BoatBanter.com - View Single Post - Caught Off Guard by a Squall

wrote:
Yes, the wind indeed felt like a bullet. It was in the Long Island
Sound - about 1/2 nm from shore. In hindsight, it probably would have
made sense to bear away to a broad reach? I did not for two reasons.
(1) I wasn't sure if that would have made the boat more vulerable to
another knockdown and (2) I was too focused on trying to head into the
wind in order to furl the sails.

I sail with arcane rigs, so some of what I do isn't
translatable. However, on both the light schooner and Lady
Kate the AS29, turning up into a bullet is a recipe for
capsize and swamping in the one, and knockdown in the other.
The light schooner (a boat requiring crew) as an open and low
boat would already be sailing with her lee rail down. A sharp
turn into the wind would knock her down further, assisted by a
powerful spade rudder tending to act as an elevator plane
because of the angle, both reinforcing the knockdown; also
stop her dead allowing the waves to take her over also.
Bearing away, turning downwind, brings the boat up to level
rather than heeled. While the risk now is driving under, it
allows time to think and possibly come back to the wind a bit
at a higher speed through the water, or alternatively time to
set up and get the crew coordinated to bring the boat to the
wind and heave to to allow reefing. Because the schooner's
biggest sail is the last, it's very easy to drop the foresail
and continue on main and jib--the lazy man's reef!

All of the light schooner capsizes reported to me have in the
end been due to a failure or an inability to bear away when
hit. Including my own efforts.

The 2.5 tons extra weight and huge watertight volume of Lady
Kate means that a knockdown is an irritation and an
embarrassment, not a drama. But, she's single-handed, and a
cat-yawl with all of a catboat's wilfulness downwind with too
much sail up. In her case, when hit, I heave to immediately,
get my breath back, then start reefing. In those
circumstances, I'm usually in a washing machine chop, but no
underlying swell.

A number of folks in this thread
mentioned heaving to. It seems to me that would be ok if
the jib is
adequately reefed, but not ok as an emergency measure with a
full jib.
What do you think?

I think you need to learn how to heave to, and do that as the
standard first step, rrather than attempt head to wind or
immediately relying on motor. Heaving to is both a
convenience AND an emergency measure, and indeed in emergency
circumstances you should be heaving to to reef, not
surrendering control of your boat (which you are doing by
trying to stop head to wind. What happens when the head falls
off?? Or--given the dependence many lay on motors to hold one
head to wind--what happens if the squall or chop kills your
motor?? (Keep the motor as the last resort, not the first)
--
Flying Tadpole

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http://www.flyingtadpole.com