Close-Hauling the Trades; some reflections upon the upwind sailing ability of Hunter Legends. Long Eastward passages in the tradewind belts can only be attempted by a sailing vessel with superior upwind capability or by a very strong motorsailer (unless tried in an El Nino year with unusually weak trades). In fact, Jimmy Cornell's World Cruising Atlas states that the direct route from the Northern Queensland coast to Vanuatu "should not even be considered". Also, he does not discuss any direct route from Vanuatu to Fiji. Instead, he advises sailors to exit the tradewind belt to the higher latitudes of New Caledonia or even New Zealand and hitch a ride on a passing low to make the necessary easting. Similarly, the advised return route from Hawaii to the N. American continent goes North of the Pacific High through latitudes as high as 40 - 50 degrees N. Unfortunately, this time-honored strategy, which goes back all the way to the age of square-rigged sailing vessels with extremely poor upwind capabilities, comes at a significant cost. Time and again light sailing vessels venturing deep into the belts of Variables (in both hemispheres) in search of a favorable wind get blasted by the gale force winds, or worse, that tend to accompany the strong Lows prowling these higher latitudes. As a "maverick blue-water Hunter skipper" I believe that light cruising vessels with strong upwind capabilities, such as the Legend 43, can be sailed most safely in the Pacific by abandoning the old "square rigger routes", which would have you make your Easting via the higher latitudes. Although these routes make perfect sense for heavy cruisers with traditional sailing rigs unable to run their easting down in the tradewind belts, it exposes all vessels to the frequent strong depressions spinning off from the Arctic and Antarctic regions. One only needs to read a few cruising stories to appreciate how frequently small yachts do get clobbered by gales in the Tasman Sea or in the higher N. Pacific latitudes. Besides, few if any sailors who want to sail back to San Diego from Hawaii really want to go "via Alaska" (as the traditional route around the Pacific High would have them do). In the South Pacific the story is the same for sailors who need to sail to Tonga, Tuamotus, Tahiti or the Marquesas from The Solomons, Vanuatu or Fiji. They typically end up riding the Lows of the higher latitudes unless, of course, they have a modern, upwind capable light cruiser such as the Hunter Legend 43...... Among the sailors we meet, even those who are sailing heavier boats with relatively small, battenless mains will usually argue that their boat is "doing great" upwind. Yet, when pressed, they will admit that they rarely attempt to sail close-hauled against a fullblown tradewind. In order to understand this reluctance to tack straight into the wind in strong (15 - 25 knot) trades, one needs to remember that for our size vessel (13 tons at 43 ft) it is necessary to keep boat speed down to approximately 5 knots when sailing close-hauled against 6-12 ft swells in order to minimize bone-jarring slams. Naturally, the low boat speed amplifies the relative effect of drift. Secondly, we need to crack main and jib off by 5-10 degrees in order to avoid being stalled as the sails lose their optimum airfoil orientation when climbing and descending steep waves. Although handsteering, rather than using our trusty Autohelm windvane with accessory rudder, might enable us to point a little higher for a few hours, helmsman's fatigue will invariably give the upper hand to the tireless windvane. Under those conditions even our Legend 43, with its fully battened main and well inboard sheeted staysail, rarely produces effective (i.e. over-the-ground) tacking angles better than 55-60 degrees. In other words, we sometimes have to fight hard to maintain an average VMG of 3 knots over both tacks. Now, imagine replacing the fully battened and roached main with an in-mast furling main, the beamy hull with a more tender narrow hull and the deep ballasted fin keel with a shallower full keel while adding a 1 knot adverse ocean current...... Lo-and-behold, your VMG has suddenly gone to near-zero! In my experience, lowering the boat speed to reduce slamming in big ocean swells is often best achieved by pinching while remaining amply canvassed, rather than by further reducing sail. Close-hauled in 20 or 25 knot trades we typically carry a well inboard sheeted staysail in combination with a single-or double-reefed main, respectively, because of the need to maintain sufficient drive to punch through the waves. When you are pinching a bit and a big wave is starting to push the bow around the main will immediately power up and try to round the bow back up again. So, in effect, one ends up "jogging" against the swells at 5 knots, or so. At the higher end of the trade wind spectrum, e.g. around 30-35 knots, this approach merges seamlessly into modern, active storm tactics for light boats with good upwind capabilities. During the infamous 1999 Sidney-Hobart race a relatively light, 46 ft (?, I forgot the name and specs) yacht won the race (on corrected time) relatively unscathed by slowly jogging into the wind, while many bigger and heavier vessels that were made to bear off came to grief. Another example of the ability of modern, midsize yachts to safely head into strong ocean winds and waves, rather than running off at breakneck speed, is provided by Chay Blyth's "Wrong Way Around the World Rally" strategy. In short, with proper preparation and offshore enhancements a Hunter Legend 43, or one of her close siblings, can become a perfect long-distance offshore