Handling gusts when sailing on a broad reach?

Thanks very much to everyone for your advice! You've given me lots of food for thought that I'm looking forward to trying out in practice as soon as possible.

After I get back from the UK I'll be heading off to Switzerland but hopefully there will be a few days in between when we can get out on the water. Actually I'm in the middle of the Baltic at the moment, but as this boat is a freight ferry it hardly counts :-)

Thanks again

"Z"
 
Pye_End said:
When running reef the main early.

The wind strength is greater than you feel, and if you are hard pressed off the wind, getting some main down is going to be pretty unpleasant. Reef the headsail last down wind since you can dump it without the need to come up to the wind.

If you have to come up to the wind (eg man overboard; collision avoidance) with everything up in a fresh wind then you will really wish that you had not left it.
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A perfect answer - seamanlike and sensible
 
" snip;-Thanks in advance (my internet access will be sporadic over the next week to ten days as I'll be on the road - will be going as far as Minehead on this trip, quite close to where I grew up).

"Z" "
I'll wave to you as you pass through :D:D
 
Madhatter said:
" snip;-Thanks in advance (my internet access will be sporadic over the next week to ten days as I'll be on the road - will be going as far as Minehead on this trip, quite close to where I grew up).

"Z" "
I'll wave to you as you pass through :D:D
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Ah! A local... could be handy... brace yourself for incoming PM :D
 
Pye_End said:
When running reef the main early.

The wind strength is greater than you feel, and if you are hard pressed off the wind, getting some main down is going to be pretty unpleasant. Reef the headsail last down wind since you can dump it without the need to come up to the wind.

If you have to come up to the wind (eg man overboard; collision avoidance) with everything up in a fresh wind then you will really wish that you had not left it.
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I agree if your continuously over powered, but the op said it was just one gust, the rest of the sail was fine.

I'm another favour of the turn the boat dead down wind, if your flying a spinnaker it can sometimes be the only way to avoid a broach! Works equally well with just the main and genoa :)
 
I can't follow a quarter of what is being said on here :confused:

Yesterday, I had a rather splendid sail with Seajet aboard his Anderson. The blighter had me at the tiller holding the halyard (?) with it close to 40 degrees.

Scared me witless, but he just stood there grinning.....:D

Thanks again Andy and I have complete faith in whatever you say about sailing.
I may choose to ignore it at times.
 
Simple rules
- if beating then LUFF closer into the wind in gusts
- if reaching DUMP Kicker entirely and BEAR OFF early
- if broad reaching BEAR OFF to dead downwind - personally I would not dump kicker in this case
- if already running - keep absolutely straight and get well clear of mainsheet just in case
If possible anticipate gust and a later course before it hits fully

Had to practice all of this in a very wind week recently - including countless high 30 gusts, many mid 40s and one of 52 knots (from about 20) - at which point whatever we tried it was all over when it reached 48 ;-)
 
There's a lot of voices of great experience talking here but I think a few a forgetting how tricky it is for someone who doesn't have so much experience to handle a boat on broad reach in a following sea. As you've probably gathered ,there isn't really a right answer, or maybe don't get there in the first place is the smug, but correct answer. It depends on your skill and experience, the boat you're in, the strength and duration of gust, the sea state at the time, the crew's experience and comfort levels and even your own state of mind at the time.

What you have got is a very good summary of the options available to you and the up and downsides of them.

Two comments I'd add - if you're on a very broad reach then bearing away might not be the right thing to do. A small keel boat rolling heavily and picking up the occasional wave as she half surfs, half wallows downwind in a heavy swell is begging for a standing gybe if you get to close too dead downwind. The heeling may be unpleasant but so is the boom flying across unexpectedly and mainsheet scything across the cockpit. Dumping the mainsheet is a good option if you can let it any further but you often can't. On the other hand luffing has all the drawbacks SeaJet has described. It's impossible to say but I'd be surprised if there was a risk of a serious broach when you luff unless you're in something fairly racy (wide hull and big sails) or you're a lot braver than most. Doesn't mean it will feel comfy - and it is a very unsettling feeling for the crew, who will usually be a few steps behind the helm in working out what's going on - but it may be that one option is to simply hang on and ride out the gust. It may help to encourage the other half to get her weight (which I'm sure is minimal if she's reading this:)) to get up to windward and even try to sit her out a bit as if it was a dinghy. Apart from anything else it gives the crew something to think about apart from "Oh my God, we're tipping over"...

The other one is to watch what the wind does during a gust - it frequently changes direction as well. On a broad reach it's even possible that you've pretty much stalled the sail and aren't really on a broad reach any more, you're just running downwind with the main not quite all the way out. If you are then luffing (or being headed by a wind change) you find actually unstall the sails, get the air flowing properly over the sail and then of course you'll suddenly heel over and shoot off at a great rate of knots.

When I was being taught to sail I was actually taught to turn up into wind occasionally when I was on a long run downwind, just so we could see what it would be like when we had to come back, as it were. As you get more experienced so you get batter at judging it but it still catches the most experienced of sailors.

Apologies if you've several years of dinghy sailing under your belt but I thought it was adding my t'uppenorth.
 
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Sounds like the safest, but perhaps not the most comfortable way of dealing with it is to do what you did, it's happened to everyone.

Having sailed with similar crew, and whatever the solution, I'd say it's pretty important to apologise, explain the problem and promptly reef or drop the the main altogether to ensure it doesn't happen again. The best result is getting back with crew who remain enthusiastic.
 
Thanks very much to everyone for your advice - there is really lots of food for thought here.
My Skipper dinghy had a completely unstayed mast, so once the mainsheet was let go one wouldn't have had to round up much if at all to defuse the situation.

This really was a case of just the one bad gust in an evening of otherwise perfect weather. So far I have only been using the original sails - the main has no reef points and the headsail is a smallish jib that doesn't provide that much power by itself. I do however also have a genoa, and a brand-new, completely unused main with one row of reef points. I've been saving that sail for when we've had more experience.

One thing I will do is have a test of the genoa, and see how it works by itself downwind. I had an idea to send the original main off for a service at the end of the season, and have two rows of reefing points put in at the same time.

From reading through the replies it is obvious that there is no one right answer, but now I have a clearer picture of the dynamics of this situation.

I'm now on the ferry to Helsinki after a successful tour of the UK, and should like to say a public "thank you" to Madhatter, who despite his chosen epithet is clearly one of the saner members of this little community ;-) He was especially helpful in finding me a place to swap my truck's demount bodies, and even cheered me up with a comedy "parking ticket" that I found on my trailer!

Once I get back to Finland there should be a few days available for sailing practice, before heading off again to Europe at the weekend.

Thanks again

"Z"
 
I am with the bear away and reduce apparent wind advocates - if the leg is long & clear and you are cruising shorthanded I would run a preventer from the end of the boom back to the cockpit just incase the wind shifts when being more dead downwind.
 
E39mad said:
I am with the bear away and reduce apparent wind advocates - if the leg is long & clear and you are cruising shorthanded I would run a preventer from the end of the boom back to the cockpit just incase the wind shifts when being more dead downwind.
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I agree.

I don't really get the advice to head up when overpowered on a broad reach. A broach will send you spinning to windward, so why start it of your own accord?

When broad reaching and starting to get overpowered you must bear away or you will broach. Simple as that really.

However, keep in mind that an unintentional gybe will have much more serious consequences than a broach. So unless you know what you're doing urge on the side of the broach instead of the gybe.
 
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