Sailing downwind when over canvassed

[Babylon]

I have a gunter rigged boat and was recently caught out by a sudden squall. I was sailing downwind with no reefs it having previously been a force 3/4. The squall hit me without warning and must have been close to gale force. I had the boom well out and was surfing at an amazing speed and had reached a point where I wanted to make a turn but I felt unhappy at turning lest we broach. This caused me to think about what to do in such circumstances when you want to loose speed going down wind. I was single handed and daren't leave the tiller. I let the jib fly but that was doing much anyway. My gut was telling me to turn upwind and with the main flying free all would be OK. But I had seen another boat in similar circumstances make the turn and broach, so I just kept on downwind until the squall died. What would you do if you had to make the turn eg to avoid something?

Perhaps the seamanlike position would be to not let yourself get into that position in the first place.

Were gusts forecast? Had a typical front moved through, and you could therefore expect gusty conditions? Whilst you were still sailing upright, did you notice any boats to windward over on their ear?

What are your contingency plans for the unexpected, especially if single-handed?

No mention is made of a lee-shore or other actual hazards, but the prudent position for a single-hander, especially in confined waters, would have been to carry less sail in the first place.

I always leave the main halyard neatly flaked and hanging over the coachroof winch - that way, it won't take me more than a second or two to lean forward from the tiller, drop the flaked halyard off the winch and let go the clutch. In your scenario, even if the press of wind on the main from aft prevents the sail from sliding fully down the track, as soon as you come slightly upwind the sail shape will be spoilt reducing the chances of accelerating with aerodymanic efficiency into a broach.

If you then adopt BoB's idea of trimming progressively to windward, you'll eventually have the main down, or down far enough with the boat's head sufficiently up to wind to put reefs in.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

...... and gently try to round up ...... References to techniques with Mirror dinghy of limited relevance to most boats. Mirror relatively very stable and under canvassed, unless crewed by small children (hence why a great family / learner boat)

With respect dunedin the reference is very relevant and we appear to concur on a solution. Sail Power to boat weight ratio is irrelevant when over pressed; over pressed is over pressed. Careful rounding up when running and over pressed is a normal solution to dealing with the problem if one needs to do something about it, in just about all types of mono hull in moderate seas.

Feeding the boat round carefully, slowly and in stages allows a helmsman to remain in control. In rough seas it becomes much more difficult as a quartering sea requires careful timing and perhaps a faster turn at the relevant point on the wave.

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

Sailing downwind when over canvassed

Been there done that......

first time i'd ever seen 7.2 knots through the water from my Twister and first ever time flying the big kite.

ThwwwwaaaaacK!! A big space of sky was where the spinnaker once was...????

 

[Lee_Shaw]

I have a gunter rigged boat and was recently caught out by a sudden squall. I was sailing downwind with no reefs it having previously been a force 3/4. The squall hit me without warning and must have been close to gale force. I had the boom well out and was surfing at an amazing speed and had reached a point where I wanted to make a turn but I felt unhappy at turning lest we broach. This caused me to think about what to do in such circumstances when you want to loose speed going down wind. I was single handed and daren't leave the tiller. I let the jib fly but that was doing much anyway. My gut was telling me to turn upwind and with the main flying free all would be OK. But I had seen another boat in similar circumstances make the turn and broach, so I just kept on downwind until the squall died. What would you do if you had to make the turn eg to avoid something?

Not being able to leave the tiller seriously restricts the choices. Normally dragging down some main sail and/or towing a big loop of rope are the options. But you can't leave the helm so you're pretty much looking at hanging on/praying. Controlled luffing isn't a long term solution unless it somehow allows you to get into the position to leave the helm to reduce sail and prepare a loop rope to trail if things pipe up a bit more.

 

[snowleopard]

Not being able to leave the tiller seriously restricts the choices.

There's a very good account of that in Pete Goss's book where he is sailing Aqua Quorum in the Ostar and gets caught by an increase in wind. He didn't trust the autopilot to hold course while he reduced sail so he just went on steering until the boat wiped out.

My next point isn't too helpful in this context but here goes... If you were running in a Laser and the wind got too much to handle, what do you do? Answer: just let go of the sheet and let the main weathercock over the bow. Now tell me why an unstayed rig is such a bad idea