Heavy Weather and small boats

[andlauer]

Bonsoir
I like these ones !
Eric
http://www.stichelbaut.com/searchpi...quare=1&rm=1&rf=1&query=cotten&hori=1&verti=1

 

[OGITD]

WOW! & OUCH!!!

Bonsoir
I like these ones !
Eric
http://www.stichelbaut.com/searchpi...quare=1&rm=1&rf=1&query=cotten&hori=1&verti=1

From a previous life “diving now, diving now, set depth 300’ “

 

[080653]

Some of us returning from JAC08 got caught in an 'un-seasonal' gale. I had been running for 6/7 days before a steadily increasing westerly. The seas were getting quite large and Goldie was surfing for long periods with up to 10kts on the log. Yes, this is quite stupid in such a small boat but you tend to get a bit over confident after days of the same conditions. (the hydrovane windvane steering is marvellous as the extra rudder gives better directional stability in such conditions - well that is what I kept telling myself!) Comman sense prevailed and I deployed a drogue which kept the speed down under 6kts and ran like this for another couple of days. Roger (Taylor) had reminded me to keep an eye on the weather forecast when approaching the continental shelf , nothing above a F7 was mentioned so I continued. Some 15 miles onto the shelf, the weather comedians announced F8 imminent! I was too far on to beat back off the shelf and possibly in the worst place to meet bad weather so took an early decision to deploy my parachute system. This consisted of 2 x 5ft diameter drogue chutes (ex military - used to pull loads out of transport aircraft AND CHEAP!) in series. They were coupled together by 60 metre warps and shackled to my 30 metre anchor chain. 3 fenders provided a float and a short length (10 m) of chain between the chutes kept them down in less disturbed water. It took about 2 hours to set this up but once deployed, Goldie took up a comfortable attitude about 20 degrees off the wind. I was exactly half distance between France and England, well clear of the shipping lanes and with plenty of sea room. My first 'securite' got an instant reply which was rather worrying but all subsequent VHF announcements went out without reply. I have always understood that summer gales last about 8 hours. This one went on for a couple of days and CG data shows that it was blowing F9 for 17 hours. However I was 'reasonably' comfortable in 'my well corked bottle' and I managed to wash/shave and cook meals during my confinement.
I made a few observations which I pass on here:
The incredible noise outside makes decision making difficult and was something I had not prepared myself for.
I had stupidly used white fenders for my floats. It is useful to know where the chutes are lying especially for retreival. I had the greatest difficulty in spotting them in the maelstrom whipped up. Next time bright orange might be sensible!
The series drogue type of anchor makes a lot of sense.It is quite critical to get the chute in the correct bit of sea relative to the boat. I got around this by using 2 in series but still suffered some surge loading and consequent yawing. During one such occasion a 'mother-in-law' swell got us beam on and pulled a stauntion up through the deck. The subsequent leak made things rather uncomfortable to say the least.
I chose not to rig a tripping line to the head the set-up for fear of entanglement. This meant that I had 2 1/2 hours of backbreaking work to get the anchor back on board plus a cockpit full of wet ropes and dacron.
Overall I was satisfied with my set-up and pleased with the way it performed. My total drift for the 2 days was 6.4 Nm. Perhaps longer warps would have helped with stability but Goldie was a small boat and compromises have to be made. It is my own theory that within reason, smaller boats ride bad weather better than their larger brothers and I was quite happy to put my ideas to the test. Severe storms are perhaps another matter but how many of us wants to tackle a hurricane?
On a brighter note, bad weather doesn't look so bad when viewed from a small boat. You can't see what's coming after that next wave!

 

[Wansworth]

very interesting info.I find it difficult to imagine assembleing all that stuff on a kingfisher 22at sea in a strong wind.Did you "pack2 the system ready to deploy in some canvas bag?If not do you thinkit would be possible.Where can I find more info on the parachutes etc!

 

[puddock]

It's not always frightening - have a look at www.youtube.co.uk, search on 'rough weather sailing' and have a look at 'rough weather - Corentin Douguet sailing crazy Figaro' and 'big wave sailing', both of which look like a lot of fun. Sorry, but I don't know how to post the direct links into this post, I've only completed (and failed) the beginners course of How to Use a Computer.....
Duncan

Not exactly BREAKING WAVES - what is the figure for broadside breaking waves imparting capsize? 1.3 times freeboard height or something?

 

[Gargleblaster]

Not exactly BREAKING WAVES - what is the figure for broadside breaking waves imparting capsize? 1.3 times freeboard height or something?

My understanding and I can't quote my source is that it is 3X your beam. For instance my 27' boat has a 10' beam therefore it would take a 30' or 9 metre wave to knock me down.

Someone else mentioned that one good thing about being in a small boat is that you can't see the next wave coming at you, sometimes this can be to your detriment. I was knocked down below the horizontal in 2007 by a by a big wave [I didn't have a tape measure out at the time so can't tell you if it exceeded 9 metres] 200 miles north of Corvu in the Azores seconds after I had taken out my top washboard. I ended up with two feet of water over my cabin sole and nearly drowned with the force of water in my face. I wouldn't have taken out that top washboard if I knew that one was about to break. I was knocked down about two hours later but this was relatively benign as I had all the washboards in and everything just got thrown around the cabin including myself.

I believe the reason I was knocked down was that it was blowing F10 NE and I thought it was a good chance to get some westings in running under bare poles with the wind and waves on my stbd quarter. We probably had a bit of wind over current situation with the Atlantic Drift which probably increased the size of the waves.

