We have covered both heaving-to and lying to a Jordan Series Drogue (JSD) in this Online Book, but what about fore-reaching in gale and storm conditions? And how does it compare to the other two techniques?
This is particularly interesting to me because we came through the only true survival-storm I have ever encountered in good order while fore-reaching. More on that in a minute.
And back in the day when I crewed on ocean-race boats to and from Bermuda, fore-reaching was often our heavy weather coping technique, although I don't remember calling it that.
We got plenty of practice in those days, before GRIB files and accurate weather forecasts, when waiting for a "weather window", as we pretty much all do today, was not even thought about. We just left on whatever day our vacations (holidays) started and took what came. And on that strip of water (including a Gulf Stream crossing) that was plenty of heavy weather.
Fore-Reaching Defined
First off, let's define what fore-reaching is and, most importantly, that it's very different than heaving-to.
In both cases (in heavy weather) we shorten sail dramatically, typically to our deepest reef and a storm jib or staysail (more on the choice in a minute), and in very heavy weather to a storm trysail.
People often define and differentiate heaving-to as setting the jib aback (clew pulled to windward), and fore-reaching with it drawing in its normal position.
But the first part of that is not necessarily so, since once it's seriously blowing, many boats, including our last, a McCurdy and Rhodes 56, will heave-to better with no headsail, particularly if the boat is equipped with a roller-furled headsail(s), which provide quite a bit of windage to stop the boat tacking, even when tightly rolled.
On the other hand, fore-reaching always requires a headsail well trimmed and driving the boat.
So what is the real difference between the two techniques?
- Heaving-to: the boat is not making any forward headway and is drifting sideways downwind.
- Fore-reaching: the boat is being actively sailed through the water, albeit slowly.
A Big Learning
A year ago, I would have finished the definition part there, but last summer, while experimenting with sailing our J/109 with the main alone, she taught me one of the most interesting lessons I have learned in years:
Hi All,
Several commenters have, quite rightly, pointed out that some authorities use fore-reaching to describe jogging ahead very slowly under mainsail alone. I have added an update to the above article to cover that semantics issue.
Hi John
having grown up on the shores of the UK with its short steep seas in the kind of designs that you refer to, I have to agree with your argument that fore-reaching for any length of time is impossible for the average couple.
We frequently found ourselves well offshore in yachtsman’s gales (ie. not storm force conditions) and occasionally worse where heaving to was impossible or risky due to the wave patterns generated in tidal areas. In those days, we were a crew of young fit guys, all with reasonable helming skills, so were able to fore-reach safely and it was our preferred tactic every time. Until, that is, we got tired, usually about an hour for most of us, but longer with our No 1 helmsman. Until he got tired, mistimed the breaking crest and we became airborne and drove the port main longitudinal bulkhead from its designed position when we landed on our side in the trough. How we didn’t get rolled I shall never know. The Coastguard wanted to take us off by helicopter, but we managed to slow right down and steer her as carefully as we could. 30 miles and 15 hours later we arrived in shelter. One guy walked off and never sailed with us or anyone else again.
A couple of thoughts:
You need two people to do it right, one to steer, one to call the waves. Which rules out couples export for (perhaps) very short periodsI think our new (to us) She 36 will fore reach well, perhaps best under trysail or heavily reefed main. Which avoids the need for running backstays.Most supposed storm jibs (as supplied) are actually small working jibs -too big and not flat enough for really testing conditions. The last thing you need…We are currently planning with a rigger a new textile stay and fixing for a dedicated storm jib attached from just below the masthead to just abaft the forestay. Not perfect, but it will at least allow us to set a storm jib without the need for runners and sail if we have to.We have a drogue – the SeaBrake, same as we had on Pelerin and it is not designed to stop the boat as with the JSD, but I prefer having some steerage/speed in enclosed waters.And a healthy does of luck…..without which, all is chance….
Hi Colin,
That’s a sobering story indeed, and makes the point very well that one helming mistake can end in tragedy when fore-reaching.
We never used a spotter, but that might be boat configuration dependant in that we were helming from a standing position facing forward with a strong steering pedestal to grab and so were able to see each wave coming ourselves. If sitting, and particularly if steering with a tiller, I can see that a spotter might be very useful.
As to fore-reaching under just a main, I know it’s often advocated for but I’m not a fan because I think that without the jib it’s very hard to keep the momentum to be able to keep the bow up into the really big ones. I also think that without a jib there’s a greater chance that the keel and rudder will stall at just the wrong moment.
