much. It might not be much help during an accidental gybe, but I hit my head on the damn thing all the time just sitting at the dock.

[Boasun]

If you have some yarn tied to the Shroud at about eye level, you won't be taking your eyes off the horizon in order to look at the windex. That simple bit of yarn will tell you more than some of modern fancy tools out there.
Did have an accidental gybe or two... more to failing to read the wind shift then my steering.

[speciald]

The real danger aside from breaking blocks and goosenecks, is that someone may be tagled in the mainsheetslack and important bones could be broken. We use a boom break to control the boom and an 800 square foot main.

[paulk]

We had an accidental gybe once, going dead downwind on a CHI-MAC race, up near the Manitous. It was blowing about 20-25 knots, with sloppy seas of about 8' throwing the stern of the Pearson 37 around quite a bit. The spinnaker was pulling us around in the troughs as well. At the bottom of one, the boat swung around, the spinaker pulled, and the boom whapped over. The main traveller smacked to the other end of the track, with the mainsheet tackle pinning one of the crew against the bridgedeck and back of the cabintrunk. Luckily his fingers weren't in the way of the traveler car, and he only had the wind knocked out of him. We gybed back, with a bit more control, and continued. I think we must have rigged a preventer after that.