cruiser for the tradewind belts, since she is able to sail both downwind and upwind with reasonable efficiency. In fact, our staysail-equipped Legend 43 tends to sail better against strong trades than with them since we have a broad choice of upwind sailplans that balance quite well. During the N. Queensland to Vanuatu passage one of our crew members remarked that "our windvane had been steering quite well for the past several hours"; only to discover that the vane was accidently locked down and the boat had been steering itself...... By contrast, the B&R rig tends to make efficient downwind sailing a bit more complicated. As discussed previously on the HOW site, our most successful approach is to run DDW (plus or minus 20 degrees) with wing-on-wing jibs while using the double reefed, nearly centered main to reduce rolling (and double running backstays to keep the mast on board). Both close-hauled or near-DDW, however, Scanmar Marine's Autohelm windvane rarely has any trouble steering the boat quite well. In our experience, essential offshore enhancements include: (1) installation of an inner stay plus running backstays, thus backing up all critical mast stays while enabling the use of a furling staysail; (2) reinforcing all hatches and windows; (3) mounting dorade boxes in some hatch covers; (4) installing a windvane with accessory rudder; and (5) increasing diesel tankage to bring the range of the "iron genny" to approx. 1,000 NM. The latter modification really saved our bacon in May 1997, when we got caught in a strong El Nino weather pattern on our 2nd trip to Hawaii. Whenever the "loaded" question comes up whether "Hunters are bluewater boats" or not, my standard answer tends to be threefold: (1) in the Tradewind belts a well-prepared Legend 43 can beat a conventional "blue water" cruiser with regard to average speed AND overall comfort on most any closed trajectory (i.e. with the tracks ending where they started; after all, isn't that the definition of a successful voyage?); (2) in the Variables a Hunter Legend can do fine but will have to pick its weather windows more carefully than a conventional blue water boat (or use some form of advanced satellite weather routing); and (3) in the higher latitudes we would probably not take our Legend 43 more than a few hundred miles offshore without major structural reinforcements. Alas, I also need to point out that the current generation of Legend and Passage models has moved further away from being readily modifiable for extended offshore passages. Although at boatshows my co-skipper still invariably picks a Hunter Legend or Passage model as "our next boat" (because she absolutely loves the spacey and cosy interiors) the absence of toerails and suitable seaberths, as well as the far too cramped anchor lockers, would make me think twice before undertaking another "offshore upgrade". Currently, therefore, we have little choice but to stay loyal to our beloved Rivendel II". Flying Dutchman "Nothing Goes to Weather Like a Hunter Legend"
)) We reinforced all hatches and windows by replacing the 1/2" tinted Plexiglass (poly-alkylmethacrylate) with 1/2 " tinted Lexan (polycarbonate) which has 6x the "shattering resistance" in case you get hit by a breaking wave and/or a falling object. The large one-piece overhead window in the main cabin (covering two window cutouts) is better replaced by two separate pieces to reduce unnecessary strain. Both window panes are directly throughbolted. The same is tru for the side windows. We also had three stainless steel bars fabricated and mounted in such a way as to support the windows from below. This is helpful because of the greater flexibility of the Lexan and also to reduce the total window span in case an emergency shutter needs to be fabricated. Of the many (8 or so?) overhead hatches we closed 4 off with i/2 "" starbrite plates in wich cutout were made to mount teak dorade boxes. This way, we ended up with dorade box ventilation in the Navstation, above the galley, in the forward head and above the companionway to the forepeak. The solar-powered Nicro vents we used to have before that would turn into showers when hit by green water coming over the bow. The dorades are two notches better and remaining leaking tendencies can be reduced by lining the vertical walls with baby diapers. However, I am not impressed by their ventilating performance in the tropics. The best solution is almost certainly to combine the doreade boxes with the solar powered Nicro fans!. However, every year I plan on doing that and then run out of time. the remaining overhead hatches are all reinforced with stainless steel bars.Two bars below the inner ceiling are through-bolted to two bars on top of the Lexan hatch window and clamped tight during our offshore passages. A little caulking keeps everything quite watertight. Finally, after watching several cracks develop in the forward corners of the cabin roof (where it meets with the side window and overhead window cutouts) cut-outs, possibly caused by heavy crew members stepping and jumping on these corners, I had two strong stainless knees fabricated to support the cabin roof. The knees are throughbolted and give us piece of mind. The two remaining chinks in our armor are the big forward cabin hatch (which should have been replaced with a heavy offshore hatch years ago) and the companionway hatch, which still needs to be replaced with Lexan. However, both hatch boards are Lexan already (and outfitted with the inside locking mechanism suggested in the Pacific Cup manual). Hope this answers your questions. Flying Dutchman "Rivendel II" "Nothing goes to weather like a Hunter legend"