I do agree that many storm jibs are too big although the ORC rules have gone a long way to fix that.
As to runners, I still like to see them on most all offshore boats to stop rig pumping when it gets nasty. That said I can see your approach working for your usage on the She given her short and massive rig
Hi Colin,
Thought I would drop you a note to say we have exactly your planned storm jib setup on our 47 foot masthead sloop. The inner forestay sets just below, and inside the forestay on a removable tang (inshore we remove this plate and pop up the mast to install for longer passages, as we have a 103% jib on a furler, not a Genoa).
The inner forestay is Dyneema in a sheathed outer hard wearing and shiny fabric, and it’s tensioned with a Wishard ratcheting forestay tensioner that came with the boat luckily ($$$). But we could equally use a Dyneema block and tackle back to a cockpit winch with a clutch I’m sure.
The storm jib has eyelets up the luff and we use hard shiny Dyneema soft shackles as jib hanks. We have used it once, more for trial purposes in 30 knots than in real need, but the sail launches and retrieves easily, and sets really well from our forward inner jib track.
Let me know if you would like to see any details and I can post a photo.
Hi Rob
yes – that sounds exactly what we plan to do. Any pics or comments would be very helpful indeed!
Thank you
Colin
Happy to Colin, we are out coastal cruising for the week and the storm jib and inner forestay is in our attic at home. I’ll look it out and take a few photos. In the meantime here is the inner forestay double padeye with the forward eye for the inner forestay and the rear one for the jib tack. The padeye is backed underneath with a stainless wire stay, tensioned using a bottle screw.
Our storm jib is sized to meet Cat 1. It comes with a short Dyneema strop on the tack to keep the sail clear of any sweeping waves. It is also high cut on the leech.
I rig a down haul line running from the head through each soft shackle and then through the padeye back to the cockpit, so I can douse the sail using a winch in the cockpit. The Dacron cloth is very heavy and stiff and I don’t fancy ever trying to wrestle it to the deck in storm force winds. This worked flawlessly in our trial.
Best regards. Rob
Hi Rob
thanks for that – the tack attachment looks just like the one we fabricated for our old Dufour 39.
On that boat we had a bottle screw attack he’d to al nth of chain that led to a stainless plate that was through bolts to the stem, so plenty of strength.
Like the idea of the downhaul, too, something I always rig on mainsail reef points if expecting strong winds. We used jib downhauls on old, traditional boats with widowmaker bowsprits, so why not?
Hi All,
We use a downhaul on a day to day basis on our own boat and several others that I have sailed on and I am a huge fan. For most jibs, I find it best to lead the downhaul through 1-2 hanks at the top of the sail and then let it be free for the rest. Skipping all the hanks folds the head over and pulls it down when using the downhaul and tends to make the top hank bind up so that usually doesn’t work. Going through more hanks than 2 is fine but it increases friction a lot and can increase fouling if you get a lot of twists in the downhaul and don’t catch it. I have not used soft hanks so that may change this a bit. When not going through all the hanks, I like to have the downhaul spaced off a foot or so at the bottom so that it can be pulled taught and kept from banging loudly against the sail.
Eric
Hi Eric, that’s really good input, from someone obviously not having a jib/genoa furler.
My experience with using the shiny Dyneema soft shackles in lieu of traditional sail hanks, is they impart almost no friction in the hoist or drop on the stay, nor when running a downhaul. And they are so easy to make and undo, and never corrode.
I do like the idea of missing out some of the lower hanks to avoid chatter, as it would also improve the lead to our first Allen stanchion fairlead – we have one on each starboard side stanchion, to run the downhaul safely back to our cockpit.
But I also really like having each hank encompassing the downhaul, so with our small jib sail area down-hauled fast to deck level, and the jib sheet pulled tight, the storm jib is completely snugged down, with no absolute need to leave the cockpit to add additional lashings.
Thanks, Rob
Hi Rob,
I can’t think why the security of the sail when down would be dependent on how many hanks the downhaul goes through. The sail will be held down by the downhaul and it is held in place radially by the hanks which I think is as constrained as you can be. I am assuming that we are talking about hanks with no luff line as I think you would only need one if you had a club footed sail and I generally dislike them unless really required. Like you, we have found that a storm sized sail is pretty secure just with the downhaul and jib sheets and there isn’t an enormous rush to do anything more.
