How can I cure my fear of heeling? Any ideas please?

[bitbaltic]

I to have this "fear" of excessive heeling, but it is not as simple as that. Here is my analysis of the situation.

If I crew on someone elses boat, I am happy to sail with the boat on it's ear, toe rail in the water. Not at all so happy if I am sailing my own boat. Why is that?

I think it's all down to responsibility. When crew on another boat, I trust the skipper to know his boat, and it's "his" problem to sort it out if something goes wrong.

Now on my own boat, It's not exactly excessive heel that bothers me, it's what is going to happen next? We get in the situation of a lot of heel because the wind has increased since we set off, and often above what was forecast. So my concern becomes what happens if it carries on increasing? I am certain if I knew the wind was going to remain manageable for the duration of the trip the worries would all go away.

This is where being confident in the boat's reefing system- that it is slick and quick and that you will successfully reef with minimum of fuss- comes in for me.

I am always surprised at the numbers of boats whose reefing gear is stiff and awkward or needs someone at the mast foot to pull the sail down etc. i imagine if that is in the back of your mind when the wind the wind rises it would likely add to tension.

(Not saying this applies to yourself- just a trigger to a general observation)

Cheers

 

[Storyline]

I think it is very healthy that people can admit to these fears rather than bottle them up. In my case I have become confident in the boat to be able to function in strong winds. Amazingly when we bought Storyline she only had two reefs in the main so when we had the third reef put in we made it a bit deeper than normal and also replaced the chain plates as she was getting a bit long in the tooth. Now i feel she is balanced and sails well in strong winds and although will not put to sea if an 8 is forecast we have had a couple of amazing passages in really quite strong winds. It is the sea conditions that make us run for cover and which can start to concern me.

I think it is down to experience to a large extent. Once you know the boat can handle strong winds and heeling it is easier to just enjoy it rather than he alarmed and similarly when you have been battered in nasty seas (the Irish Sea and some of the headlands off the Scottish coast can provide these conditions) you really don't want to repeat the experience and it does sometimes worry me a bit how much worse I know it can get. As the years have gone by we have become more cautious not less.