Fear Of jibing

[Don Guillette]

I spoke to a shipmate today who was confused about the difference between tacking and jibing. Maybe others have the same question. He told me he hates the thought of having to jibe. I asked why and he said he was afraid of doing it even though he wasn’t sure what a jibe even is.

A mate has good reason to be concerned with jibing and here’s why. While tacking the BOW passes through the eye of the wind. While jibing the STERN passes through the eye of the wind. So what is the big deal? When you tack the mainsail loses its power and luffs through the maneuver. When you jibe, the mainsail stays FULL OF WIND and if the boom and sail are not controlled during the maneuver, especially in the higher wind ranges, the boom will come across with tremendous forces and will crash to a stop on something or someone. An uncontrolled and unexpected jibe can be devastating in addition to scaring the hell out of all on board. It also does not instill much confidence in the skipper on the part of the crew.

The solution to this sail trim forum listers problem is to practice the jibing/tacking maneuver in a controlled situation. After about 15 minutes the fear of jibing will be gone because he’ll know how to control the boat, sail, and boom.

Here’s my suggestion for the practice session. Pick a day when the wind is light at about 6 to 8 knots. Start out on a port broad reach. Once the boat is steady, start an easy turn to starboard. Control the boom with your traveler so it doesn’t get away from you. Once the boom is on the other side continue on a broad reach and gradually proceed to a close reach. At that point tack the boat. Continue on a close reach and gradually go to a broad reach and start the whole process over again. Do it about 3 times. Actually you’ll find it to be so much fun you might want to keep doing it!!

Once you learn how easy it is to jibe, the fear is gone. Most mates don’t bother practicing anything. They wait until they get in the situation and then try to figure out what to do on the fly – then it is too late.

Maybe other forum listers have a better solution to help our brother sailor get over his fear of jibing?

 

[gingerpenny]

My father-in-law, an experienced sailor of many years, lectured us recently about two accidental jibes we experienced during some light winds. My husband was reluctant to take advice from his old man but eventually we did. We got a preventer line. This really works in light wind. It gives us a little more confidence when we go downwind all the way back to the marina.

 

[RichH]

Here's a gybing technique used on extremely unstable 'sport boats', boats that are so unstable that their 'natural' stability position is the with the bottom! of the hull pointing up and the mast straight down in the water!!!

• Go onto a broad reach with TIGHT vang.
• Pull the traveller to the center as you slowly bring the stern to the 'eye' of the wind
• Once the traveller is centered, pull in the main sheet to get the boom as close to the centerline as possible
• Keep slowly turning the boat ..... through the 'eye' of the wind, until the mainsail 'flips' with the wind now on the 'opposite' side
• Continue the turn while releasing the traveller, doing so will keep the boom low and prevent a 'goosewing' where the boom lifts and 'radically' powers-up the main.
• Once the traveller is all the way 'outboard', begin to release the mainsheet.
• Anytime during the turn, If the boat begins to heel radically on the 'otherside' of the gybe, steer more downwind and in such a manner as to ****keep the boat directly UNDER the mast****. 'nutherwords keep the boat 'upright' by steering DOWNWIND but not to 'recross' the eye of the wind.

The above will keep the mainsail 'under control' during its movement from one side to the other, will reduce IMPACT of the main from one side to the other, will lessen the probability of 'goosewinging' - radically 'powering-up'. In high winds will prevent breaking all/most the sail slugs, will tend to keep the boat from severely yawing (over-rotating the turn due to the 'forces' of the gybe)- prevent broaching. This technique is used on ice-boats, planing hull sport boats ...... and is very useful for even heavy 'blue water' boats. If the sea state is extreme, time the gybe so that the boat is in 'flatter' water 'just' as the boat turn through the 'eye' of the wind (when the mainsail 'flips') .... so that the boat doesnt get 'kicked' by an oncoming wave forcing it to heel more.

If the boom and sail's combined weight/mass is heavy and the wind/waves are considerable, consider to use a boom brake to lessen the IMPACT of the boom/sail crossing the centerline. example: http://www.wichard.com/fiche-A|WICHARD|7150-0203030000000000-ME.html

 

[Warren Milberg]

Everyone has their own favorite method of jibing. I find that how you do it depends a lot on whether you have crew or not, and the configuration of your traveller and mainsheet. My boat has mid-boom sheeting with the traveller on a bridge deck. If you are solo-sailing and have mid-boom sheeting, I have found that what works for me is to come onto a DDW heading to get the genoa over to the other side first (wing-on-wing). I then contiinue the process of slowly turning the stern through the eye of the wind, stepping forward of the wheel and, in lower wind ranges, physically grabbing the mainsheet tackle to move the boom to the other side of the boat or, in higher wind conditions, use the mainsheet and traveller to first center the boom and then let the mainsheet out as the boat passes through the eye of the wind. I find the key to successful jibing is timing the turn of the boat to the movement of the boom across the centerline of the boat. Once you get these two factors in sync, jibing becomes easy.