Thanks for the info on the soft hanks. At some point we will convert to a furler and to keep my sanity, I think we will need an inner stay for when the wind is up. I have been thinking of doing something like a fractional hoist 90% with a single reef so that it can take us from 20 knots up to 35-40 knots true which should be fine for the sailing we do.
Eric
Hi Erik,
Fair point – to explain our set-up a little more, the first downhaul lead is to an Allen stanchion fairlead, out on the aft rail of our pulpit.
So by having our downhaul run through the pad-eye on deck first, the pull is always vertically down in line with the inner-forestay. If we pulled out to the fairlead on the side rail (about 300mm off centre), then nearing the bottom of the hoist, wouldn’t the pull would become more horizontal? I want to be able to cleat off the downhaul to deck level, and then crank up the storm jib halyard ready for a hoist.
Having the slippery soft-hanks running on a sheathed Dyneema stay, we never experienced the issues you refer to, but have made a mental note to watch for.
At the time I rigged things for offshore, I didn’t have any prior experience with downhauls and was worried about it getting caught up on something like a loose jib sheet (with unintended consequences). So having the downhaul encapsulated and always out of mischief, just made sense to me.
Noise and chafe aren’t a consideration for us, as we don’t have this sail rigged when cruising around the coast or at anchor, as we have a 100% blade jib on our roller furler, not a Genoa (we then have a Code 0 for upwind in lighter airs and of course off the wind up to 30 knots).
Many thanks. Rob
Dear Rob
I’ve been admiring your chain stopper/tensioner relief system in your first photo. Very rugged looking. Was it an off the shelf item ?
Best
Mark
Hi Mark,
Yes, from a boat show at the Maxwell / Vetus stand. It’s really more an anchor & chain security webbing strap, with integral tensioner in the claw / handle using a cam.
We mainly use it to secure the anchor for passage as per the photo, as its is very quick to make and more importantly, to release in a hurry coming into anchor – especially single handing or if my fingers are cold and wet (we sail in winter too).
Also used when breaking out the anchor after a strong blow, to share some load with the windlass. But we do not use it as a chain stopper in the true sense, or snubber.
It used to be on the Maxwell website under accessories, but now seems to be only in their brochures on page 363: https://vetus.sharefile.com/share/view/sb54186d481d5448e982fa022b996577e
Ours came with two strops, and we have had it in the chain locker for at least 5 years, with no sign of rust stains. Works well.
Br. Rob
Thanks, Rob.
My interest, like yours, is to secure the anchor while under way. I have nightmares about the anchor coming free in the middle of the night.
I am winter sailing at the moment – if you call February to April in the Med winter sailing. It’s certainly quite lonely.
Best
Mark
Hi Colin,
Sorry for the delay, my only excuse being the sailing, which was the best of the summer, so we stayed out as long as possible.
Here is a picture of our sheathed Dyneema forestay and Wishard ratchet luff tensioner. You can also see the plate that acts as a removable mast tang. Once inside the mast and turned 90 degrees to orientate it downwards, it is completely captured.
Our original removable inner forestay was stainless wire, that was unwieldy and made a noise when stowed against the mast.
Hi Colin,
This pic is of our Hood storm jib that came with the boat, where you can see the new soft hanks.
Doyle Sails in NZ removed the original brass hanks and replaced them with these soft hanks that are actually sewn in, which is way better.
In my previous description sorry, I confused the storm jib which I keep at home in the loft, with our emergency Trysail rig which I have on the boat and practised with recently. That was what I had in mind.
On the Trysail we do use Dyneema soft hanks if the mast track is gone or damaged. We use the topping lift to act as an emergency stay down the mast, and also three Dyneema strops (rather like a gaff rigged mainsail uses around the mast) to keep the luff captured and close in to the mast.
Anyway there are 9 soft hanks on the luff each 1100 mm apart. This for our 14.5 metre Beneteau 473.
If I did this upgrade again now, I would probably just use Dyneema soft shackles through the original eyelets for the brass piston hanks. At the time we did the work we had a 130% Genoa and I envisaged needing this jib more. Now with just a 103% jib and Genoa in our loft, it is a back up sail as much as anything, when offshore.
The next pic is a close up of a soft hank made
And from the back.
this time with the photo
Hi John and all,
Good article: lots of food for thought and reflection.
