Worst conditions you've sailed in?

Re: Worst conditions you\'ve sailed in?

I've never been out in more than about 35Kn of wind (still quite a lot for a 23 footer), but our most "interesting" trip was in a gusty F7 on the Solent. We were fine, in a Halberg, but we picked up a buoy at the top of Southampton Water for lunch and listened to the radio. There were mayday's coming in, and the CG were saying "We have your details, but the lifeboat has two others to go to before they get around to you".
 
Re: Worst conditions you\'ve sailed in?

Crossing from Calais to Ramsgate last November. Forecast S F6 rising, but we had to be home...

Set off on a screaming reach in solid F5 with well rolled Genoa and reefed main. Wind escalated rapidly and we kept reefing down till mid-channel the Wind guage was showing steady 35kt with sustained 45kt gusts.

Turned to head North, inshore of Goodwin in the biggest waves I've encountered around the UK and ran North under 1/3 Genoa alone.

Absolutely fantastic trip. We never did go into Ramsgate as the boat was secure and flying and we just kept going to our home port in the Orwell. If we'd gone into Ramsgate, I'm not sure we'd have come out the next day as the same was forecast and somehow it seems unsensible to vouluntarily leave port in an F8... As it was, I wouldn't have missed it and it gave me a chance to see how my new (to me - Ben. 351) boat behaves in a F8/F9.

Mark
 
Re: Worst conditions you\'ve sailed in?

Queens jubilee '77. Returned from Cherbourg to IOW. "Must get back for work"!! I suppose gale force westerlies were forecast but we thought we'd "nip across" b4 they arrived. About halfway across the channel we were down to storm jib only making good speed over a big swell. Crossing the freighters tracks was very bumpy. Well south of the needles it really started to blow, must have been gusting 40kts, altho didn't have wind instruments in those days. Decided shouldn't run up needles channel against spring ebb, so turned right and ran east south of St Cats.
Needless to say the tidal race there was news to me. My girlfriend had refused to steer any more after about halfway across even for comfort breaks. On one colossal wave we surfed down and had all three bows underwater at the bottom. Recovered from that, and on another one we broached, I think the centreboard had rattle down again, and I clearly remember the breaking crest coming through the port netting.
Sue was telling me the waves were "halfway up the backstay"!
We made it through and spent the night anchored off Bembridge, from where we watched the massive firework displays that night. Made me think any flares would have been tiny by comparison! Despite thirty years and three Biscay crossings this is still the roughest weather we've ever experienced which puts the English channel in perspective!
 
Re: Worst conditions you\'ve sailed in?

Oh my Gawd!!.............how on earth did you cope??

You were lucky you know, an experience like that can bring on the 5S syndrome.......... /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif










Softy Southern Solent Sailor Syndrome!!! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
Re: Worst conditions you\'ve sailed in?

Being an old salt in Oz I have somehow managed to survive......so far.

Sailing south through the Whitsunday's, I looked to the mainland and saw that white line of spray on the surface heading our way.

Got my 2 sons both in early teens to drop the number one, called the only other crew to get out of his bunk and drop the main.

The boys got their sail down and were trying to roll it, I shouted for them to hang on to as the huge change almost on us; the main was dropped, and I mean dropped all over the place outside the jacks.

Had just started the engine and was turning into the change, the wind was unbelievable and heeled us to 40* with all but bare poles.

Then came the driving rain and thunder, I lost sight of my boys who were only 20 feet away on the foredeck with a flapping #1.

15 minutes later we were in the clear, wind back to 15-18 knots. We continued sailing south and talked about how lucky we were that this all happened in daylight.

Later that day just as the sun dropped we found ourselves in the mother of all lighting storms, with the added knowledge that about trawlers we had passed would now be heading south to the harbour and we were on the line.

Decided to sail away from the coast to try and get clear of the lighting, planning to sail a reciprocating course till thing cleared.

Then was an almighty bang and the whole lit up like it was daylight. Lightning had hit the water no 30 feet away, the steam cloud around the base looked pinkish, but the much larger volume of steam and water going straight up was white.

We made it into the harbour and decided to stay for the night as the storm was travelling the same direction we were. No damage to the boat but one of my sons came back from the foredeck with only one sleeve left of the shirt he had on.

