Am I correct in assuming that for every boat there is a level of wind that you cannot sail into, and that it is different for different boats? I have been caught three times in my Hunter 170 in wind that I probably should not have been in, and none of the three times have I been able to sail much closer than 90 degrees to the wind, making it impossible to get back to where I had come from. The most recent time was this last summer in the Grand Traverse Bay, I had sailed away from the boat launch in pretty light winds, and after a couple hours the wind was pretty fierce and comming right from the boat launch! I tried to get back and was not able to make headway. I found that if I sheeted in tightly enough to point / the boat was going over, if I let out on the main to spill a little wind, I fell off my point. After inching toward the boat ramp making incremental progress with each tack, I would make a little mistake and get blown backward and erase the progress that I had made. So maybe 45 minutes to make a little progress, 45 seconds to get blown back to square one. I kept wishing that I had reefed my sail, but letting go of the tiller would surely have bee a disaster. I guess it was something about being up to your neck in alligators. . . The end of the story was that I gave up on the boat launch and headed to shore, and the wind died down in an hour or two. But my question is; what could I have done while I was out there? *o As a neophyte sailor, I guess I have learned as much from getting my butt kicked as from anything else. But I keep turning this one around in my head and wondering if I could have sailed into that bay if I had more experience. john
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Early reef is the key
but if you dont do it in time and are single handing you can always drop an anchor reef your main and then head out again. Make sure you have some practice reefing so when it comes time you can get it done easy! good luck. -jeff h23
but if you dont do it in time and are single handing you can always drop an anchor reef your main and then head out again. Make sure you have some practice reefing so when it comes time you can get it done easy! good luck. -jeff h23
Sails and procedures
Every boat can be sailed in every wind. The waves will be the show stopper in all cases. With that said to sail in high winds you need special sails. Storm sails have been used to go to upwind in 75+ kt of wind. Not that I'd try that on a 170 as the waves would be TOTALLY impossable for a boat that size after only a few minutes of winds that high. In winds in the 30-40 kt range it is important to remember that you need to get going before you try and point. A storm sail will not be producing much thrust if you start out on a close reach. if you start out on a beam reach and then systimaticly point up, keeping your speed up as much as possable you will find that you can point pretty high in high winds. Of course if you are over canvased any attempt will meet with failure. Kinda like having a jet engine on a go cart. Any attempt to use even the least bit of throttle results in an out of control situation due to the enormous amount of power being produced. As for learning how to sail, that's the way most of us get an education. Let me tell you about the time we had to motorsail to windward off a lee shore with only a 150 genny because we blew out the working jib and main in a thunderstorm earlier that day and then ran out of gas. Almost got run down by a German Navy ship as we picked up the pieces..........
Every boat can be sailed in every wind. The waves will be the show stopper in all cases. With that said to sail in high winds you need special sails. Storm sails have been used to go to upwind in 75+ kt of wind. Not that I'd try that on a 170 as the waves would be TOTALLY impossable for a boat that size after only a few minutes of winds that high. In winds in the 30-40 kt range it is important to remember that you need to get going before you try and point. A storm sail will not be producing much thrust if you start out on a close reach. if you start out on a beam reach and then systimaticly point up, keeping your speed up as much as possable you will find that you can point pretty high in high winds. Of course if you are over canvased any attempt will meet with failure. Kinda like having a jet engine on a go cart. Any attempt to use even the least bit of throttle results in an out of control situation due to the enormous amount of power being produced. As for learning how to sail, that's the way most of us get an education. Let me tell you about the time we had to motorsail to windward off a lee shore with only a 150 genny because we blew out the working jib and main in a thunderstorm earlier that day and then ran out of gas. Almost got run down by a German Navy ship as we picked up the pieces..........
