Got my butt kicked by a little wind!!!

[emergpa1]

Hey guys, it is with pleasure that i can finally post something besides repair stuff...
Two weekends ago we spent the night on My Girl at the club when a bad storm front came through, Hard rains, thunder, and wind. During the night lightening struck somewhere close by and my wife saw a spark in the cabin (though it might have been a reflection because i didn't smell anything) Then suddenly the local emergency warning system sirens went off! yep, tornado watch, we ran up to the club house and watched the weather channel until the worst had passed. I thought it was all damn fun. Lynn not so much.
The next morning was clear and breezy as predicted and we were out on the lake early with the wind around 12 knots and steady, we had a great, but somewhat challenging time, and around lunch ducked into a little cove for some R&R. After we had rested up (yes, we REST UP in the south, sorry about that phrase all y'all that know how to use English properly) we headed out to open water and the wind had picked WAY UP, maybe to a steady 25 and gusting to 30 - 35. my wife about freaked. Since we were downwind from the club, we had to try to tack back but I kept getting blown off the wind. i have never reefed my main so i sure as hell couldn't figure it out in that wind.... But i tried, We let go the sheets which of course caused a hell of a lot of flaping and banging, which only freaked my wife out even more. I was of course, totally calm in the face of our imminent demise :Liar:.To make matters worse my "yacht rod" is busted and the boom was bucking like a bronko with a burr in his saddle. No luck with my newby attempt at reefing the main (no surprise there) so then i had to drop my sails in this gale. That didn't go much better, but at least i got them down. I wrapped myself in the jib about twice and bet i looked the damn fool. Amazing how you can get as lost in a gennie as you can in a corn field maze at midnight. Fortunately no one else was stupid enough to be out on the lake, so didn't think anyone saw me...ha. thank god the little nissan fired up and we were able to motor back to the club, a little shakey. we had a strong drink after tieing up to the slip. then had two more. One of my club mates was putting on some new canvas on the next dock over and he just smiled, waved, and said...that wind can be a challenge sometime can't it?... dang...busted !
Lynn must not be too shook as she is joining me on the boat tomorrow night. Weatherman says there is a storm front comming through......I havent' mentioned it yet,...i keep forgetting.....

 

[Joe11688]

Keith,
Do you have a reefing line set up from the boom to the sail? Also, Do you have a "ram's horn" on your goose neck fitting? I can see that the foot of your mainsail has a bolt rope that slides into the boom track. That means that you must bring the sail ties around the boom to tie the loose sail when it's reefed. Reefing is easy if you have these things set up. Just pull up your topping lift to hold the boom. Lower the mainsail and insert the reef cringle on the luff, into the ram's horn and then pull on the reefing line. Then raise the main and roll up your loose sail and tie it off. As soon as the sail is back up, you can let your topping lift off. If you don't have a ram's horn on your goose neck, you can use a 3/16" line to tie the reef cringle to your mast and goose neck. Before you reef your sail, you may need to take the last sail slide out of the mast track first. Sometimes, leaving that slide in will create too much tension in the new foot of the sail. I know from past experience on my boat, that I need to remove the last slide. The best thing to do is find a place on the lake that is protected and reef the sail. If you're ever sailing down wind in conditions like that, you're better off "Wearing Ship" than to try and Jibe your boat. This is nothing more that coming up to a close reach, tacking, and then falling way off the wind to get your boom around for the tack. You really need plenty of sea room to do this though because your boat is making a big circle. The old square riggers did this and that's where that term came from. I've actually lowered my sail and ran down wind under bare pole in conditions like that. Sometimes you're better off lowering the sails and turning on the outboard. My boat sails very well with just the Main when the wind pipes up. It doesn't maneuver all that well with just the Gennie. You really need to experiment. Practice reefing on a good day until you get it down pat. Most of the time I can reef my Main while she's sailing under autopilot. That's because my Main is smaller than yours. It really depends on how hard the wind is blowing. There's a point out in the bay where I sail that blocks strong SW winds and I'm able to use it to my advantage sometimes. The more you practice reefing, the better you'll be able to do it. My wife was never crazy about sailing on windy days either. Maybe that's why she doesn't sail with me anymore. Oh well! I still have Penelope. :dance: Dogs are great. They don't give you any s**t.
Joe
PS I'm splashing tomorrow.

 

[ncscsailor]

I discovered that the heave to position is very helpful if you have to make adjustments on the rig such as reefing while the wind is blowing. There are good explanations and video demonstrations of the concept on the web. For example look at this short article http://www.gosailing.info/Heaving To.htm
Good luck.
Ted

 

[emergpa1]

Keith,
Do you have a reefing line set up from the boom to the sail? Also, Do you have a "ram's horn" on your goose neck fitting? I can see that the foot of your mainsail has a bolt rope that slides into the boom track. That means that you must bring the sail ties around the boom to tie the loose sail when it's reefed. Reefing is easy if you have these things set up. Just pull up your topping lift to hold the boom. Lower the mainsail and insert the reef cringle on the luff, into the ram's horn and then pull on the reefing line. Then raise the main and roll up your loose sail and tie it off. As soon as the sail is back up, you can let your topping lift off. If you don't have a ram's horn on your goose neck, you can use a 3/16" line to tie the reef cringle to your mast and goose neck. Before you reef your sail, you may need to take the last sail slide out of the mast track first. Sometimes, leaving that slide in will create too much tension in the new foot of the sail. I know from past experience on my boat, that I need to remove the last slide. The best thing to do is find a place on the lake that is protected and reef the sail. If you're ever sailing down wind in conditions like that, you're better off "Wearing Ship" than to try and Jibe your boat. This is nothing more that coming up to a close reach, tacking, and then falling way off the wind to get your boom around for the tack. You really need plenty of sea room to do this though because your boat is making a big circle. The old square riggers did this and that's where that term came from. I've actually lowered my sail and ran down wind under bare pole in conditions like that. Sometimes you're better off lowering the sails and turning on the outboard. My boat sails very well with just the Main when the wind pipes up. It doesn't maneuver all that well with just the Gennie. You really need to experiment. Practice reefing on a good day until you get it down pat. Most of the time I can reef my Main while she's sailing under autopilot. That's because my Main is smaller than yours. It really depends on how hard the wind is blowing. There's a point out in the bay where I sail that blocks strong SW winds and I'm able to use it to my advantage sometimes. The more you practice reefing, the better you'll be able to do it. My wife was never crazy about sailing on windy days either. Maybe that's why she doesn't sail with me anymore. Oh well! I still have Penelope. :dance: Dogs are great. They don't give you any s**t.
Joe
PS I'm splashing tomorrow.

I went back to the club this weekend but spent most of my time on upkeep and timing the sailboat racers. I did get to sail saturday afternoon but didn't get a chance to learn how to reef..maybe next week.

 

[Shoaldrafter]

Sailing jargon - wanting Keith's expertize

I went back to the club this weekend but spent most of my time on upkeep and timing the sailboat racers. I did get to sail saturday afternoon but didn't get a chance to learn how to reef..maybe next week.

Since we have Keith tooting his horn, let him explain the term 'hove to'.

Ed K
26

 

[emergpa1]

Re: Sailing jargon - wanting Keith's expertize

thanks ed, i went to the web site recommended and read it through last week but intend to do the same in a couple of days with boat in hand to get the gist of it. it looks like as the wind pushes backward on the boat with thrust back to the lee, but the rudder is turned windward, so she balances, alternately spilling the wind from the jib but first giving just enough forward thrust to avoid backward drift. this is off the cuff after having read the article a week ago