Avagoodweekend......
 
Re: Worst conditions you\'ve sailed in?

[ QUOTE ]
Queens jubilee '77. Returned from Cherbourg to IOW. "Must get back for work"!! I suppose gale force westerlies were forecast but we thought we'd "nip across" b4 they arrived. About halfway across the channel we were down to storm jib only making good speed over a big swell. Crossing the freighters tracks was very bumpy. Well south of the needles it really started to blow, must have been gusting 40kts, altho didn't have wind instruments in those days. Decided shouldn't run up needles channel against spring ebb, so turned right and ran east south of St Cats.
Needless to say the tidal race there was news to me. My girlfriend had refused to steer any more after about halfway across even for comfort breaks. On one colossal wave we surfed down and had all three bows underwater at the bottom. Recovered from that, and on another one we broached, I think the centreboard had rattle down again, and I clearly remember the breaking crest coming through the port netting.
Sue was telling me the waves were "halfway up the backstay"!
We made it through and spent the night anchored off Bembridge, from where we watched the massive firework displays that night. Made me think any flares would have been tiny by comparison! Despite thirty years and three Biscay crossings this is still the roughest weather we've ever experienced which puts the English channel in perspective!

[/ QUOTE ]


Was that the Whitsun bank holiday weekend? We did the same as you but for some reason thought we could cope running up the Needles Channel against a spring ebb. We had planned to be at the Needles to catch the flood but progress from Cherbourg had been too quick. Maybe it hadn't occurred to the skipper to go east of the IOW(I was in my early teens and had no part in the routing /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif).

Anyway, If I recall correctly, it was F9 gusting 10 up our backside, with the spring ebb coming out of the Needles Channel creating some huge waves that threatened to poop us at any moment. I remember surfing down one wave with the log sticking on max at 10 knts.
In those days there was a coastguard station at the Needles and it was most reassuring to hear the coast guard call us up to let us know he was keeping an eye on us and to ask us "what it was like down there".
 
Re: Worst conditions you\'ve sailed in?

1st bank holiday May 2007. Left Watchet just before the gate closed, sailing my Etap 22i with SWMBO. Forcast was F5, possibly F6. We had 2reefs in the main and a full hank on jib. Half an hour later the 30 footer ahead of us went into wind and reefed down to minimum main and about 2 or 3 rolls of genny out. We were sailing north with winds and waves from the west. The wind built (a week later I met the skipper of the 3o footer who said it never went below 33 knots) we were knocked down twice, the second time I was thrown across the cockpit and was only stopped by the dodgers. When we finally got to Cardiff SWMBO said she would never sail again! She now has her day skipper theory and seems to have forgotten the trip.
Allan
 
Re: Worst conditions you\'ve sailed in?

While coming back to UK from the Azores had a couple of days of zero wind and half way back had a couple of days of force 8-9 with higher gusts. Later, with low fuel, winds dropped to the point where we were 'sailing' over the same patch of ground off St Marys for hours before the tide turned and we could continue on our way to Falmouth!

Strongest winds experienced, not thankfully, sailed in was Hurricane Luis, St Martin. That made the next week's hurricane, Marilyn, look llike a pussy cat! /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif
 
Re: Worst conditions you\'ve sailed in?

Don't really worry about wind speed on its own more a combination of wave length / height and wind speed / direction. From experience a F7-8 off soundings in the Altantic is much nicer than a F5 wind against tide in the Wallet.

Was at sea off Portland for the Oct '87 gales, but that was in an Aircraft Carrier so doesn't really count! /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
Re: Worst conditions you\'ve sailed in?

Sailing
Coming north through Raz de Sein with tide. That was ok but coming out of shelter of Islands caught the 40 -50kts beam on. After boom went in the water I bottled it and tucked myself up in Morgat.

MN
First trip cadet in 50,000t seas on boat deck in hurricane. Thrown out of bunk a couple of times. Navigating lot in the amidships accomodation could not come aft for food for several days. Boy was I sick, dipping the shaft plumber blocks for oil and temperature was not nice.

250,000 tanker light ship from Gothenburg to Forth. Came out of shelter of Norway in northerly gale and starting rolling full 40 degrees about 4am. At breakfast with old man and mate all the food went zip off the table at which old man turned to the mate and said bugger this I want my breakfast to stay on the table so we put another 50,000 tons ballast in.

