PeterR
Member
Upwind you may have a point in terms of comfort but downwind with the correct sail plan they are usually fine. Three years ago I crossed from Calais to Ramsgate in my Dufour 34 in winds around 42 knots due west - not forecast. We had a very deep third reef in and about 3 rolls in a number 3 genoa. The waves were much bigger than on the rescue video - but videos always make it look calmer than it felt at the time. After crossing the shipping lanes on a beam reach I chose not to try and fetch up above the Goodwins against wind and tide but bore away around the outside. You could not mistake them, it was a cauldron of white water making an incredible roaring noise. We surfed past under total control at about 13 knots and then headed up in the lee of the Goodwins, in fairly flat water, for Ramsgate.
In 2010 we were again caught out crossing from the Scillies to Milford Haven with 42 miles to go. We ended up on a dead run in winds around 45 knots with just one reef in, pitch black and visibility as far as the mast. I won't go into the reasons why. This was too much sail but I judged that getting the main down would have meant rounding up and almost certainly causing sail damage. In those circumstances speed is your friend. Most of the time we were surfing at 15 to 16 knots which kept the apparent wind down to around 30 knots. Occasionally as we fell into a trough and lost speed the apparent wind rose and we would begin to round up a little but then the jib would fill and bring the head back we would lift to the next wave and be off on the sleigh ride again. We were heading for a safe all weather harbour and the coastguard kept on saying there was only a F6 inshore so we stuck with it. The motion was not unpleasant; in fact it was positively exhilarating, tinged only with worry about possible gear failure or an inadvertent gybe. If we had got the third reef in before the wind started to sound like a banshee I would have been thoroughly enjoying it. In the end we did those 40 miles in well under 4 hours averaging over 12 knots for the middle two of those 4 hours and a max speed of 17 knots. There was no boat damage at all.
This is typical for a modern cruiser racer and although I haven’t sailed a First 40.7 I would expect it behave much the same just faster. This video shows an X34 in 43 knots. It looks as though he has damaged his main and is just using a jib but the boat is fine. I grant if they genuinely had 50 knots that is another step up the ratchet but there seems to be some dispute as to when it increased to that strength.
Clearly the skipper of Hot Liquid was mad not to pull into a safe haven when he had the chance and he grossly overestimated the capacity of his crew but it will be interesting to find out exactly why the boat was in trouble and why the jib was cut away. It will also be interesting to find out which ports would have been safe to enter. Personnally, I would not consider Brighton in those conditions, I’m not sure about Eastbourne or Newhaven. The Western entrance to Dover would have been a nightmare. The Eastern entrance was probably OK but you would need an engine to take you straight into 50knots plus the tide which I doubt mine would do. Ramsgate. would have been fine once in the shelter of the Goodwins. I have been there in 60 knot westerlies (safely tied up) and the entrance looked perfectly feasible.
(btw, sometimes you also need to ease the main down the track as far as it'll go then ease out the sheet till your only using the headsail)
