Questions About Sailboat Heavy Weather Tactics

Read our Blog for a series on our heavy weather strategies.

Galerider Drogue (2005)

Question: I heard that you had good success heaving-to on Morgan’s Cloud using a Galerider drogue off the bow. What were the details?

Answer: Here are the details I compiled for the Drag Device Data Base:

Vessel: Morgan's Cloud
McCurdy & Rhodes custom 56 cutter
LOA 56'   LWL 42'   Beam 15'   Disp 56,000lbs   Draft 6.5'

General description: A moderate displacement long fin keel cutter with fine ends and moderate overhangs. Rudder is skeg hung. I have owned Morgan's Cloud for 12 years and sailed about 80,000 miles in her, much of it in the high latitudes including three trips to Greenland and three trans-Atlantics. Like all of Jim McCurdy's boats, she is exceptionally sea worthy with an easy and soft motion. She heaves-to well, and this is our standard heavy weather tactic.

Phyllis and I were on a passage from Bermuda to the Caribbean in January of 2000. We left Bermuda on January 12th. In the early hours of 15th January we were overtaken by a cold front driven by an exceptionally powerful high pressure system of some 1040 MB. The front itself was quite benign but as the high moved in the pressure gradient got steeper quickly and by 0800 it was blowing full gale with the seas building.

We ran all day before the gale with winds steadily over 32 knots, peaking at 46 knots. By 1600 the seas had built to the point that the autopilot was having trouble steering and so we decided to heave-to, which we duly did under triple reefed main at 23°16'N, 64°34'W.

At about 2300 we were hit hard on the weather beam by a breaking wave that heeled the boat to 30 to 40 degrees. At this point the significant wave height was about 20' (verified by weather fax chart from Boston) with some waves higher. In addition the wave train was becoming confused and breaking.

We had not been hit that hard ever before and I believe it was caused by the extreme variability of the wind in this high pressure-driven gale. Vertical instability in a high causes much more gusting than in a low and in our case the wind was varying from 25 to 46 knots.

The lulls would allow the boat's bow to fall off and then in the next puff she would reach off at as much as 2 knots before the action of the rudder lashed hard down would bring her back up to about 60 degrees off the wind—her normal heave-to attitude. It was during this reaching off cycle that she was vulnerable to breaking seas.

I did not wish to run off since I felt that even with a drogue, this would have required hand steering in the confused seas, which would have quickly tired Phyllis and I.

After watching what was happening for about 15 minutes I deployed our 42" Galerider on 250' of 7/8” nylon double braid line from the weather bow, while still heaved-to. This was quite easy to do despite the fact that it was blowing hard enough to make it difficult to stand on deck. I slid the Galerider down the weather bow with the wind holding it against the hull. Once in the water I paid out the full 250' and cleated off. The line was led through a fully enclosed and very well rounded closed fair lead about 2' back from the tip of the bow.

The effect was immediate and dramatic. Our fore-reaching slowed from .75 to 2 knots to .3 to .75 knots and I suspect much of that was false reading due to the motion of the bow. The bow stayed at 50 to 60 degrees from the true wind with no tendency to fall off further. The drogue line made an angle of about 130 degrees from the bow of the boat so that the Galerider was in the water behind and to windward of the boat. In the morning I was even able to see it from time to time in the front of the larger waves. It showed no tendency to break out of the wave, or to tumble in a breaking wave.

We stayed heaved-to like this until the following afternoon, when the wind moderated, and received no further wave strikes.

The interesting thing was that the Galerider deployment line was not that heavily loaded and was frequently a bit slack. The highest load came when she was hit by a big gust after a long lull, but even then I would estimate the load as no more than that on an anchor rode in a strong breeze. She showed no tendency to tack through the eye of the wind, despite having no sail up in the fore triangle. Both the jib topsail and staysail are on roller furlers and so provide quite a lot of windage forward.

Recovery was easy, using our electric windlass, and was done while still heaved-to, when the wind was still blowing near gale.

In summary, this was not by any stretch a survival storm for a boat our size, but was certainly a full gale with mature and perhaps dangerous seas. The same blow caused havoc in much of the northeast Caribbean, driving a freighter on to the beach at St. Maartin and reversing the trade winds as far south as St. Lucia.

Deployment of the Galerider in this way was easy, the motion comfortable and recovery equally easy. It significantly extended the safe range for heaving-to.

In future I think I might extend the rode to 500' since this would make sure it was not on the same wave as the boat and reduce any chance of it being tumbled at the wrong moment (not that this happened).

Sea Anchor (2004)

Question: What is your thinking on sea anchors and do you carry one on Morgan’s Cloud?

Answer: Sea anchors, a very big subject! First off you should know that I have never used one, so this is all theory. Our normal gale strategy is to heave-to. We have used a Galerider drogue off the bow to slow fore-reaching and keep her head up to the wind in gusty conditions. Yes, I know one is not supposed to use the Galerider this way, but it worked great for 24 hours in a gale south of Bermuda in January 2000 (see above for more information).

We carry a sea anchor for three reasons:

1. To lie to if the conditions get too dangerous to heave-to, due to breaking waves. The standard wisdom in such conditions is to run off but I have reservations about that, particularly the danger of broaching and the requirement to steer. When short handed I really think it is important not to have to steer since it will quickly exhaust the whole crew, particularly in cold conditions.

2. If caught on a lee shore, since the sea anchor will cut drift to much less than heaved-to.

3. If we lost the mast in storm conditions.

As to rigging, I think it must be HUGE and that the devil is in the details. Our rig is sized for a safe working load of 7,000lb and breaking load of three times that. We went to a great deal of trouble to make sure that there were no weak links. To this end we installed a special pad eye through-bolted with back up plate on the fore deck; the largest eye Harken make.

From there the rig is as follows:

1. Pad eye.

2. 6' of 7/16” G4 chain, to take chafe, led over the anchor roller, fastened with high tensile 1/2" galvanized shackles. (We think stainless is too brittle). The chain is retained from jumping the roller by a 1/2" bolt.

3. 50' 1" nylon double braid rope pigtail led aft outside lifelines so that rig can be deployed from the aft deck.

4. 250' 1" nylon double braid rope.

5. 350' 1" nylon double braid rope.

6. 24' sea anchor.

The rode is in two pieces simply because it would be too heavy to handle in one. Each piece has spliced eyes on each end with a massive deep thimble in them and they are connected using 3/4" galvanized shackles.

Contrary to some recommendations, I do not think that more chain in the system would add any value. The idea that it will help to hold the boat’s head up in storm conditions is, I think, wrong. In addition, more chain will make deployment much more difficult and recovery down right dangerous.

Talking of recovery, we are rigged with a partial trip line to a float, however I have real reservations about whether Phyllis and I would be able to get this rig back on deck, particularly after enduring several days of survival conditions, and in a left over sea. I suspect that we might have to cut it away, but since it is our final line of defense and not our normal heavy weather strategy, we are resigned to that even though it means cutting away $2000+ worth of gear.

We are also rigged so that there is a short nylon tail led from the joining point of the chafe chain to a forward cleat so that the chain just acts as a safety but the nylon takes the load and gives us a fair lead from the bow if used with a "Pardey Bridle". (See Storm Tactics by Lin & Larry Pardey, www.landlpardey.com).

I am not sure if the "Pardey Bridle" would really work in storm conditions on a boat of your or our weight, but it is worth trying since it would be so much more comfortable.

Update, 05/2007:

For a number of reasons that we will discuss in a future Blog, we have sold our sea anchor and purchased a Jordan Series Drogue.

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