Heaving-to on a Valiant 42, a cutter (mast pretty much amidships):
In early days of learning about the boat we went out on Long Island Sound in offshore gale force winds and hove-to successfully: caveat, no real waves. Memory is that we drifted slowly downwind, but I am not positive of this as it was early days in my learning curve.
All other heaving-to was when we were waiting for dawn to go into an anchorage: 10-20 kn winds. During these times, there was a full main and a backed staysail and we were always doing what I called “fore-reaching”: bouncing slowly (1-2kn) forward. No amount of tweaking would get us out of fore-reaching. We were quite comfortable, but in no way sliding downwind with a slick to windward.
I kinda figured (and fortunately have not had the chance to test) that if the winds were more in the gale force range that we would be more successful at establishing that much talked about and looked-for upwind slick.
Closest experiences:
Being chased by a tropical storm on our way to Bermuda (on a LeComte NE 38 yawl) hand steering errors would cause us to fall off a wave: essentially belly flop from height onto the side of the boat. I hope never to treat a boat so badly again, and am impressed it held together so well even as I later decided it was not an offshore boat for Ginger and me. Once out of the layline of the storm we hove-to, quite easy on a yawl.
In 12+ hours of strong gale and storm force winds in the Med with the Valiant we ran downwind under bare poles at hull speed under an autopilot (now no longer made) that was initially designed (as I understand it) to drive the sleds under spinnaker from the west coast to Hawaii (so strong and quick). The AP did fine even in the quite confused seas for the first few hours.
My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy
Hi Dick,
If your boat ever continued to fore-reach when heaved to in gale force winds there is a simple answer: https://www.morganscloud.com/2013/06/01/stopping-wave-strikes-while-heaved-to/
Also, I would not assume that your AP could steer safely up wind while fore-reaching just because it steers fairly well off the wind. More coming in a couple of articles I have about half written about autopilots.
Hi John,
Interesting, I have always had a somewhat different definition of fore-reaching although I can’t tell you where my definition came from, probably just the people I have sailed with. I have always thought of it as progressing extremely slowly ahead, often under a reefed main only with very marginal steering control, say enough to keep the true wind between 45 and 70 degrees but not really steer a nice course. This means that you are making forward progress and not staying in a slick although foils may be stalled on boats with a lot of foil area. With this definition, I have always figured that it stops working at certain conditions (and I have experienced this although that was about as strong as I have ever seen) due to the drive being insufficient to keep the boat moving and steering when a larger wave hits allowing the bow to get pushed off in a way that cannot be counteracted. This is a technique that I have used several times in non-dangerous conditions when wanting to ease up from sailing for a bit as our boat does it very easily in moderate >30 knot conditions.
What you are describing I have always defined as active sailing to windward where the boat is powered up enough to have steerage where you can adjust for each wave. Having never actually had the experience of doing this in a survival storm, it has always seemed like a promising tactic if you can get the boat set up right and if you have the helmspeople. In whitewater kayaking, it is amazing to me how much the angle to the wave matters and also how much momentum matters. You can punch through an amazing amount of breaking water provided you are not too far off the wind and you have some speed into it. There are quite a few youtube videos showing just this with low powered sailboats punching through large breaking waves leaving harbor entrances such as this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml5wBgV7iMs. There are also plenty of videos of them in less bad conditions where they get pushed sideways and end up in a sidesurf often with the mast ending up in the water due to too much angle. I think the key here is just that you need to make it through the breaking portion and not get caught and pushed backwards down the wave. If you look at how the coast guard does surf training, they basically sit stationary bow into the waves and throttle up right before being hit with just enough power to punch through but no more so that they don’t get too airborne.
Eric
Hi Eric,
This is much more the description of fore-reaching that I was referring to in my earlier post: not active sailing, 1+ kn forward motion (too slow for any real steerage), deeply reefed main and (usually) a scrap of back-winded staysail. The boat would bob in the water moving slowly forward and rise and fall to the swells as they traveled underneath: quite comfortable and stable. It felt like we could continue this way until the waves started to break and then we would go downwind with a drogue.
My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy
Hi Dick,
I have now added a update to cover the semantics as well as why I don’t think it’s a good idea to assume that we can reliably assess when it’s time to change tactics and deploy a drogue. The bottom line is in almost every roll over disaster the survivors have stated that everything was fine and they were “comfortable and stable”, until it wasn’t.
