Pinning a broach

[Tom]

A new Twist

It looks like most everyone has figured this one out now, so here is a new twist...You have just rounded the WINDWARD mark and have set the chute, the jib is down and you are preparing to gybe when the unexpected puff hits, the boat starts to broach to weather and is going into a death roll, the pole is almost in the water, the boom is pointing towards the sky and the helm is extremely light - What do you do?Not that I have ever been there.......

 

[PakeL62]

Very Exciting!!!!

What Tom describes is pretty much what happened to us. I am new to racing and was a crew on a J-35. We were out racing in Sep in about 17 to 20 knots of wind and 5 to 6 ft waves on Saginaw Bay. Crew of 7. Being new to racing while on a down wind run, I sit midship and enjoy the ride. Surfing we hit 14 knots on the meter. What a rush. Well we were about to gybe with the pole on the port side and boom out to starboard with a preventer. The skipper noticed that the release line on the pole was jammed. The bowman was working on that when we ran into the back side of a small wave that started the bow to starboard, at the same time as a puff backwinded the main. That sent the boat over and everyone scrambling to find a good hold. I was on the port side deck so I turned around and grabbed the cabin roof hand rail. J-boats don't have a toe rail to speak of so my feet went under the lifeline and I found myself hanging with water up to my waste.Anyway. No-one got hurt and nothing broke. I am new to Chute flying so I do not know what they were doing with the chute. The preventer was one that could not be eased.I know now to have a preventer that can be eased not just blown because you don't want that boom crashing to the other side but rather just ease it to the other side. My guess on the chute would be to trim it as much as possible to collapse it, right?That should bring the boat back up-right so the helmsman can steer back down wind again.While exciting, I don't really want to ever repeat it. I wish someone had taken a picture.PK.

 

[Tom]

Happened to me on a J/35 too

PK-I happened to me on a J/35, too. We were on a very short last leg to the finish and it was blowing pretty hard. We really did not want to gybe if we could avoid it, so we were pushing down pretty hard - often by the lee. When the puff hit, we were slow to respond, the boat rolled to weather and the pole tip hit the water. It pushed back against the shrouds and snapped off the tip of the pole, the boom was pointing to the sky and there was no rudder at all. Had we quickly eased the pole forward we could have avoided this situation, but it was now too late. The main was full and keeping the boat pinned down as there was no way of releasing it, and as in your situation, people were hanging onto whatever they could find. Eventually, the bow turned and the boat gybed itself and popped back up. The boom came across with such force that had anyone been in the way they would have been....not with us anymore.It was a pretty scary situation, but the key to having avoided the knockdown was actually in the hands of the person trimming the guy(pole). Had he eased it quickly enough it would have allowed the chute to rotate behind the main and depower the sail. I think that in a panic our trimmer actually eased the sheet on the chute which made things worse by allowing it to actually rotate more to weather.I just threw it out there because the situation was a little different.

 

[sand sailor]

gee john

let me know what that flag looks like i know a couple of people who should be displaying these colors more often than notbut good call im putting this one in my play book for sure