Best action in a sudden strong gust

[pteron]

Please don't let me come sailing on a high performance big cat' or tri' with you!

Might I humbly suggest that beach cats have a habit of burying their leeward sponson and tripping up over them when overpressed which leads to the capsizes you mention.

The wind might be the same, but the way you sort things out in different boats IS NOT the same. Try sailing one of the high performance big Cats or Tri's to find out. What you do in a large Ocean Racer is not the same as what you do in a J24 or a Westerly Centaur.

I regularly sail a 43ft Trimaran, we do ok.

So you are suggesting that when flying a hull on a large cat or tri close hauled, you would bear away in a gust? You then present more of your sail to the gust...

 

[pteron]

From Bill Gibbs, a pretty successful big cat sailor:

"I spent 6 years racing a nacra 5.8 and when close hauled everybody pinched up a bit, or maybe sheeted out a bit, maybe both. No one was bearing off. Down wind, we bore off. I've spent 3 years sailing Sonrisa and never flew a hull. I'm currently sailing Afterburner like a Nacra. A big Nacra.

I think your preferred technique has a lot to do with how fast you accelerate, how fast you are, and how far forward you carry your apparent when close hauled. I don't think anyone's really arguing that a gust moves the apparent aft, maybe from 30 degrees to 35 degrees. Falling off takes me towards the maximum heel point of 50 degrees, and death. No thanks.

Regards
Bill Gibbs
Sonrisa/Afterburner"

Effectively, if you can bear off on a big boat successfully, you are getting away with it because your boat is not so sensitive as the beach cats. But when you fly the same sail to boat ratio as a beach cat, you do become as sensitive and you do need to do the right thing.

 

[Iain C]

"WRT to "max wind to leave harbour in"...another daft question, surely it's all about the forecast rather than what it's doing now?

"daft question" thank goodness everyone isn't such a smart a**.

Thank you to all the others who took time to reply sensibly.[/QUOTE]

Yeah. Thanks for that. Apparently the original question was asked by people on a nearby table you were "eavesdropping" on. Therefore I've not really insulted you by my use of the terrible expletive "daft", so you might want to park the "smart arse" bit in return. I did answer sensibly IMHO when referring to conditions "now" v "forecast", try searching for threads on "Hot Liquid" if further clarification is required.

 

[john_morris_uk]

I regularly sail a 43ft Trimaran, we do ok.

So you are suggesting that when flying a hull on a large cat or tri close hauled, you would bear away in a gust? You then present more of your sail to the gust...

That's not what I was saying and I think you are missing my point and. I was replying to your post in which you seemed to give the impression that your universal answer was to ease the main. If your cat is a high performance cat you will know that on some points of sail that is NOT always the right option. Its also not true in some high performance mono-hulls.

You've answered the question by quoting Bill Gibbs. IMHO it rather contradicts what you said.

The bottom line is that there ISN'T a universal answer. Something that several of us have suggested several times already?

 

[pteron]

That's not what I was saying and I think you are missing my point and. I was replying to your post in which you seemed to give the impression that your universal answer was to ease the main. If your cat is a high performance cat you will know that on some points of sail that is NOT always the right option. Its also not true in some high performance mono-hulls.

You've answered the question by quoting Bill Gibbs. IMHO it rather contradicts what you said.

The bottom line is that there ISN'T a universal answer. Something that several of us have suggested several times already?

If I gave the impression that my universal answer was to ease the main then I've not been clear. I believe I said that wind ahead of the beam you either luff up or ease the main, behind the beam you bear away.

It isn't actually the beam, but debating where 50 degree apparent wind is, whether the sails are correctly trimmed, the initial aftward shift of the apparent wind with gusts, whether or not your boat will accelerate quickly etc is opening an unnecessary can of worms. Most helm's eyes will glaze over.

So, in the *vast* majority of cases, the *best* thing to do if a gust hits and is ahead of the beam, you lufff up or ease the sheets; if it's behind the beam you bear away.