If alone, and it's really blowing like stink, I'll avoid jibing if at all possible by "wearing ship" and tacking 270 degrees onto the new course.

 

[dparilla]

Practice and have fun with it

The advice I give to my students, friends and family is to go in light winds, and practice practice practice. Don't let it become work, but jibe when you can and pay attention to what is happening. The fear comes from accidental jibes (and the horror stories to go with them). Until you are confident in your boat and your abilities don't stay on a run without a preventer. Stay on a training run, and set a timer to 5 minutes. When it dings, jibe by pulling the mainsheet in, and then walk the stern under the boom. Don't focus on the boom swinging, but rather pass the stern under the boom. This will allow you to see the swing and feel the change in heel as well as develop a good rhythm to jybing. As the stern walks under the boom, keep sheeting in until the boom is on the new side, and then start paying it out until set on the new course. The other trick is use is to put a boat on a run, and show just how far you can cross wind the main without it jybing. This is why wing and wing works so well. I practice with my crew walking the jib over to wing and wing, and then walk the boom with the mainsheet as I round up to the new training run. In 10 knots of wind, it can be fun to slalom and as long as the mainsheet is never cleated and is in hand, most sailors can catch and control the movement of the boom even if the helmsman botches the maneuver. As the sailors become more confident, I put out milk jug buoys and slalom between them, finishing up with a man overboard drill to pick up each jug (one or two per sailor.) I always focus on making it fun, not scary or tedious. When the winds are light you can even impose a "penalty" for accidental jybing (beer, soda etc. work well.) This is what works for me. I am curious on y'all's feedback.

Dan

 

[dscribner]

Sometimes in heavy wind we hav trouble getting out bow through the wind on a tack. So, we jibe. Probably looks stupid and amaturish, but hey, we're amatures. We bring her about with the boom contolled by the mainsheet, boom vang and a preventer. Instead of the boom slamming across the cockpit, I pay out line or simply slow the swing by hand. Now, I'm a trailer sailor with a 25 footer so I can probably get away with that when others can't. I can't imagine the pressure on a 35 footer!

 

[Don Guillette]

Describe to me the steps you use to tack the boat? What does your crew do? Among other things, I'm interested in when you "cut the jib sheet (release the jib sheet)". You should be able to complete the tack in less than 30 seconds and only drop 1 knot of speed. In heavy wind you should scream through the tack.

 

[RichH]

dscribner - Go to http://forums.sbo.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?p=583582&highlight=lancer 25 tacking for a complete discussion on tacking a LANCER 25 ... the Lancer sometimes needs some 'special techniques' to tack well.

In addition to the above 'archive', be sure that your rigging, especially the backstay, is 'very tight' .... this will insure that the luff or front edge of the JIB will be only slightly 'curved' and will aid in when 'close hauled' and when tacking. If the luff of the jib has visually 'large curve' to it when 'pointing', it will make sailing 'close hauled' very difficult and may cause problems when 'tacking'. TIGHT backstay!!!!

 

[yacht cranes]

One must keep a great control while sailing a boat. anything can be happened if you are sailing by lee. I am really very new to this and want to know all the things in detail. Thanks for your information.

 

[T37 Phil]

Just out of curiousity, for those of you who regularly use a boom brake or preventer on a larger boat, where do you make fast the ends of the line?

 

[RichH]

I use the Wichard 'Gybe Easy' .... my control line is attached to the porstside base of the cap shroud, runs to the Gybe Easy which is mounted in the middle of the boom then to a stout block at the base of the stb. capshroud, then lead back to a cleat on the deck near the helm station. To control simply pull the control line for the desired amount of 'friction' - takes some 'practice' to get to right amount of friction. Most boom brakes work in a similar fashion.
http://www.wichard.com/documents/notice_gyb_easy.pdf (sorry, its written in 'Frenchlish')

When I used a preventer: Attachment to near the butt end of the boom, line run outside the shrouds to a block at the bow and then back to a cleat in the cockpit. Had to physically reroute to outside the shrouds on the opposite side after each gybe - PITA and always had to (unnecessarily) 'go forward' after every gybe.

Boom brakes have the advantage of when the boat heels 'all the way over' and the boom goes into the water .... will (usually) slip and allow the boom to 'move'.
With a preventer, when this happens you usually break the boom.
With a 'brake', you dont have to leave the cockpit to re-adjust when on the opposite 'leg'.