Coming from Suez to Fos sur Mar 250,000 tonner , force 12 past Malta, snowing hard, have some slides of all the deck deep awash with only tops of king posts in sight, must have been 20-30 foot of water on top of the bows and deck. Hate to think of the bending stresses at 16 knots in that lot.
 
Re: Worst conditions you\'ve sailed in?

[ QUOTE ]
Oh my Gawd!!.............how on earth did you cope?

[/ QUOTE ]

Just pretended I'd got a big motorboat and practised scaring the Seals and generally being noisy..... /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

I've never had too much wind yet, that was the worst weather I've ever had for sailing!

/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
Re: Worst conditions you\'ve sailed in?

good these bene 351s!
trip to arklow a few years ago, forecast 6-7 later, thought we could get across the irish sea in that time. half way across wind rising from the south, 28 then 30 then 32 then 35 then 38 knots, reefed all the way, lumpy, bashing in to it. then turned south around the arklow bank buoy in to the weather. gusting 46 knots now, a german purist, 40 plus ft, behind us was tacking and being bashed, we had the donk on now with all sails down, swmb said what are the options? i said an hour of bashing or run downwind to dublin, another 10 hours, naaah not for me, already had done 12 hours on the helm. anyway made it ok and it always amazes me the contrast when you get in to harour, shielded from the howling wind!
Bottom line, big fat bene 351 handles the sea ok!
Stu
 
Re: Worst conditions you\'ve sailed in?

On a ship,I was sailing from HK to Shanghai in a chinese liner and we got a very nasty winter northeast monsoon on the Taiwan straight wich lifted seas like I never saw before.I tried to walk to the bows to take a picture and was thrown back by the force of the wind.It looked like a sailing yacht would not have survived it although of course yachts can take quite a lot.
On my old 30 footer I was sailing in Cascais wich is well known for it's summer thermal winds.We were getting 50kns gusts in flat water.I found it all good fun but my 8 1/2 months pregnant wife wasn't so happy.
 
Re: Worst conditions you\'ve sailed in?

Over 15 years ago we were sailing on a blue water rigged, Bruce Roberts 30 ft from the Humber to Norfolk (Wells next the Sea), we got stuck for 2 days in the Wash; no wind at all; sea calm like a pond; engine failure; radio failure;all electrics failed; drifting with the tide; not a sinlge soul to be seen anywhere.

A year later, same Yacht, on the way to Brightlingsea, East Coast, it started lumpy sea F5; quiclky went up to F6 then F7 then F8 with rough seas; the boat was handling it very well, I loved it, however, my wife did not. She has not stopped talking about it ever since
 
Re: Worst conditions you\'ve sailed in?

[ QUOTE ]

More recently we had a race in 30+ knots, rounded the top mark in company with about 4 other boats, all looking at each other to see if kites were going to go up. We decided to give it a go and stuck the small kite up. At which point a gust of just under 40 came through. Managed to keep the thing on her feet, just, for probably the most exciting "flat water" kite run I've ever had but decided discression was the better part of valour on the second lap!

[/ QUOTE ]

That sounds more like fun.

We went out once for spinnaker training as a protest against racing being cancelled. It was about 40 Kts (instruments were away for repair at the time) and afterwards we found the local met buoy had recorded up to 50 Kts at the time. We just had the assymetric up though but it was fun. No rain but soaking wet by the end of it.

Of the F8 spinnaker runs the most challenging was one where we put the wrong (i.e. bigger) spinnaker up on a boat that had a reputation for submarining, but we got away with it and caught the boat in front.
 
Re: Worst conditions you\'ve sailed in?

'79 Fastnet. That was bad but not as bad as it was made out to be. Well, not for the boat I was on anyway (33ft) It was the biggest and most confused seas I have ever seen and at night they sounded like a train coming at you but no idea from which direction. We were knocked down twice, which was a bit scary, but had a hot meal everyday while we 'poppled' in the Irish sea and eventually sailed home with no serious damage but dented pride at having not made it to the rock.

On big ships, a force 9 off the North Cape with rigging icing up. That was most worrysome.

