First Time in Gusts

Apr 5, 2009
2,774
Catalina '88 C30 tr/bs Oak Harbor, WA
@Hayden Watson : You have mentioned this detail in another thread in the past. That has not been my experience with down hauls and I wonder if the friction issue is (was) specific to your rig. The advantage to alternating the down haul through the hanks is that it will very nicely flake your sail when you bring it down so long as you leave one of the sheets taught. this will stow your sail along a gunwale while you deal with the stronger weather and the hanking of a storm jib.
I think that I must have been unclear. I always attach all hanks on the foresail to the forestay. What I meant was that the down-haul line is only inside of every 3rd to 4th hank and outside of the rest. It could have been a function of the size of my hanks relative to the diameter of the forestay but if I hooked the line into all of the hanks, it would bind up and make it more difficult to pull down.
If my hanks had been a larger size, this probably would not be needed.
 

MitchM

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Jan 20, 2005
1,011
Nauticat 321 pilothouse 32 Erie PA
now check out the old adlard coles' classic , 'heavy weather sailing.' a lot of great tactics and stuff in there --- which i for one hope to NEVER experience.
 
Apr 5, 2009
2,774
Catalina '88 C30 tr/bs Oak Harbor, WA
now check out the old adlard coles' classic , 'heavy weather sailing.' a lot of great tactics and stuff in there --- which i for one hope to NEVER experience.
On my C30 I love moderately heavy weather sailing which for me is up to about 40 knots. I have sailed my C30 in +50 knots (per the masthead anemometer and weather service) on two occasions and while I would not call it "enjoyable" it was manageable.
In full discloser, both of these times were squalls in relatively sheltered locations with less than 10 miles of fetch and short duration. In one, I had limited sea room, so I rolled up the jib and pulled in the second reef before it hit and was able to work upwind at about 55º true. In the other I had plenty of sea room and dropped the main and threw a line over it near the mast and rolled the genoa down to about 6' and ran with the wind.