First Time in Gusts

[patbratton]

My son and I went out on our H240 Tuesday. The winds were 15 mph, gusting to 20. I reefed the main and we motored out of the harbor. Shawn kept pointing her into the wind whenever the rail got close to the water and I let out the main sheet. Eventually we got comfortable with the angle of sail and enjoyed ourselves for about an hour an a half. The issue came when we decided to return to the harbor. The end of the jib down haul line that I had rigged was not secured and it had looped up over the spreader. I had to go forward and pull down the jib manually. The same mistake with the jib sheets. I had not knotted the ends and one was over the side and the other pulled through the forward block. I looked like a lame, one armed paper hanger. Everything was so much easier to get to on our Hobie 18.
Shawn was having his own issues with the boat keeping her headed into the wind. She kept falling off and the propeller would come out of the water. It was a great experience. The winds were just strong enough to teach but not to cause any damage except to our egos. I will say it did make Shawn a believer in roller furling but that is not in the budget.
My mainsail is in poor shape. The previous owner said that It had be repaired several times. Actually it had been repaired twice and patched once. It needs more tape. I am not going to replace it until I have made all the future mistakes which might damage a new one.
It was our best day on the lake.

 

[Kings Gambit]

I clearly recall admiral’s and my first time out in gusty conditions. Trying to sail out of the harbor close-hauled in a Cal 20. Strong gust. The boat rounded up hard then pirouetted and my hat went overboard! Next thing I know is we’re blowing downwind in 15kt toward the docks! Oh well, let’s just go in now and try again on another day! Good work.

 

[kappykaplan]

Congratulations! Keep learning from your mistakes. Experience is a great teacher.

 

[Brian D]

Well done. Work those sails to your advantage. Spill that wind when you need to. Keep that boat upright as best you can. My first learning mistake was not to undo the topping lift so my main had a big belly and the boat would only go so fast. LOL

 

[waterman30]

Sounds like you did good on this learning experience. I have offer in on a 23.5. Will be my first time with a water ballast boat and hank on sails so I'm expecting some fun stuff too.

 

[rgranger]

The smaller hunters really heel a lot if the main is blown. I got a new main for my 26 and it was magic.

 

[CaptainRan]

I suggest that, as you go up in boat size the mindset is more on maintenance and preparation, in my experience. I have procedures on my phone for most activities such as raising the mast and leaving the dock.

 

[grangehill]

The smaller hunters really heel a lot if the main is blown. I got a new main for my 26 and it was magic.

Where did you purchase ur new main ?

 

[rgranger]

They sell them right here on this site

 

[Project_Mayhem]

Nothing broke! You didn't hit anything and not only did you come back to the right city but the right marina!

We ended up in another state on the maiden voyage with my current boat!

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

Suggest heeling maximum over should be limited to 12-14 degrees. In the beginning I too made mistakes but learning comes with experience.
On the jib sheet when fully to port or starboard, is the sheet line long enough going around to the other side thru upright tuning block into the cockpit?

 

[patbratton]

Suggest heeling maximum over should be limited to 12-14 degrees. In the beginning I too made mistakes but learning comes with experience.
On the jib sheet when fully to port or starboard, is the sheet line long enough going around to the other side thru upright tuning block into the cockpit?

Are you talking abut bringing the jib sheets all the way back to the spinnaker blocks near the stern? I don't think that they are that long.

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

do you have enough line in the sheet going from the sail around the mast back to the cockpit when led to the other side?

 

[MikeHoncho]

My son and I went out on our H240 Tuesday. The winds were 15 mph, gusting to 20. I reefed the main and we motored out of the harbor. Shawn kept pointing her into the wind whenever the rail got close to the water and I let out the main sheet. Eventually we got comfortable with the angle of sail and enjoyed ourselves for about an hour an a half. The issue came when we decided to return to the harbor. The end of the jib down haul line that I had rigged was not secured and it had looped up over the spreader. I had to go forward and pull down the jib manually. The same mistake with the jib sheets. I had not knotted the ends and one was over the side and the other pulled through the forward block. I looked like a lame, one armed paper hanger. Everything was so much easier to get to on our Hobie 18.
Shawn was having his own issues with the boat keeping her headed into the wind. She kept falling off and the propeller would come out of the water. It was a great experience. The winds were just strong enough to teach but not to cause any damage except to our egos. I will say it did make Shawn a believer in roller furling but that is not in the budget.
My mainsail is in poor shape. The previous owner said that It had be repaired several times. Actually it had been repaired twice and patched once. It needs more tape. I am not going to replace it until I have made all the future mistakes which might damage a new one.
It was our best day on the lake.

If it’s blown out repace it. Going out in a small boat with gusts and a blown out sail magnifies what you were experiencing especially if you are not familiar with heavy wind trim tactics. Research the concept of putting in a lot of vang and using the traveler instead of the main for gust control.

 

[Hayden Watson]

It sounds like you did most everything right except for line management. Having a figure-8 knot in the sheets and controlling the downhaul so that it did not foul would have been a game changer. That way you would have gotten the jib down without leaving the cockpit which would have gone a lone way to keeping the prop in the water as well as minimizing the time your son needed to keep her head to wind.
On my previous boats that were hanked on, I set the down haul to come just short of tight when the sail was fully hoisted. The first time I hoisted the sail with the downhaul, I just pulled out the slack and then tied it to the pushpit stanchion. I marked the line at that point so that I could retie it to the same place each time. One other thing I did with my downhaul was to only hook it into every third or fourth hank. Any more than that caused too much friction to work well.

 

[grangehill]

It sounds like you did most everything right except for line management. Having a figure-8 knot in the sheets and controlling the downhaul so that it did not foul would have been a game changer. That way you would have gotten the jib down without leaving the cockpit which would have gone a lone way to keeping the prop in the water as well as minimizing the time your son needed to keep her head to wind.
On my previous boats that were hanked on, I set the down haul to come just short of tight when the sail was fully hoisted. The first time I hoisted the sail with the downhaul, I just pulled out the slack and then tied it to the pushpit stanchion. I marked the line at that point so that I could retie it to the same place each time. One other thing I did with my downhaul was to only hook it into every third or fourth hank. Any more than that caused too much friction to work well.

Well by the sounds of your reply your dealing with a far larger vessel….

 

[Hayden Watson]

Well by the sounds of your reply your dealing with a far larger vessel….

Not correct. The previous hanked boats to which I referred were a Clipper Marine 26 and a Catalina 25. The OP's Hunter 240 falls right in the middle between my two.
Based on the raw numbers, the Clipper is the lightest of the three and the Catalina the heaviest.

 

[grangehill]

Not correct. The previous hanked boats to which I referred were a Clipper Marine 26 and a Catalina 25. The OP's Hunter 240 falls right in the middle between my two.
Based on the raw numbers, the Clipper is the lightest of the three and the Catalina the heaviest.

Sorry I stand corrected.

 

[rgranger]

One other thing I did with my downhaul was to only hook it into every third or fourth hank. Any more than that caused too much friction to work well.

@Hayden Watson : You have mentioned this detail in another thread in the past. That has not been my experience with down hauls and I wonder if the friction issue is (was) specific to your rig. The advantage to alternating the down haul through the hanks is that it will very nicely flake your sail when you bring it down so long as you leave one of the sheets taught. this will stow your sail along a gunwale while you deal with the stronger weather and the hanking of a storm jib.

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

What I am getting at does he have the correct jib sheet length or better. I am wondering if that line was replaced with a shorter jib sheet