 

[Alan]

NO fear of gybing

Don't fear it never have. Gybing is as easy as tacking. We do as many gybes as we do tacks in most of our sailing. It's just another sailing technique to learn and master. Do it over and over till you get it right, then do more to implant it in your brain. It's just not that difficult.

 

[RichH]

I totally agree with Alan. Practice, Practice, Practice.
I should have more clearly said that I use a 'brake' usually only on long passages and when on 'auto pilot' and/or single-handing in heavy weather .... but I have 3 sails to gybe which aint easy/smooth for a single hander.

Boom brakes, preventers, chute scoops, etc. IMHO really add a lot of extra clutter to trip over, complicate things, tangle, etc.

 

[Brian M H23]

I remeber the day I lost fear of the gybe. I was out, by myself, and the wind piped up (I had owned my boat for < a year). I had hoisted the mainsail with a reef in it because it was one of my first times going out alone, and no headsail. Well I was out there in 20 knots or so, feeling pretty comfortable because of the small amount of sail and no one on board to knock overboard. I tried gybing many different ways and found one way in particular to go very smoothly.

**make sure traveler is centered..boom at about 45 degrees...vang loose so there is some twist in the sail**
Head downwind slowly. With the loose vang, the luff of the main will start to..well..luff when close to a gybe. When this starts happening, lean over and grab the mainsheet right next to the block and give it a good yank - at least 4 feet of line - and let it back out to the exact same place. You'll be on the other gybe, and it hardly feels like anything.

What scares me the most, is accidental gybes due to big waves. I feel like the best option in that scenario is to just not dail dead down, or take the main down and fly on genoa only.

 

[jimmyb]

Here's a gybing technique used on extremely unstable 'sport boats', boats that are so unstable that their 'natural' stability position is the with the bottom! of the hull pointing up and the mast straight down in the water!!!

• Go onto a broad reach with TIGHT vang.
• Pull the traveller to the center as you slowly bring the stern to the 'eye' of the wind
• Once the traveller is centered, pull in the main sheet to get the boom as close to the centerline as possible
• Keep slowly turning the boat ..... through the 'eye' of the wind, until the mainsail 'flips' with the wind now on the 'opposite' side
• Continue the turn while releasing the traveller, doing so will keep the boom low and prevent a 'goosewing' where the boom lifts and 'radically' powers-up the main.
• Once the traveller is all the way 'outboard', begin to release the mainsheet.
• Anytime during the turn, If the boat begins to heel radically on the 'otherside' of the gybe, steer more downwind and in such a manner as to ****keep the boat directly UNDER the mast****. 'nutherwords keep the boat 'upright' by steering DOWNWIND but not to 'recross' the eye of the wind.

Rich, I believe your description fits our vessel quite well. Your technique listed above is how I was taught from the start, to always haul the boom to the center in preparation for the stern to cross the wind. The rigging is so much more controllable lessening the chance of getting wacked unexpectadly. I assumed this woud be the best technique on larger boats as well or am I mistaken.

We bought the smaller boat as absolute beginners to do alot of sailing and practice maneuvers and techniques in preparation for a larger boat in our future. With only 3 days of instruction on the Boston harbor and then getting kicked out of the nest with no one in the area to help us we definitely feel we made the right choice.

The smaller boat gives us a chance to sail at a moments notice just about anywhere and seems to be the perfect learning vehicle. So much instant feedback to trimming sails, steerage, ect. The stiffer the conditions and gusts, the more you understand the importance of good technique. We are running circles around the bigger boats on the lakes out here and get more compliments on our little boat. Feels good!

Like the good folks here are saying - dont be afraid of Gybing! Fear is overcome quickly with good practice and procedure!

God Bless, jimmyb

 

[jimmyb]

One quick note to beginers like us. If your going to practice you gibing and you sail on smaller lakes like us you may want to pick one that has at least some prevailing wind. We sail a little lake here where the wind shifts so badly you cant hold one point of sail for more than about 10 seconds. I love it there for reading and anticipating the shifts but with so many headers and lifts its hard enough to get running let alone safely gibe the boat. I really love it when the wind quits pointed down and starts back up God only knows where. WEEE!

God Bless, jimmyb

 

[oldiesrocker2001]

Like JimmyB, I sail on a smalllish lake that rarely has a prevailing wind for very long. I started out on a small boat about the size of a sunfish and jybes were common even if originally on a broad reach. all of these were uncontrolled, though. With the next larger boat(17') I started to control jibes and while still no backstay to contend with, I had the boom barely miss me on the only uncontrolled (unexpected)jibe with this boat.
Anticipate the wind shifts and avoid dead-downwind when possilble but PRACTICE jibing in mild conditions by sheeting in the main to bring the boom accross but then slow it's progress down as it crosses the stern until your jibe is complete. Later on the speed of the jibe can be increased when confidence builds.