Hi Eric,
Good point on the semantics, I have addressed that with an update to the article.
I had not thought of the whitewater kayaking example, but I think it’s a great one and illustrates well why to be safe we must have enough speed to turn the bow up the front of the wave and blow through a breaking crest. Ditto the example of boats in a breaking inlet.
The take away is that regardless of the boat or circumstances getting stuck on the downwind face of a breaking wave ends badly. Even the JSD works by, in effect, dragging the boat back though the crest to the safe upwind side of the wave.
Hi John,
One more thought on steering. In case people are not aware, when you hit a breaking portion of the wave, the boat will act very differently than simply when you are going up the face of a very steep/large wave. The reason is that when you are in the non breaking portion of the wave, all of the water is moving at about the same speed relative to you so the turning force on the boat is moderate. When you hit the breaking portion, it hits only the bow first and is pushing anything it touches down the face very quickly so it pushes the bow down the face rapidly while the stern is still stuck in the non-breaking portion of the wave. You can end up beam on by the time the breaking portion reaches midships and then you are likely going to get knocked down. This is something I have run into kayaking a lot and run into when dinghy sailing some as I grew up sailing across a shallow bar that can be quite dangerous to cross and finally in bad wind over tide.
For this reason, I handle breaking and non-breaking waves quite differently even if the size is the same although I can’t say that I have a ton of experience doing it in open ocean on cruising size boats (little breaking crests do not count, I mean really breaking waves). You need to proactively counter this, just waiting and reacting doesn’t work as it happens so fast. You can actually feel this same effect when sailing with the waves where the boat gets pushed around some by non-breaking waves but it is the breaking ones that really try to spin you.
This is actually just like crossing current lines where different portion of the boat are in different current which causes the boat to want to spin.
As you say, the great thing about the JSD is that it basically steers you appropriately automatically.
Eric
Really appreciating this quality discussion on an important survival tactic. Thank you everyone and great comment Eric.
Our storm jib is set on a removable inner forestay directly behind the forestay. We have tested this sail in around 30 knots upwind, which showed we are well balanced when the main is reefed right down, or our trysail set.
So can I ask, in 40 knots plus, does the normal lift and weather helm we might usually expect in more wind pressure as you crest a wave, just not happen?
Do the different forces at play in breaking waves that Eric describes above, reverse normal weather helm, and require a purposeful change to the sail plan and sail shape?
Many thanks. Rob
Hi Rob,
I think this is boat specific, so I don’t know. But what I can say is that I prefer to see the storm headsail stay tacked well inboard and terminating on the mast at where the S2s would be on a two spreader mast, so the staysail stay is about parallel to the headstay, and then opposed by runners.
The bottom line is that by reducing the main (or setting a trysail) we are moving the centre of lateral resistance of that sail forward, so it only makes sense to move the centre of lateral resistance of storm headsail aft to match, to keep the boat balanced. My offshore sailing mentor used to call this “the go to hell rig”.
Yes, I know so doing is a royal PITA but I think it’s worth the work. I made this change to my Fastnet 45 and I’m not at all sure we would have made it through that storm without it.
We also need to keep in mind that it would only take a moment of lee helm on the wrong wave to spell disaster. This is reinforced for me by Eric’s comment.
Well made points John,
Given our removable inner forestay, and the storm jib are only rigged for offshore passages, and with 90% of our sailing being around the NZ coast, having a full-noise stay attachment in the middle of our foredeck, as a trip hazard to catch my feet on, wouldn’t be just a PITA…!
This will need some careful consideration and design work to make sure it is strong enough.
Many thanks, Rob
Hi Eric,
I had never thought of that, but based on our experience in that storm, and other heavy weather passages to and from Bermuda, that makes a lot of sense. When we saw (or herd/felt) a bad one coming we learned to be aggressive in our steering by coming up hard and fast. Better to rag the sails a bit at the top, than have the bow fall off. I can still feel those moments vividly in my memory, even though it was decades ago when I last steered in those conditions.
This just reinforces my thinking that most-all cruisers should either heave-to properly or deploy a JSD since all it takes for a disaster is steering one wave poorly out of thousands in the course of storm.
This also further reinforces my conviction that no autopilot can steer safely in these conditions.
