Heavy weather sailing
- Thread starter Lfarquhar
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jssailem
SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
- Oct 22, 2014
- 21,636
Great question. It depends on how well you can trim the sails to get her to hove-to. Can you stall the forward motion so she slides sideways, leaving a slick to windward? Many boats are a bit of a pickle to get them to stall and not fore-reach out of the slick.
I read a technique that can help a boat to stall and slide sideways if it is fore-reaching. You can set a drag on the bow to windward and let it help to keep the bow from falling off. The writer mentioned the use of a galerider drogue. The same writer stated that if the boat will not hove-to safely, you are better off employing a Jordan Series Drogue.
I read a technique that can help a boat to stall and slide sideways if it is fore-reaching. You can set a drag on the bow to windward and let it help to keep the bow from falling off. The writer mentioned the use of a galerider drogue. The same writer stated that if the boat will not hove-to safely, you are better off employing a Jordan Series Drogue.
Simply put: go try it out in progressively windier conditions; i.e., practice, practice, practice. That's what I did when i got my boat 25 years ago. Most of us also learned that huge jibs don't do hove to very well, whereas 110 working jib size is just fine. If you have a big genoa, reef it or else your bow will blow down.
John's advice is helpful but most likely presents techniques required well beyond both your stated conditions or even your question.
John's advice is helpful but most likely presents techniques required well beyond both your stated conditions or even your question.
Your underbody is very similar to my ‘99 Bavaria 38E, but mine with a six-ft draft. So, I expect similar dynamics w.r.t. heaving-to. Basically, my boat does not heave-to very well at all. Tends to “pivot” against the narrow keel. A wider keel as in the older Cal yachts works much better.
Also, having sailed along the central west FL coast for 11 years, I’d rather skedaddle to safe harbor than heave-to out in the eastern Gulf in Force 7, most likely from the northwest, in your (our) type of yacht.
It’s like being on a washboard out there!
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Another consideration is the 373 is a light displacement boat with high freeboard with topsides that exhibit a higher amount of wind & wave exposed surface areas. As @jssailem & @Stu Jackson advised, it would be advisable to setup a drogue and practice to determine how well you & the boat would perform in force 6-7 conditions. Personally, I don’t think it would be a pleasant experience. I have a drogue; pm me if interested.
Experimentation with my Bavaria in light conditions (mostly regarding headsail size and trim) has proven that I cannot leave the boat unattended for long before it falls off and puts stern to the “seas.” One whole point of heaving-to is to rest, even sleep, while the boat minds itself. To take a break from working the boat, to go below to cook or tend to other chores as needed. It’s less about “storm tactics.” But you need a lot of sea room to leeward as the yacht will make leeway. Could travel many miles during a blow. If you must fiddle with the boat’s trim constantly, heaving-to might not be a good strategy.
Older literature of “circumnavigators” comments on a yacht’s tendency to “sail out of its slick.” The slick that it creates as it slides down the face of a wave while hove-to. That slick mitigates the force of the on-coming wave to overcome or to pound/slap the boat. The trim has to be adjusted so the boat sails (fore-reaches) at about the same speed as it slides down the waves. For this to work it seems to me that you’d have start with a yacht that can stably heave-to in the first place. Evidently, this is a challenge for even the experienced.
Older literature of “circumnavigators” comments on a yacht’s tendency to “sail out of its slick.” The slick that it creates as it slides down the face of a wave while hove-to. That slick mitigates the force of the on-coming wave to overcome or to pound/slap the boat. The trim has to be adjusted so the boat sails (fore-reaches) at about the same speed as it slides down the waves. For this to work it seems to me that you’d have start with a yacht that can stably heave-to in the first place. Evidently, this is a challenge for even the experienced.
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jssailem
SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
- Oct 22, 2014
- 21,636
It is a challenge. Even more so if you have a fin-keeled boat. The long and 3/4 keel boats are better at setting the hove-to condition and maintaining it.
Add a fractional rig and planning hull design to the mix, plus novice experience (who jumps on their boat and announces to the crew, "Let's go out and spend the day practicing hove-to sailing") with such a balancing trim setup; all combine to challenge the owner/helmsman. Traditionally, the helm is locked over to the windward to make the boat sail independently. That is just the boat.
Knowing when to use the technique and how to maintain the condition when waves are coming at the boat (sometimes from different directions) is a skill only developed by experiencing the conditions—a good reason to get out and sail often.
As I understand it, the process is that the slick disturbs the waveform. The wave tends to break in the slick, not on top of the boat. You want your boat to slide in the slick and not fore-reach out of it
Add a fractional rig and planning hull design to the mix, plus novice experience (who jumps on their boat and announces to the crew, "Let's go out and spend the day practicing hove-to sailing") with such a balancing trim setup; all combine to challenge the owner/helmsman. Traditionally, the helm is locked over to the windward to make the boat sail independently. That is just the boat.
Knowing when to use the technique and how to maintain the condition when waves are coming at the boat (sometimes from different directions) is a skill only developed by experiencing the conditions—a good reason to get out and sail often.
As I understand it, the process is that the slick disturbs the waveform. The wave tends to break in the slick, not on top of the boat. You want your boat to slide in the slick and not fore-reach out of it