Clawing off a lee shore

[Don Guillette]

Mates: Here's a situation that happened to me many years ago where my engine failed me and I had to depend on sail power to get out of the situation. Anchoring out or calling for help was not an option because by the time anyone got to me I'd have been on the beach. I had to depend on my ability to sail out of the situation. Between Long Beach and Huntington Beach, Ca there is a place called Huntington Flats. This location is very tricky and shallow and you encounter waves coming into the beach and waves coming out from the beach and it can be a mess. Somehow I got stuck there by not paying attention to where I was at and I was in it before I knew where I was. I did not sail into it - I motored into it. I was sailing a Catalina 25. The wind was light to medium. I got stuck between two waves and the engine swamped and died. It would not start and I did not have a lot of time to fool around with it. I had enough confidence in my ability to sail out of the situation and I did.The question you have to ask yourself is do you have the same confidence? The main reason I bought a sail boat was I like to sail but I also like the idea of 2 propulsion systems. Most of you know where I stand on this subject - you bought a sailboat and for your own safety and that of your family it behoves you to know how to sail it. You may never need to deal with all the potential situations but wouldn't you like to have the confidence to know you could deal with anything the sea threw at you?? Any sailing instructor worth his salt can teach you to handle a sailboat just as you would handle a car. It ain't that hard!!

 

[Mark]

Spot on Don

I sail several different sized yachts and there is nothing nicer than being able to reverse, sail sideways and even forward. It just takes the right attitude.

 

[richard]

broke motor; broke wallet

I sailed for about four months w/o a motor in lakes (does wonders for your confidence when you know you won't drift off too far...). The toughest part was learning the best way to dock, esp. when the wind was blowing hard (there was one tinme when , after four hours of no wind, I had to PADDLE a 26s about a mile, that was kinda tough too).I had thought about going to an island at the entrance of Charleston harbour (morris island). I was thinking that I could sail mainly when tide was coming in, so if anything happened I wouldn;t get pulled out of the harbour. I didn't, as I was by myself. Later I thought about how much sailors did before motors, and wondered if I had been a bit too conservative. I am confident in sailing my boat up to 25-35 mph winds, and am familiar with the harbour (have sailed the harbour 4 times). I am curious, so would like to put out an informal poll...Would any of you have gone sailing w/o a motor; solo. How would you have played the tides?Richard

 

[henkmeuzelaar]

Clawing out of the surfzone

As I described a couple of months ago, "Rivendel II" got inadvertently trapped in the surfzone of the big fringing coral reef around the Maskelyne group after motoring out of the narrow pass of Sangalai anchorage.For a brief terrifying moment we even hit the reef, while being swamped by several breaking waves. Our ailing 50 hp Yanmar engine was completely overwhelmed If not for the ability to rapidly deploy the staysail (in 20-25 knot winds) and use the slightly more favorable wind angle opening up as we started to turn the reef's corner, Rivendel II would surely have ended up on that reef.....When clawing off a lee shore, however, be prepared to slap on more sail than you normally would dare and to flatten it as well as your point of sail and the windstrength require. One of the great design features of the famous Colin Archer "redningskoite", credited with legendary ability to claw off seemingly hopeless lee shores after offering assistance to wrecked fishing boats, was the ability to carry lots of sail to windward.IMHO, this is also one of the strong points of Hunter's B&R rigs, in spite of the radically different hull design of a modern Hunter Legend.Have fun!Flying Dutchman