Since the pandemic I’ve been going down a rabbit hole of foiling, one discipline of which is downwind SUP foiling, where you paddle up onto foil using a particularly steep swell, then try to remain on foil by predicting where to be at all times to be where the water is rising. One of the key pieces of knowledge to make this work is how “sets” of waves work. Surfers call them sets, but in deep water they are apparently called a packet of waves that are bigger than surrounding waves, and within that there will be one that is biggest. But that title of biggest wave transfers continually from one wave to the wave behind. Wave speed is 1.5 x period, but the speed of a packet is actually half that. So, when waiting for one to paddle into, the best practice is to look downwind, not upwind at the waves, because the biggest wave won’t be there until it is. When the tail of your board drops down a particularly steep windward side of a wave, that’s when you paddle because the energy is transferring to the wave behind you. There’s a lot of videos of people paddling up into waves that spring up below them from nowhere. This is in maybe 10’ waves and 30kts and below for most people, so the scale and tempo of survival waves will be different, but I thought it was an interesting tidbit that might inform helming at night…..
Hi Michael,
I can see that, but surfers are going down-wave. When fore-reaching we are going up-wave so the danger lies ahead, not behind.
And indeed after many hundreds of hours steering up wind in waves I have never found any need to look behind me.
That said, I look behind me constantly when steering off the wind in big waves.
Hi Michael,
I should add that I totally agree that huge waves suddenly appear. I still have the image engraved in my minds eye of a huge wave at least three times the size of the wave train that appeared like magic right in front of us, when I was steering up wind on a passage from Bermuda to Newport, and then broke as I stuffed the bow up into it.
And the key point is that it was only blowing about 25 knots at the time. My guess is that a contributor to that wave is that we were probably in a gulf stream eddy, but since it was before good sat imaging, when we depended on a thermometer in a bucket to detect such things, we did not know of it’s presence.
As John Klem says above I also had the same impression regarding fore reaching. I want to say it’s how Hal Roth describes it, slowly advancing to windward under reefed main alone but I don’t have his book handy to verify.
Hi Jorge and John Klem
that’s what I was referring to – actively sailing the boat at manageable speeds with the main. Using the storm jib if set, will be well forward well and high off the deck which has two effects, little feel (or even lee helm – horrible) for the hemsman and the boat gets pulled around a lot on the crests especially – very hard on the rig and the nerves of the crew. A storm staysail, set well inboard is much better – ion you have one.
Under main the power is more controllable and it keeps the boat on her feet and with enough power to climb the steeper waves, then bear way as you reach the crest and speed up again down the back of the wave on a diagonal course. A good helmsman makes this look easy, but it takes practice and confidence.
On boats that don’t like being left to their own devices and/or with lots of helmsmen it’s a good option, Short-handed, too, but for limited periods of time.
If you are short of searoom, or trying to avid shoal or very tidal areas it has its merits.
I should add that so much of what is possible depends on your boat – some sail well with a storm jib, others less so. This is something to try out in strong but not dangerous conditions in advance.
Hi Colin,
I agree that a really good helmsperson can probably make it work with just a main, but I do think this configuration ups the skill level required when compared to a storm trysail and storm staysail tacked well inboard from the bow so there the helm retains good feel and there is no risk of lee helm.
I know it’s more of a pain to rig a storm staysail than a storm jib but I personally would not go to sea without being so rigged. For coastal cruising, maybe not so much, although the staysail and trysail are still the ultimate rig to claw off a lee shore, as we did all those years ago, and against the Gulf Stream current too.
Hi John,
I’ve no heavy weather experience but in conditions up to 35 kts and deeply reefed (with my former sailboat) I found by accident/trial and error the classic sailing technique of “Up the fronts, down the backs”. Thanks for that handy mnemonic BTW which I will use with my better half next time we find ourselves with the opportunity to train for that. At 35 knots it’s exhilarating for a few hours. After that it gets pretty tiring, especially at night. I can’t imagine how draining it could be in real storm conditions lasting a day or two.
My current “poor man’s OVNI” (multichine swing keel – but in steel) is better set up for storm conditions than my last boat. It’s a solent rig forestay set-up, with split back-stay, double spreaders and with fore and aft lower stays. All standing rigging is oversized. A beautiful gay-glo orange storm sail can be hanked onto the inner stay, as well as a 100% yankee cut jib for intermediate conditions. For the main? Well I’ve got in-mast furling by Z-Spars. Do you have any advice for in-mast mains in heavy weather?