In an F10 Westerly [I had one gust of 64 knots before I lost my anemometer] in 2006 I lay-a-hull for 30 hours streaming warps and while the boat was spun around on her axis on 3 occasions and she was healing to 60 degrees on the top of the crests the consequences were much less. I did lose 60 NM to the East, at times drifting at 4 knots according to the GPS. But that drift I believe by flattening the waves prevented me being knocked down.

Two points I would like to make from Mike Richies writings:

1. No two storms are ever the same. And therefore no single tactic will work for every storm.
2. Often we survive despite the actions we take.

There is an interesting discussion on the Yahoo Jester Challenge forum on the Jordan's Series Drogues and also on Sea and Para Anchors.

 

[Neptune'sLocker]

Series Drogues. Heavy weather, breaking waves, capsize and pitchpole avoidance

Para anchors and Series Drogues are very different in concept. A para anchor's aim is to stop you going backwards, a series drogue is to control you going forwards. Para anchors are great if you are on a lee shore in moderate to heavy weather, but they are not the answer in severe conditions with a likelihood of breaking waves. There is also the risk of damage to rudders whilst lying to a para anchor. The series drogue is set from the stern as opposed to the bow and allows the boat to move forward perpendicular to the waves in a controlled manner. The downside is that you could be pooped, so hatches and lockers need to be secure and cockpit drains capable of coping with the sudden arrival of a breaking wave over your stern. Sounds bad, but infinitely better than the high risks of being capsized or pitch-poled whilst trying to keep your head to wind. The great advantage of the Series Drogue is that you set it, batten down and go below to safety and rest. No need to constantly adjust the rode to keep a para anchor in the correct wave cycle or to monitor and correct for chafe whilst risking your safety on the foredeck. A Series Drogue with its 100+ cones is always working to control the boat's angle to a breaking wave and because there are cones gripping the water near to your stern (as well as those 80 metres away), there is no delay in reaction time. Whereas, with a para anchor it is either full and testing the strength of your deck fittings to the maximum, or collapsed and doing nothing. In the latter case, there would be no chance of the para anchor reacting in time to align you before a wave strike, resulting in capsize, or if you were surfing down the face of a wave, stopping a pitch-pole. I hope I'm not painting too grim a picture, but there are good and bad sides to the choices in these situations. For me a lump of water (exceptional) into the cockpit is far preferred to capsize, pitch-poling or risking lives on deck. You can build a Series Drogue from existing materials, such as a redundant sail or buy ready made cones for a reasonable amount from www.oceanbrake.com . Their 5" cones are of nylon ripstop and supplied ready made for you to attach to nylon double braid line, or you can opt for a kit or complete drogue.

 

[calloo]

the series drogue

Para anchors and Series Drogues are very different in concept. A para anchor's aim is to stop you going backwards, a series drogue is to control you going forwards.

I am quite sure that Neptune's Locker is correct. Roger Taylor states in one of his articles that he would not go to sea without the series drouge. He must surely be the authority on the subject. An important consideration is the strain this implement puts on the boat and the strength of the fastening points. Lying a-hull and hove to are fine alternatives when that unpleasant feeling of things getting out of control grips the vitals. I have sometimes feared the possibility of being on the wrong side of a very large wave when wind force assited by gravity accelerates my poor wee 4 ton boat into the trough in a broach. The momentum is very powerfull. It has been discribed as like colliding with another boat. The drouge will assist greatly to reduce that risk. I do not claim to be expert on this or any subject but am keen to learn.

 

[oldsaltoz]

Had to beat south non stop for 4 days just to get to the start line in the Brisbane to Gladstone race, completed it in under 40 hrs in light winds.

Took off heading north the next day around 1000 hrs, planning to make an overnight stop on the way home, eta just after dark, small entrance but we had done it several times in the past.

Forecast was s/east 10 to 15 early increasing to 15 to 20 later that afternoon. We headed for open water and by noon had 20 knots over the deck on the starboard quarter. One crewman down sea sick.

By 1400 hrs we had 30+ over the deck and huge nasty looking system bearing down on us, with no safe port or refuge within 4 hours sailing, wind s/east and heading north it was not looking pretty.

Below and above deck had been secured and sail reduced to head sail only, again we headed away from the coast to ensue we had sea room.

By 1600 hrs we had 40 + over the deck and some gusts much higher, but more important the sea was buildong with some short steep and breaking waves and what looked loke worse conditions behind us.

After some discussion we decided to hoist the storm sail to give us a bit more speed and control to help avoid breaking waves over stern, and contemplated how we might get into our planned overnight anchorage that has good protection from a s/easter.

But by 1700 hrs it was obvious we would not get through the narrow entrance in the huge waves. I calculated the next possible safe haven would be around 0400 hrs if we maintained a northerly heading, problem was, with only two of us on board capable of steering in these conditions and for not more than an hour at a time without loosing concentration we were going to get no sleep and conditions were heading for a very dark and stormy night,

It's worth noting at this stage that the yacht was only a month old and this was back in the days before chart plotters and GPS.

Around 2000 hrs we got our first real bit of rain, and I was happy as this can flatten the waves a bit; however it also brought along some lightning and a few wind shifts then around 2300 hrs the thunder, lightning and rain stopped and wind picked up, again very strong and from the s/east short and very steep waves with deep troughs between them.

We made it to our safe haven around 0100 hrs, dropped the pick, got below and had a couple of very large rums each and fell into a deep sleep, but only after the sea sick crewman was sent on deck to monitor the anchor till we woke in daylight.

Adding the small main sail to complement the tiny head sail made the boat a lot easier to control if you call it that, we came close to getting a cockpit full a few times when the waves broke close to our stern but that little bit of extra sail was just enough to keep us away.

Avagoodnewyear......