Too much wind
Great question! There have been a few times when there has been too much wind that I had to continually ease the main sail to dump wind in order to prevent going over. When this happened, the first thing I did was reef the main. If you are alone, as I almost always am, this requires your boat to be set up for single line reefing and you must know how to heave too. This will put you in a situation where you can reef your main while leaving the tiller. Now, depending on the wind, you can sail back towards the dock. If there is still too much wind, roll up your jib. You should still be able to make way towards the dock. If not, douse all sails and motor in. Thats what I would do. But, I never had to motor in. Brian
Great question! There have been a few times when there has been too much wind that I had to continually ease the main sail to dump wind in order to prevent going over. When this happened, the first thing I did was reef the main. If you are alone, as I almost always am, this requires your boat to be set up for single line reefing and you must know how to heave too. This will put you in a situation where you can reef your main while leaving the tiller. Now, depending on the wind, you can sail back towards the dock. If there is still too much wind, roll up your jib. You should still be able to make way towards the dock. If not, douse all sails and motor in. Thats what I would do. But, I never had to motor in. Brian
Get a friend and practive reefing
OR, practice reefing in realy light winds. That's what I've done, but I still wich that the times I needed to reef once underway, that I had someone else in the boat with me. I have twice found myself alone and unable to control the 146. It simply refused to point to windward. Was it too much freeboard? Was it the waves? I don't think it was the waves...we're on a lake - they don't get that huge. One change I am thinking might help is to let the boom gooseneck move, so that I can rig the boom lower f I want. In spite of trying to reef the jib sligthly, with the main already reefed, or just furling the jib completely, she would always fall off the wind. The last time out, I was in too narrow a cove, and had not a lot of time to experimemt - jsut fired up the motor and doused the sail. Really don't like this behavior! I know some of it is my inexperience, but I wonder if some of it too is not that high boom. Good luck to you - we have a good long winter to contemplate these matters from our armchairs. Good luck!
OR, practice reefing in realy light winds. That's what I've done, but I still wich that the times I needed to reef once underway, that I had someone else in the boat with me. I have twice found myself alone and unable to control the 146. It simply refused to point to windward. Was it too much freeboard? Was it the waves? I don't think it was the waves...we're on a lake - they don't get that huge. One change I am thinking might help is to let the boom gooseneck move, so that I can rig the boom lower f I want. In spite of trying to reef the jib sligthly, with the main already reefed, or just furling the jib completely, she would always fall off the wind. The last time out, I was in too narrow a cove, and had not a lot of time to experimemt - jsut fired up the motor and doused the sail. Really don't like this behavior! I know some of it is my inexperience, but I wonder if some of it too is not that high boom. Good luck to you - we have a good long winter to contemplate these matters from our armchairs. Good luck!
thanks for the advice guys
As usual I get great advice from this group. I do have a motor, I found out on that day that it is too short for the boat. In calm weather with me sitting at the back of the boat it works just fine. I tried to use it on the day in question and in the wind and waves it was out of the water more often than in, so I shut it off. I figure I have until May to find a long shaft motor. The reefing system I have is something they installed for me at the local boatyard. It is a two line system and it is easy enough to set up when the boat is still. I think with someone else in the boat I could probably do it in wind, with practice. I do not think I could do it single-handed in any kind of wind at all, so my big mistake was not reefing before I went out. I read some info on heaving too last summer on this forum. Next spring I will dig it out of the archives and practice. I will also practice to see how effecient I can get at reefing. Now all I need is the wisdom to reef early! Thanks for all the input. John
As usual I get great advice from this group. I do have a motor, I found out on that day that it is too short for the boat. In calm weather with me sitting at the back of the boat it works just fine. I tried to use it on the day in question and in the wind and waves it was out of the water more often than in, so I shut it off. I figure I have until May to find a long shaft motor. The reefing system I have is something they installed for me at the local boatyard. It is a two line system and it is easy enough to set up when the boat is still. I think with someone else in the boat I could probably do it in wind, with practice. I do not think I could do it single-handed in any kind of wind at all, so my big mistake was not reefing before I went out. I read some info on heaving too last summer on this forum. Next spring I will dig it out of the archives and practice. I will also practice to see how effecient I can get at reefing. Now all I need is the wisdom to reef early! Thanks for all the input. John
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