Handling under sail

[Joe_Cole]

I think that this posting will reveal my inexperience but I would be interested to hear what more experienced sailers have to say.

We were tootling along at the weekend on port tack, broad reach, coast on port side, winds around 2 to 3 but quite variable in strength and direction. Mostly I was semi-single handling (i.e. SHMBO was reading down below!) Every now and again a strong gust would come in, push the boat well over and she would turn into the wind with very heavy weather helm (i.e. it was impossible to hold her on course and it felt safer to let her turn) I let the mainsheet run free but to little effect. It was difficult to get to the sheets to let them go and I wasn't sure whether to anyhow.

On one occasion the gust lasted about a minute and I was heading straight towards the cliffs. Not wanting to impersonate "The Nottingham" I thought that it might be best to take some avoiding action so I ended up going on to a starboard tack, but at least leaving the cliffs behind me. I got a safe distance away and went back onto port tack and carried on. To be honest I didn't feel that I had been fully under control and I can't help but feel that going round in circles isn't particularly seamanlike.

My boat is 23feet with a lifting fin keel and is fractionally rigged.

Two questions.
1. When tacking the knots fixing the sheets to the genoa cause a real problem by jamming on the forward lower shrouds. Is there a "smoother" way of fixing them which will slide over the shrouds? I could roll the genoa up then release it but that doesn't seem very efficient.
2. How do the experts handle the situation I was in? I can't help but think that I'm doing something wrong.

Joe Cole

 

[Chris_Stannard]

The problem with the sheets catching on the shrouds is always with us. Best advice is to have short loops on your bowlines and long tails to make sure they do not break free. Pull your main to the middle of the travller before you tack and leave it well sheeted in and let your sheets go a bit early, then do not put too much pressure on the new sheet as the head comes through the wind. It will not cure the problem entirely but it will help.

The problem that you describe with your main is often caused by over pressure on the main. Often people will roll some of the genoa in to reduce the pressure on the boat, which gives excessive weather helm to start with. I often take two reefs in whilst keeping a full genoa. The other cause can be that you are sailing with your kicker (or vang) pulled on hard when going to windward. This is unnecessary since the downward pressure of the mainsheet is all that is needed. It also means that if you try to depower the main by letting the sheet off, the boom cannot rise, as the kicker is holding it down, and you are still being hard pressed by the main.
If the kicker is slack the boom can rise and this is the most effective way of reducing the power in the main.
Incidentally I often find that when it is a bit blowy I go just as fast with one or two reefs in the main as I do with a full main
Last thought, if you have an adjustable backstay do wind a fair amount of pressure on it whilst going to windward in a fair breeze, it keeps the luff of the genoa tighter and reduces weather helm.

Chris Stannard

 

[SloopJohnB]

You have asked for replies from “the experts” but I am afraid I do not qualify.
However, IMHO you should consider the following

1 You shouldn’t have a problem with small bowlines – maybe with their “tails” tucked in. Do you have broken plastic covers on the shrouds that might be causing a snag.

2 Sudden gusts can often cause this problem, where the sail plan would otherwise be ok for the prevailing wind conditions . Fractional rigs mean quite a powerful main and modest jib. You need to take care you don’t have too much main up. Heading up like that usually means too much main up if you still cant regain control by letting out the main. Once you know there are gusts that are having this effect then I think you must reef. Heaving to to reef main can sometimes be easier when you are on your own and should only take a minute or so.

Personally I always put a reef in if reefing might be necessary. Why make life difficut. You don’t usually lose speed anyway. SWMBO will love you for it.

The hull shape will also contribute to the tendancy to round up. I once had a pig of a boat that would head up in any sort of gust. Got rid of it.

Fair winds!

 

[extravert]

My opinions...

1) Mine does that too, as have all boats I have ever sailed. I have never found a way to avoid it.

2) On a broad reach it is difficult to depower in a gust without heading up wind. Even reducing sail will probably require a temporary head up wind, particularly the main. This is especially true on a fractionally rigged boat where you cannot let the main go so out so far as on a masthead, because of the swept back spreaders. Obviously heading up wind onto the rocks a la Nottingham wasn't a good idea.

