Huh? How on earth is a dodger going to lift a boat to wind ...and keep it there with a Genoa of any size turning the boat abeam?
Gunni, my BIGGEST headsail is my 110. I haven't ever run a "genoa" on any of the boats I sail around here, since 1983.
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Like this:
Just coincidentally, my son and I were out in the ocean on Tuesday, June 12, 2012. It was nice and calm in the morning and we were heading out to the Farallons, 25 miles out. About 5 or 6 miles out north of Potato Patch off Bolinas a bit after 1200, the winds very quickly built to over 25 with quickly building seas later recorded at 7 feet at 7 seconds. We agreed it wouldn't be prudent to continue, even with our 110 jib and a reefed main. We double reefed the main and it was still too much. Then we hove to. A great relief and something everyone should know. We sat and talked about our options: dropping the main, reefing the jib some (I rarely if ever do that, since we use our smaller 85% jib for the summer, but still had our 110% "wintertime" jib up on this trip).
We concluded that it would safest to drop the main completely and run
downwind back into the Bay on jib alone, so I tethered onto the shroud and went up and dropped the main. Our Batt Cars and our double line reefing from the cockpit really helped in getting the main down, since I don't think regular slugs would have let it come down by itself, as ours did that day.
I had concluded that even downwind I didn't want to mess with even the double reefed mainsail up, since gybing the main in those conditions just wasn't worth it. EVER.
Anyone who has to go up on deck to reef their main is crazy and lazy. Crazy 'cuz it's a dangerous place to be and lazy because it is so simple to rig the reefing lines back to the cockpit. The picture shows the jib backwinded in the heave to. The main came all the way down to where you see it, I just had to tie it off! It was a sloppy tie, but it worked.
We then talked about how to "get out of the heave to" position, since WONDERS OF WONDERS, the boat STAYED hove to with ONLY the jib up.
We concluded later that this happened because the wind was so strong that the hull of the boat and the dodger was acting like a small mainsail in balancing the boat. My son also is very good on the wheel and kept the boat in the right position. Actually I was quite amazed. Love this boat and love knowing how to heave to. Two ways to get out: gybe and have the wind start behind us and CRACK the jib wide open, or release the jib and go off on port tack downwind (see the picture). Although I often get out of a heave to by just popping the jib and leaving the main on its side, rather than resetting the jib, we decided the shock load from a popping jib wasn't worth it, so we planned the maneuver, and I slowly eased the jib down while he steered carefully, first straight and then bearing off to starboard to start our downwind run back to the Gate. It worked perfectly. We sailed for the rest of the day (1300 to 1630) under jib alone, gybing back down through Bonita Channel, across the shipping lanes, and back in through Baker Beach and the Golden Gate Bridge all the way across The Bay to Clipper Cove.
Going back to my original reply to you, I forgot to tell my friend that not only should he
have not been sailing downwind with only his mainsail up, but he could have let out some jib, hove to and done what we did to drop his main.
I fully endorse jib only. That's why there are backstays.
[on our boats, not all]
The other thing you might want to keep in mind is that simplicity is KING when the sh*t hits the fan. I believe that the LESS complications you introduce, the safer you will be. That's why, for instance, I think running backstays are dangerous. I know they're required for some rigs, but then I'd never go near a boat that had 'em.
I think if I had the extra line you thought about using, it would simply get in the way. The very LAST thing I needed when I went up on the cabintop that afternoon was anything flogging away and hitting me in the jaw!
We were doing 6 knots with 26+ knots apparent wind when going "uphill", and after we we hove to and started sailing downwind, we saw 6.5 to 7 knots with 16-18 knots wind speed when we were going downwind after our maneuver. That means 25. It was blowin'! What was also good was that our course was almost DDW with just a tiny amount of enough wind slant to keep the jib full but the waves were on our stern, not our quarter, so it was a flatter boat motion rather than one of those rockin' & rollin' ones you get with quartering heavy seas.
I hope this answers your question.
I don't know if I'd want to be out in 25++++ knots, this was more than enough. But it also reflects my belief that it's not so much the wind, but the waves that'll getcha. We've sailed in winds just as high in The Bay, but the water is much, much flatter, even on an ebb against the wind. Ocean sailing is completely different. The fetch is way longer and the swells under the wind waves makes for a completely different experience.
