Jibing alone

[Warren Milberg]

At this time of the year, the winds are often up on the Chesapeake. When solo sailing and needing to jibe, I tend to avoid conventional jibes when the winds are 12 kts and over. Rather I will wear ship or do a chicken jibe as it seems easier on the captain and the rig. How do you handle jibing when sailing solo in higher winds?

 

[kloudie1]

Don’t know if “chicken jibe” is the name, but I pull in the mainsheet until the boom is solidly amidships then get Otto (autopilot) to steer to the new heading then let out the main again on the other side Then decide what to do with the jib; wing-in-wing it.. or jibe it across depending on wind direction and what you were doing prior to the main jibe.

 

[Stu Jackson]

Much of my high wind gybing occurs on pretty much the same stretch of water: just north of Treasure Island heading east after a day sailing San Francisco Bay. 12 knots is a light breeze here. Usually blowing 15 to 20 when I do this. Most times is port tack downwind. I head down to a wing & wing, thus the jib's now on the port side of the boat with the main still full out to starboard. I don't trust the autopilot going downwind, so use the wheel brake lightly. Crank in the main after centering the traveler. Slowly turn the wheel to gybe the main, let the mainsheet out, adjust traveler and jib sheet as necessary depending on new course of either broad reach, beam reach or close reach heading south. Take wheel brake off, reset AP.

I find it much easier to do the jib first when it's really windy. In lighter air the jib can wait.

Only guy I knew who hadda do "chicken" anything was a friend with a 27 foot schooner - yeah, that's right. Not too many of them that small. 270s were required to TACK!

 

[Benny]

I'll bring the boom to the center, turn the boat across the wind until the Jib backwinds and can be brought across and then trim the main to the new course. If done in a fluid motion sail trashing will be insignificant and loss of speed kept to a minimum. I don't toy around with "wing on wing" when jibing in high winds as to try to attain and maintain the delicate balance required would be counter productive. Boat speed in the considered conditions will already be respectable so a lot of work and attention would not be compensated by a small gain in speed. If restricted in course and the jib becomes blanketed by the main I'll furl it in. If there is a danger I'll accidentally cross ahead of the wind, I'll set a preventer. I'll use a chicken jibe to come face to wind and drop sails.

 

[Dan Johnson]

Warren...

you talkiin' 'bout winds like this past weekend?

Even with crew, we chose to tack around (a "chicken jibe?") instead of jibing on Saturday with winds in the 20's on our way across the Bay to head up the Sassafras. Admittedly this was with a partially furled headsail only, but the wind pressure made it almost impossible to work the jib across the boat as in a normal jibe.

This is SOP when I am single-handing the boat in anything above 10 knots of wind. Under that I pretty much do the same as Stu Jackson mentions.

Prudence goes hand in hand with safety.

 

[Royal Flush]

One trick I use is using the Jib by it'self. When I first purchased my boat I only had a #1 Genoa AKA 150% on a roller furling. I learned how to use it and get around with only it. I'm blessed, my boat's a rocket in 9-20 knot winds when I'm pinching. I start by flattening the sail by pulling the blocks back. I was hitting 8 knots a few weeks ago and was remaining rather upright for most of this 2 hour power sail...

 

[RichH]

If you have a BIG mainsail, most of the gybe-horror can be eliminated with a boom brake. I use the Wichard "Gybe-Easy" http://www.wichard.com/fiche-A|WICHARD|7150-0203030000000000-ME.html

... or if you're a rock climber you can use your "figure-of-8 rescue descender", or carabiner with brake bar, etc. shackled to the boom, etc.
http://www.sherrilltree.com/Profess...b15daff51d2d6db8.e3eSbNyQc3mLe34Pa38Ta38Pch10