I don't intentionally sail in anything with a 6 in it nowadays!
 
Re: Worst conditions you\'ve sailed in?

55kts at the beginning of our Atlantic crossing, luckily going dowwind but lasted for six hours through the night. Entire crew as sick as dogs, except swmbo. Worst part was the wind screaming in the rigging.

The scariest time though was inland on the ICW waterway in the USA at Cape Fear. A truly horrendous thunderstorm with gusts over 60kts put us on the beach/riverbank of the anchorage. I had to kedge us off wearing rubber wellies and marigolds in case we got struck. The lightning was fizzing in the water.

Next day the diodes were blown on the alternator.
 
Re: Worst conditions you\'ve sailed in?

<span style="color:white"> . </span>
Four days out from Cascais (Portugal) bound for Porto Santo (Madeira). The wind had been up over 20 knots and because we always have a conservative sailplan at night when offshore we had the third reef in the main and the genoa down to working jib size. Around midnight the wind eased a bit, and the boat slowed to four and a half knots - perfect for an early morning arrival in Porto Santo. Lightning flashed regularly around us, but none of the storms were on our direct course.


About 2am it became obvious that we would have to go through a rather large thunderstorm spread across our route. We were talking about it, changing watch at the time and having a cup of coffee down below. Nothing happened for ages, then we felt the windvane begin to struggle and stuck our heads out. What we saw had us both up in the cockpit pretty quickly. In seconds the wind rose to over 30 knots and spray drove across the boat. We rolled the genoa away and bore away onto a broad reach with the mainsheet eased, Kathy on the helm. Kathy hung onto the tiller for maybe twenty minutes as we careered along almost out of control trying to run from the thunderstorm winds under triple-reefed main, but when we were doing over eight knots and the wind speed was above forty continuously we decided we needed to change tactics.

Crawling up on deck to claw the sail down was strangely exhilarating as I clung to the mast and waves and spray washed over me. We lashed the helm to windward and she pointed up a bit, even though we were now under bare poles.

We went below, put the washboards in and secured the hatch, remembering to also secure the locker lids in the event of any unusual attitudes. A last look round showed a large ship a couple of miles away, not on a collision course but still slightly unnerving, so we left the engine ticking over and put all the lights on. The motion was very comfortable, and after getting out of her wet things Kathy got into the lee bunk and slept. I had a look outside - froth and lightning all round, windspeed a steady F8. Dug out the Atlantic Crossing Guide to see whatr it said about lightning strikes on yachts - not cheerful reading. I put the hand held VHF, spare GPS and Iridium phone inside a Ryvita tin and put them in the grab bag, then lay down on the saloon floor. The motion really was quite comfortable, and the boat felt very safe.

About eight o'clock the motion changed, and with dawn breaking I slid the hatch back to be greeted by blue sky and the wind down to under 20 knots - the storm had spat us out. Our drift had been maybe a knot an hour in a vaguely Northerly direction, and the wind was now definitely South, so now we had to beat upwind to Porto Santo . . . 17.5 of the wettest, hairiest miles I have ever sailed, half the genoa out and the engine running at full revs, the wind back up to 35 knots apparent most of the time, huge breaking seas . . . never had so much water in the boat, put the lee cockpit gunwhale under at least four times, took inumerable waves over the high side and a fair amount over the deck/sprayhood/everything. I even got mild hypothermia, with Kathy draping wet towels over me to stop the windchill and feeding me chocolate and biscuits from the companionway . . . doing this sort of thing in cold Scottish waters doesn´t bear contemplating.

The wild surf in towards the harbour running before steep and confused waves kept us wondering how easy the entrance would be, as it involved turning across the swell. We managed it, but if that had been the entrance to Dunstaffnage marina it would very quickly have been utterly blocked by random chunks of fibreglass. The boat looked a wreck when we got in, sails a shambles, everything soaked, crew gibbering idiots. It was one of those wobbly little finger pontoons, and Kathy actually ended up crawling along it on hands and knees. The guy took one look at us and told us to have a rest before completing the paperwork with customs and marina.

Doesn't sound much compared to all the reports of F10, F12 etc in this thread but - one last observation . . . all the boats we have met that have been been in F10 or higher had no windspeed instrument :-)

- W
 
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