This Month's YM - A Question of Seamanship

[SlowlyButSurely]

This Month\'s YM - A Question of Seamanship

Is it just me? The answer to this month's "question of seamanship" seems so obvious that I thought it must be a trick question. But no, the answer was to take down the genoa!

Has the standard of seamanship on yachts become so poor these days that such a basic task as this justifies an item in YM?

 

[phatcat1]

Re: This Month\'s YM - A Question of Seamanship

A Genoa is a type of cake isn't it???? /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[fireball]

Re: This Month\'s YM - A Question of Seamanship

Hmmm Cake ... Yum!

 

[tome]

Re: This Month\'s YM - A Question of Seamanship

They missed a trick also, since the genoa was hard to furl/drop and the main wasn't

Run off to downwind and use the main to blanket the genoa until under control, then furl the main

 

[Evadne]

Re: This Month\'s YM - A Question of Seamanship

Aah, it's all them roller reefing thingies making people forget how to use a halliard. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif I always said they're more trouble than they're worth, they'll never catch on ... I think the essence of the question was actually how to drop a foresail in too much wind, single-handed. The tricky answer was to heave-to.

 

[gandy]

Re: This Month\'s YM - A Question of Seamanship

I only read it in the shop, but didn't they say the autopilot couldn't hold the boat on course downwind. Maybe I dreamed that bit. If I didn't, then he couldn't leave the helm except by turning into wind or heaving to.

What about cutting that bit of warp that was snarled onto the furling drum? Maybe he didn't have a knife, or course.

 

[phatcat1]

Re: This Month\'s YM - A Question of Seamanship

Maybe he should sell the yacht and buy a mobo!

 

[jamesjermain]

Re: This Month\'s YM - A Question of Seamanship

I think the question was not whether to drop the genoa or do something else, but how to get the genoa down.

Having been in this sort of situation I have found the reality is less dramatic than the anticipation. Once hove too, and with all prepared (one of the key elements is making sure the halyard will run cleanly) the halyard can be released and a smart move made to the foredeck.

It is unlikely the sail will come down at the run, specially towards the end of the season when the luff groove will almost certainly by sticky, so it will need a good tug. With the main on a long rein the boat should lie gently with the wind just forwardof the beam making little headway. If she is inclined to come up into the wind it will be a slow process and, provided you have sea room, if she tacks herself if won't matter much - she'll simply round up again.

Nick should be thankful the jam didn't occur with the sail half furled - that would have required more serious thought.

 

[jwilson]

Re: This Month\'s YM - A Question of Seamanship

I agree - it really doesn't seem that complicated. He needs to get rid of the main and then sail into Portland and get a bit of shelter behind the breakwater, then luff up as best he can and sheet the genoa in as far as he can (to stop the clew going over the side too far) and then let go the halliard. Some sail will probably end up in the water and she may heel quite a lot briefly, but once the halliard is let off the upper section of the sail will spill wind and it should not be too difficult to pull down and pull invboard any sail over the side. I wouldn't touch the engine starter till the sail was down and sheets etc secured.

Other option is to let go the genoa sheets entirely and do a series of 360 degree tacks/gybes under reefed main until the sail is rolled up, but that's the hard way, and definitely one for 'engine not running'.

 

[Twister_Ken]

Re: This Month\'s YM - A Question of Seamanship

And if the halyard is at the mast then it's perfectly poss to control the halyard as you drop and gather the sail (did it yesterday).

 

[PuffTheMagicDragon]

Pardon my ignorance....

I have not seen the article that was quoted, so I don't know about the details except what has been written here.

My question is, if, as I understand, being hove-to means having a pulling mainsail working against a backed foresail (i.e. the genoa), how can one pull down a full, albeit backed, sail and still remain hove-to?

I would have thought that as soon as pressure is released from the genoa, the boat would round up and go back to the other tack.

Am I missing something basic?

 

[Achillesheel]

Re: Pardon my ignorance....

Glad you said that, Puff, I was thinking the same.

There's a lot to be said for hank-on headsails in my opinion.

 

[H4B]

Re: Pardon my ignorance....

Boats heave to in different ways its a combination of sail plan and keel type . With foresail backed and main in tight my boat heaves to with the wind on the quarter /beam, but with reefed main pulled in tight will slowly (1kt) fore reach to windward with the wind fine on the bow with very little heel. Its all to do with how the various forces involved with how a boat sails interact , heaving to is like a controlled stall. Hope this makes sense.

 

[PuffTheMagicDragon]

Re: Pardon my ignorance....

[ QUOTE ]
Boats heave to in different ways its a combination of sail plan and keel type .

[/ QUOTE ]

That I can understand and agree with.

[ QUOTE ]

..... but with reefed main pulled in tight will slowly (1kt) fore reach to windward with the wind fine on the bow with very little heel.

[/ QUOTE ]

Reefed main and no foresail? Lashed helm? If you mean just the main, then I don't think that that counts as 'hove-to'. If you mean reefed main and backed genoa, we're still at my original question: where will the boat go as soon as the genoa is depowered and there is no one at the helm?

I'm sorry if this sounds confusing and I have a suspicion that I am not explaining myself very clearly: it's the kind of thing that would be better described using beer mats. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[pugwash]

I guess I\'m ignorant too

To heave-to properly requires a backed foresail. Is there any other way of doing it?

 

[ColinHuggins]

Re: This Month\'s YM - A Question of Seamanship

[ QUOTE ]
The tricky answer was to heave-to.

[/ QUOTE ]

But then you'd be Not Under Command - or not, depending on your point of view. Anyway, certainly lacking the means to display your situation, by day or night. Or not.

(Have I heard that before . . .?)

 

[woody001]

Re: Pardon my ignorance....

I thought that too...

 

[john_morris_uk]

Re: I guess I\'m ignorant too

At least no-one is debating about what lights to show when he heaves to...

 

[Guest]

Re: Pardon my ignorance....

Hey Woody!!

Just had a look at "Swedish Lady"...............great tits! Yummy!

Charlie. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[H4B]

Re: Pardon my ignorance....

'To heave to or lie to is Is to stop the progress of a vessel at sea, either by counterbracing the yards, or by reducing sail so that she will make little or no headway, but will merely come to and fall off by the counteraction of the sails and helm.'



If you can achieve the above with out the genoa backed then the boat is heaved to regardless of what you believe as the ideal. We all have to know our own boats , practice and experimentation .
In my post I meant no genoa or in (YM article) genoa let fly ready for dropping.