The Offshore Voyaging Reference Site

Let’s Go Sailing!

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OK, enough with all this talk of motorboats, let’s go sailing in a bit of breeze on Morgan’s Cloud. We made the video below a few days ago in a solid Force 7 blow (near gale, 28-33 knots).

John With Egg On Face

By the way, look for a timely reminder from Phyllis at the halfway mark in the video—I’m suitably ashamed of myself.

Environment Canada With Egg On Face

Also listen for the weather forecast wind speed at the time we were shooting and then compare it to the windspeed indicator (left-most gauge).

As I always say, “a weather forecast is only the most likely of several possible scenarios“. Or as Phyllis likes to put it, “It’s a forecast, not a prophesy”.

This is a good example of why (even if you are only out for a 25 mile daysail as we were) it’s so important to have your boat rigged to snug down easily and to have the required manoeuvers well practiced.

Please view the video and then scroll down for some more notes.

I have imbedded the video below, but you can also watch it in a larger version here.

Reefs

We had two of our three deep reefs in when we took the footage. We had started out that morning with one reef and progressed to three reefs a bit after the video ended, when the wind started gusting to 35 knots.

These reductions are easy to do using our downwind reefing technique, and I didn’t even get wet. This is the key to safely handling a boat the size of Morgan’s Cloud with just two people: reef early and often. The boat’s design makes this work well since she is so easily driven that even after putting in the third reef we were still doing 8 to 9 knots.

Lazyjacks

You will also note that we didn’t tie the reef points in and that the bunt of the sail is nicely retained by our lazyjack system. If we were going to be out for the night we would have tied the points in and rigged a safety strop.

A Proper Preventer

Also, note that we have our end boom preventer rigged even though we were planning to be at anchor in a couple of hours. In this kind of breeze this is the only safe option for boom control.

It’s Great To Be Back

This was our first sail in any significant breeze after my rehab from my broken leg and it was great to find that everything still worked well, boat and crew.

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Svein Lamark

Hi MC! Nice to see you out there again!
By some mistake I have anticipated that MC is a small boat. Now I can see that it is rather big. This explains better to me many of your comments in the past.
And Phyllis is damned cool.
I hope your leg can take the swell.
Svein

J H

Congrats on getting back under sail!
I’ve envisioned the stainless hoop at the aft end of MC’s cockpit as her boom gallows/crutch, but am struck now by how much lower than the bimini it is. Am I mistaken? Or does an additional piece mount on those short posts to reach boom height?
J

ben

beautiful sailing!! more videos and commentary please – this is wonderful stuff to actually show your teachings in practice.

It was hard to tell, but it looked like you might have had, what – about 1/3 of the genoa rolled up? might be wrong. curious as to the choice of headsail in this situation.

I was out for a wee romp on Friday in 24-28 true as well, ended up with a similarly reefed down condition… but I was running a full staysail in front – admittedly I was trying to make it to weather for much of the day.

now I am definitely putting in lazyjacks. the bunt of our sail was flopping around and bugging me until i finally tied in a few reef points.

thanks!

bg

Marc Dacey

John, I have found very much the same with my similar sail plan with the wind aft of the beam. I am getting closer to having a new main cut; may I ask what percentage of total sail area is reduced by each of your reefs (if known, or just approximately). I was considering a 15% first reef, and a 50% second, with no third reef, but perhaps a trysail. Clearly, you find three reefs a better number of “gears”.

And yes, the sound of chastisement for failing to clip in is not unfamiliar!

Marc Dacey

OK, thanks for the advice. I’m cutter-rigged and will have a reef in the staysail, a relatively (as I understand it) uncommon option. That’s why I was thinking of two reefs instead of three in the main. Perhaps 25% and 60%. I’l talk to my sailmaker and other owners of relatively heavy displacement motorsailers for ideas/experiences.

Ron

Hi John,
Great video!!! On June 28 of this year I was involved in a motor cycle accident that shattered my right ankle. Currently going through PT and it’s coming along. We had big plans of painting the whole boat and heading south by Sept. 1st but that didn’t happen. My wife has been overwealmed by this whole ordeal and seeing your video just now has really cheered her up! Reading about your recovery and eventual return to sailing has helped us to cope. We haven’t been out since last November and I think we’re going stir crazy. But thank you again for the video and it’s nice seeing your safety practices in action. It would be great to see more video demonstrations on your sailing technics in the future.

Thanks again, S/V Golden Echo

Nicolas

Very refreshing video and article!

Thank you very much