I’ve never been on a boat with running backstays so, although I know what they are, their practicalities and value are a bit lost on me. But my rig is very stiff as it is. Is the in-mast furling helpful in at least one respect, in that the cross-sectional modulus is higher (therefore stiffer) than similarly sized masts used for slab reefed sails? Given the current rig, is it worth considering running backstays, if we were going to venture out into blue-water conditions?
You also mentioned autopilots and self-steering. My boat has a Cap Horn windvane but it was installed before a substantial arch was added with solar panels, as well as an enclosed hard dodger. I’ve not used the Cap Horn but am deeply suspicious that it might not work well or at all with all that new disturbance of the airflow. I recently installed a B&G Zeus chart plotter and wind instruments and was thinking of adding an electronic autopilot to that. Now I’m wondering if the CapHorn – as beautiful and well thought out as it is – is really worth keeping, especially knowing how much it limits the crew’s use of the sugar scoop. Maybe it could find a more deserving home on a less encumbered sailboat owned by a traditional sailing purist!
Best
Rob on Mayero 2
Hi Rob,
I think the best strategy with any sort of mainsail for really heavy weather is to furl it completely and set a storm trysail. In your case this would require add in a separate track, but that’s good practice anyway: https://www.morganscloud.com/2013/06/01/lee-shores/
As to running backstays they are generally attached opposite an internal head stay or staysail stay, and positioned there add a lot of stability to the mast to prevent pumping in big seas.
I also would not get rid of the Cape Horn: https://www.morganscloud.com/2007/05/19/windvane-or-autopilot/
And I will be writing more about autopilot selection soon and particularly how to select between the offerings from B&G.
In the mean time we have much more here: https://www.morganscloud.com/category/self-steering/
Keep the Cap Horn – or, at least try it first.
I have helped install and set up lots of wind vanes and they can usual;ly be trimmed around arches etc, and it’s surprising how little effect such things have on the boats I have sailed.
Maybe try a slightly larger vane air blade – that may help. If Cap Horn agree…..
Just some real world experience.
Fore reaching, Sigma 41, NW Coast of Spain, 45-50kts apparent. Sail plan was deep reef main and storm jib in luff foil groove. The seas were big and we had a lee shore quite some distance down wind, but near enough to be a concern, also traffic from various cargo vessels heading northwards, we were sailing southwards. I needed to keep moving to manage lee shore and traffic. The boat could easily be powered up and over powered, as likely a tri sail would have been better, so a lot pinching was used to kill power. Slamming was not really an issue but I do remember some big slams. Key was keeping the speed up as we climbed the wave and not to pinch and stall on the climb. The boat managed well but it was exhausting. If I had to bare away the boom would have hit the water as we healed and sheeted itself in. hence, the tri sail would have been better.
Heaving to, Contessa 32m, Loch Fyne, F9 gusts, seas about 2 – 3 meters. We had been doing heavy weather training and the wind started gusting sustainably beyond what what we expected. Storm jib and deep reefed main. Tacked boat, let the storm jib back, tiller down to leeward and main out to the quarter where it was de powered and supplied no forward drive but did not flap. I do recall the slick to windward and of course the boat was very stable, just bobbing up and down. I can’t recall if there was any forward drive at all. The Contessa 32 is an incredibly wet boat beating to Woodward, and heaving too stopped all that, the motion was pleasant and the situation safer than fore reaching.
When teaching I default to heaving to as a method, as it provides a calm, safe motion compared to sailing in those conditions, and out of all of the many boats I have sailed, all can be made to heave to. However, I have not tried on a wide stern mono hull, with twin rudders and high top sides (form stability), so can’t offer any knowledge in that space.
Hi Alastair,
Two very good and useful reports, thank you! I found it particularly interesting that on the Sigma you were able to manage well even though overpowered and your comment about the danger of the boom end dragging is, I think, particularly important.
Also good to hear that you have been able to get any boat you have sailed to heave-to. That’s my experience, but I’m pretty sure that as instructor you have sailed way more different boats than I have.
Great article John. Hello Colin – hope to get to see you this Summer.
Hi John. Interesting info on your experience with the J109. I have never sailed one, but theoretically thought it would be difficult to hove-to. Interested to hear more about your experience with trying it in different weather conditions. I agree that it’s an important technique to know how to do in your boat, and not just for bad weather.
Hi Kevin,
We will be experimenting more this summer, as part of some POB recovery training we are doing, and so will report.