It sounds to me that if you were rounding up uncontrollably on a broad reach then you were carrying too much sail. In this situation if for some reason you find you have to start beating (like going back to recover a man-over-board), you will definitely have too much sail. A well worn saying is that you should never carry more sail downwind than you would be prepared to carry upwind in the same conditions. I think that is a bit extreme if you want to get anywhere downwind on a moderate day, but it's worth keeping in mind, especially if you are virtually single handed. If the wind is really variable and you don't want to reduce sail every 10 minutes, but that means a risk of rounding up, then I would give myself plenty of searoom and keep away from other boats. During gusts this would give me options of heaving-to, safely tacking, or heading upwind with a depowered main until it had passed. There are lots of ways of depowering with the wind forward of the beam, not many when it is aft.

 

[Strathglass]

Joe It sounds to me that you are overcanvased for the gusts. What you must do is depower the rig. This can be done dynamically during the gusts or statically by reefing.
During a gust let the kicker off this will spill wind from the top of the sail.
Bear away and ease the sheets, if you have the sea room.
If you are on full main then one of the handiest reefing devices is the flatening reef. This is a single reefing point about 12" above the clew of the mainsail with a control line led back to the cockpit. You also require to release temporary the main and the kicker to set it. When it is set you have several advantages.
You have reduced the main area and will sail flatter.
As the boom is higher the end is less likely to drag in the water if heeling excessively and it is clearer of heads in the cockpit.
Very quick and easy to knock out if the wind reduces.
Can be set from the cockpit if you have adequate purchase on the kicker and it is led back.
On the subject of your foresail, this is often a problem short handed.There are several things that can improve the situation although virtually nothing beats the lightest foredeck crew from walking it round.
Why not have a one piece jib sheet instead of two halves? Then a single small knot at the middle of the sheet to the jib, as the sheet wears you just tie the knot at a slightly different position and get longer life from the sheets. Also delay releasing the jib sheet when tacking until you are through irons and the wind is pushing the sail through to the new side.
Small rollers on the top guardrail also can limit the sheet from catching there.
These are one or two ideas you can try to help improve thje situation.
Iain

 

[Joe_Cole]

Thanks guys. All helpful advice which is greatly appreciated.

Joe

 

[JimMcMillan]

You were oversailed for the gusts i.e. you required to reef.The classic dinghy method which would also apply is to keep an eye out for the gusts(experience)and as it hits ease the sheet and bear away rapidly thus flattening the boat,but once she's heeled she's gone.Best of luck,it happens to us all.

 

[Guest]

When tacking, don't try to pull the genny across too early. Let the wind back the sail, this will usually get the clew and sheet knots past the standing rigging.

Regards,

Peter
http://www.mistressofmourne.com

 

[Guest]

DEFINITELY NOT an expert but I have a boat that is prone to weatherhelm an I reef the mainsail early, leaving the genoa fully out. I also had a problem with the jib sheets catching on the shrouds and have much improved it by a single sheet looped through, rather than 2 separate sheets and bowlines which is what I had last year. I do back the genoa which also helps...then, as I sail single-handed mostly, I have a habit of quickly pulling in the genoa whilst the wind is on the nose which makes life easier!

 

[charles_reed]

Too much main up - in gusting weather you need to reef the main (especially in a 3/4 rig) down for the biggest gusts and vary the roller genoa for drive.

Only problem in steep, short seas you can cyclically overload the mast and (if it's a bendy mast) you might have fatigue fracture starting.

 

[Jaguar]

Yep,

Definitely too much sail area up. As the wind gusts, the boat heels over. This produces a more asymmetric hull profile with a tendancy to turn to windward. As the other guys have said, the solution is to reef down in stages, maintaining helm balance. If you dont want to reef down, there are other options. e.g. you can increase the twist of the forsail to spill some wind, luff up more (particularly in the gusts) to reduce the heeling effect, flatten the sails and/or drop the main down the track. I had the same but opposite problem last Sunday. We had the number one up with a reef in the main on a close reach. Every time the wind picked up the boat would bear away hard, making for some fairly sporting helming. We did not want to change the headsail though as we were racing and we would shortly be onto more of a beam reach with the wind speed due to drop. So, we just lived with it!